CROOKSTON WRESTLERS WIN TWO AND LOSE THREE MATCHES IN HILLSBORO

The Crookston Pirate Wrestling team won two matches and lost three matches while having four open spots in the line up in the Hillsboro-Central Valley duals.  Crookston was missing two of their wrestlers due to other commitments, so they had to forfeit two more matches than they usually would.  With that said, the Pirates had a great day of wrestling going 2-3 on the day.  Crookston beat Grafton 51-21 and Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton 48-36.  The Pirates lost to Central Cass 48-36, LaMoure (ND) 48-36, and New York Mills 59-18.  “It is tough to compete without a full line up, but our guys did a great job of competing all-day,” said Pirate Coach Wes Hanson. “We started the day with a good win over Grafton at the start of the day, and we were competitive all day today.”  Winning all five of their matches on the day and receiving all-tournament team honors were Ethan Bowman, Nolan Dans, and Ethan Boll.  With the five wins, Ethan Boll also reached 50 career victories as a Freshman. The match stories, results, and pictures are below – 

CROOKSTON vs. GRAFTON –
Crookston had 106 pounds open all day, and the match started with a Grafton victory by forfeit for a 6-0 lead. Crookston responded with four straight victories with Carter Coauette winning at 113 pounds by forfeit, Ethan Bowman won by a pin in the second period, and Nolan Dans had a hard-fought 7-5 victory, and Zach Brown won by a forfeit to give Crookston a 21-6 lead. Grafton won the 138-pound match before Crookston rattled off five more wins with three forfeits and two pins (by Braxton Volker and Cameron Hulst) for a 51-9 lead with three matches remaining. Crookston had the final three weights open because their 195 and 220 pounders had other commitments, and Grafton was open at 195, and they won the final two matches, and the Pirates won 51-21.

CROOKSTON vs. CENTRAL CASS
The second match of the day for both teams started at 120 pounds, and Nolan Dans gave the Pirates a great start with a pin in the first period for a quick 6-0 lead. At 126 pounds, Central Cass won by default, after Zach Brown was called for an illegal slam, to tie the match at 6-6. Crookston responded with two wins by a pin from Cameron Weiland and Braxton Volker for an 18-6 lead. Central Cass answered with a win by pin and two forfeit victories for a quick 18 points and a 24-18 lead. Hunter Knutson won by pin at 170 pounds in the first period to tie the match at 24, but Central Cass won the next match by pin to regain the lead. The Pirates answered with an Ethan Boll win by pin in 25 seconds at 195 pounds to tie the match at 30. Crookston had the next three weights open (220, Heavyweight and 106), and that proved to be the difference as Ethan Bowman won his match at 113 pounds by injury default, and Central Cass won the match 48-36.

CROOKSTON vs. LAMOURE
The match started at 132 pounds, and Zach Brown made quick work of his opponent and won by a pin in the first period. Cameron Weiland won the next match by forfeit to give the Pirates a 12-0 lead to start the match. LaMoure answered with four straight pins to take a 24-12 lead.  Ethan Boll stopped the LaMoure four-match winning streak with a pin in the second period, and the Pirates trailed 24-18.  Crookston had the next four weights open and had to forfeit all four matches, and LaMoure took a 48-18 lead with three matches to go.
The Pirates finished the match with three quick matches as Carter Coauette won by a pin in the second period at 113 pounds, Ethan Bowman won by a pin in 37 seconds, and Nolan Dans won his match by pin in 12 seconds.  The four open weights were the difference again as LaMoure won 48-36.

CROOKSTON vs. DILWORTH-GLYNDON-FELTON
The two teams exchanged forfeits with open weights in the first two matches. Crookston took the lead when Hunter Knutson won by a pin in the third period at 160 points, but DGF bounced back with a pin at 170 pounds to tie the match at 12-12. Crookston got the lead back when Ethan Boll won by a pin in the second period for an 18-12 lead. Once again, Crookston had to forfeit the next four matches, and DGF took a 36-18 lead going into the 113-pound match. Ethan Bowman got the Pirates back on the board with a win in the first period, and Nolan Dans won by a pin at 120 pounds late in the third period to bring Crookston within a 36-30 deficit. At 126 pounds, Zach Brown took the mat and tied the match with a pin in 57 seconds to tie the match at 36, and Cameron Weiland gave the Pirates the lead with a win by forfeit for a 42-36 lead with one match left. Braxton Volker, at 138 pounds, needed to win his match to assure a Crookston victory, and he won by pin in less than a minute, and Crookston won the match 48-36.

CROOKSTON vs. NEW YORK MILLS
The match started at 160 pounds, and New York Mills won by a major decision to take a 4-0 lead out of the gates. New York Mills won the next match by pin in the second period and won the 182-pound match by forfeit for a 17-0 lead. The Pirates elected to move Ethan Boll down from 182 to 195 pounds, and he jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the first minute of his match. Ethan took a 7-1 lead into the third period and won the match 9-2 to get the Pirates their first points of the match, trailing 17-3. New York Mills won the next three matches (220, Heavyweight, and 106) by forfeit to take a commanding 35-3 lead. Ethan Bowman stopped Mills run with a win at 113 pounds by forfeit, and Crookston trailed 35-9. The four-match forfeit string was snapped when Nolan Dans wrestled at 120 pounds and came out strong with a takedown for a quick 2-0 lead and picked up a pin in 69 seconds, and the Pirates trailed 35-15 with five matches remaining. Zach Brown wrestled at 126 pounds and had a takedown a few seconds into his match to take a 2-0 lead. He took a 5-0 lead into the third period and won 7-1, and Crookston trailed 38-15. New York Mills won the next three matches by pin and finished off the match with a forfeit victory to win the match 59-18.
“We came here to get quality matches,” said Coach Hanson. “I believe we did that and had some great performances from guys like Nolan Dans and Ethan Boll.  Nolan had another great day today and wrestled some great matches, and Ethan Boll had a good day and ended it with a nice win in the last match at 195 pounds.  We moved him up so he would be pushed and he had a great match for a big win.  Overall, it was a great day of wrestling.”

Crookston is now 3-5 in duals on the year and will be in Grand Forks for the border battle on Tuesday.