CROOKSTON WRESTLING TAKES FOURTH PLACE AT RODD OLSON INVITATIONAL

The Crookston Pirate Wrestling team finished in fourth place with 143.5 points and first place finishes from Nolan Dans, Zach Brown, Braxton Volker, and Ethan Boll in the eleven-team Rod Olson Invitational hosted at the Crookston High School Gymnasium. West Central Area won the tournament with a team score of 176.5 beating New York Mills’ team score of 166.0

Ethan Bowman – Ethan Bowman won his first match of the afternoon, following a first-round bye, beating Hunter Gruchow from West Central area by pin at 4:52. Bowman earned his spot in the first place match after pinning Dawson McGee of Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 1:42 into the semifinal match. Bowman lost a hard-fought first place match against Ethan Hendrickson from United North Central 11-3 to finish in second place. “It was definitely a worthy opponent for Ethan, and I guy he faced a year ago in the finals,” said Crookston head coach Wes Hanson. “He had a close match with him to start the year losing 4-2, so we were hoping to turn the table on him here tonight. He’s a good wrestler, and we have some things from that match that we can use moving forward. Ethan had a solid tournament. He’s off to a great start this season.”

Carter Coauette – Carter Coauette received a first-round bye before defeating Reid Pinoniemi of United North Central 6-5. In the semifinals, Coauette lost to Ethan Hendrickson, also from United North Central, 16-5. In the consolation bracket, Coauette was pinned by Hunter Gruchow from West Central Area. Carter Coauette took fifth place, winning his final match 11-9 in overtime. “Carter had a lot of great offensive attacks,” added Hanson. “We’ve got to work on finishing off those single legs. It was nice to see him competing out there in the medal round and finishing off the match in overtime.”

Nolan Dans – Nolan Dans won his first-round match over Callen Whitney of Walker-Hackensack-Akeley by pin at 3:33. In the semifinals, Dans earned another victory via pin 3:11 into the match against his teammate Spencer Ness. Nolan Dans secured the top spot in the podium at 120-pounds pinning Spencer Erickson of United North Central 1:05 into the championship bout. “Nolan has had a great season so far,” explained Hanson. “He hadn’t had an individual tournament yet and was 11-0 coming in. A year ago, he was second at this tournament. Today he won this in dominant fashion.”

Spencer Ness – Spencer Ness won his quarterfinal match with a pin just 62-seconds into the match. Ness was pinned by teammate Nolan Dans in his semifinal match. Ness lost in the consolation bracket against Jackson Mikkelsen of United Clay Becker by pin before falling by pin the fifth-place match against Callan Whitney of Walker-Hackensack-Akeley. “It was Spencer’s first real varsity action this season,” said Hanson. “He did really well in the neutral position and got off a lot of attacks. He did some really good things out there.”

Zach Brown – With seven wrestlers competing at 126-pounds, Zach Brown received a bye into the semifinals before defeating Derrik Wegscheid of New York Mills 8-4 to reach the 1st place match. Zach Brown won his second and final match pinning Sam Helgeson of United Clay Becker in 1:49 to secure a first-place finish at 126-pounds. “Now he’s a three-time Rodd Olson (Invitational) champion, which is an impressive feat,” noted Hanson. “He only wrestled two matches, but they were against two very good kids, and he proved to be dominant in each outing. That finals match was awfully exciting. He had some big moves off of the mat before he earned the fall.”

Cameron Weiland – Cameron Weiland earned a quick pin in his first-round match beating Ashton Danner from West Central Area in 38-seconds. Weiland was pinned in his semifinal match by Dane Niemi of New York Mills. Weiland lost an 8-5 decision in the consolation bracket versus Lucas Kritzeck from Park Rapids. Weiland won his fifth-place match by pinning Ashton Danner again, this time in 1:19. “Cam is tough in the top position,” said Hanson. He just keeps grinding out there. He had a couple of close matches, and there were some things we can go back and work on.”

Braxton Volker – With just four wrestlers competing at 138-pounds Braxton Volker needed just 47-seconds to reach the first place match after pinning Gavin Flint from West Central Area. Volker won the title beating Alex Hein of Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 2:07 into the first place bout. “Braxton was on a mission today,” said Hanson. “He was the number-one seed coming in, and he acted like it. He went out there and wrestled hard. He wasn’t satisfied with anything but a title today.”

Cameron Hulst – Cameron Hulst received a first-round by before he was pinned by New York Mills’ Gabe Geiser in the semifinals. Hulst lost his first consolation match against Gabe Hendrickson of United North Central by pin. Cameron Hulst earned a fifth-place finish winning by technical fall 3:00 into his match against Tate Horton from Park Rapids. “To finish with an odd number is always a nice thing,” added Hanson on Hulst’s fifth-place finish. “He’s good at riding, and he was able to get some turns too.”

Hunter Knutson – Following a first-round bye, Hunter Knutson was pinned by Roseau’s Race Knochemus in the quarterfinals. In the consolation bracket, Knutson beat Oscar Duden from Red Lake County with a pin in 47-seconds. Knutson lost his next consolation bracket match against Joe Klein from Park Rapids 9-6.

Cade Coauette – After a first-round bye, Cade Coauette was pinned by Damon Ferguson of Red Lake County in the quarterfinals. Coauette was pinned in his first consolation bracket match by Reubens Swanson of West Central Area.

Ethan Boll – Ethan Boll received a first-round bye before winning his quarter-final match by pinning United North Central’s Logan Torma in 37-seconds. Boll won his semifinal match with a pin of Colton Lindquist of West Central Area in 5:32. Boll’s championship match with Gavin Wright of Hillsboro-Central Valley was tied at 5-5 after three periods. In the sudden-death overtime period, Boll earned a 2-point takedown late in the extra time to win the 182-pound title. “Ethan continues a strong season,” said Hanson. “Matches like that one in the finals is what we want to see from him. To get a crowd like that.  Go down to the last seconds of overtime and win. It is exactly what he needed right now. I’m proud of the way he kept fighting.”

Greg Gonzalez – Greg Gonzalez dropped his first-round match against Justin Blascyk from West Central Area 5-1. Gonzalez dropped his first match in the consolation bracket after he was pinned by Hunter Carnell of Park Rapids. Gonzalez wrapped up his day losing 4-3 in the last second against Axel Dahl of Roseau to finish in sixth place.

“I thought our guys really responded well,” summarized Hanson. “We really like playing in our home gym, and this is an event we love to compete in. There was a good field here. I think the guys, for the most part, are happy with how they wrestled here. Our goal coming in was to win this thing, and we came up short of that, so that just tells us that we need to keep working.”

The Crookston Pirates return to the mat on Friday for day one of the two day Big Bear Tournament in Cass Lake beginning at 11:00 A.M.