PIRATE WRESTLING TEAM HOLDS ON FOR A DUAL WIN OVER PARK RAPIDS

         Hunter Knutson close to his third period pin

The Crookston Pirate Wrestling team had their first team dual of the year and beat the Park Rapids Panthers 48-35 at the Crookston High School gymnasium.
Ethan Bowman set the tone for the match when he won by a pin 36 seconds into his match to give Crookston a 6-0 lead.  “He has been huge for us,” said Pirate Coach Wes Hanson. “He was aggressive and knows the implications of getting us off to a good start and he came out today and took care of business.”
Crookston’s Zach Brown won the 113-pound match by a pin in the second period to give the Pirates a 12-0 lead. “The guy that he wrestled was the champion at 113 pounds at our tournament, so we wanted Zach down there to get that matchup and keep Park Rapids off the board early,” said Coach Hanson.  “Zach was able to wrestle solid and stay in good position and kept pushing the action and eventually it happened for him and he picked up the pin.”
Crookston won the next two matches by forfeit with Spencer Ness getting his first varsity win at 120 pounds and Nolan Dans won at 126 pounds and Crookston led 24-0 through four matches.
Park Rapids got their first win at 132 pounds with one of the top-ranked wrestlers, Ashton Clark, earning a tech fall victory over Crookston’s Braxton Volker. “Ashton is one of the top wrestlers in the state and I thought Braxton did a good job of not giving up a pin,” said Coach Hanson. “He didn’t give up that extra point and that was huge for us.”
Cameron Weiland got Crookston back on the winning track with a pin at 138 pounds with a pin one minute into his match.  “Cam had an underhook and reached across and loaded him up on his hip and sent him for a trip to the back,” said Coach Hanson.
Hunter Knutson wrestled a great back-and-forth match and was able to get a nice move in the third period for a pin and the Crookston crowd went wild with the nice move and big pin. “To see the momentum shift in the match was fun.  We elected to go on our feet and he went right in for a beautiful takedown right to his back and picked up another set of near fall and at that point, we could feel it was his match,” said Coach Hanson. “He was able to get the pin on the edge and it was a huge win and a key match for us.”
Ethan Boll won his match by a pin in the second period to give Crookston a 42-5 lead. “Ethan hit a few really nice moves and he continues to improve,” said Coach Hanson.
At 160 pounds, it was nice to see Crookston’s Lukas Meier back on the mat and he looked sharp with a pin in the second period. “He is huge for our team and there is a lot of energy when he is in our line up and for him to get back in the line up was good,” said Coach Hanson.
Crookston forfeited three of the next five matches and lost the other two matches by pin and held on for the 48-35 victory.  “We feel really good about where we are at and nice to have a couple of guys back in the lineup tonight and I thought the team wrestled well and now we have some time to heal up some nagging injuries and come back in the new year,” said Coach Hanson. “It was a nice win for us tonight.”
Crookston improves to 4-2 in duals on the year and will host Hillsboro/Central Valley on Thursday, January 3.   Park Rapids drops to 1-4 in duals on the year.

                 Cameron Weiland close to his win by pin

Lukas Meier with a takedown