The Crookston Pirate Wrestling team had one champion, a second-place finish and a total of six placers to finish sixth out of 12 teams at the talent-laden Dan Unruh Wahpeton Wrestling tournament in Wahpeton, North Dakota.   Lisbon, North Dakota won the tournament with 242 points, 14.5 points better than Frazee. Crookston finished with 124 points, 12 points behind fifth-place Sisseton, South Dakota.
Zach Brown (113 lbs) won a championship and Lukas Meier (160 lbs) finished second after suffering an injury in the championship match. “It was nice to get out on the mat and on paper, we are pretty happy with how things turned out this weekend,” said Pirate Coach Wes Hanson. “We saw a lot of things we need to work on, but it was a great start to the year.”
The six Pirate placers – Ethan Bowman, Lukas Meier, Damian Hodgson, Ethan Boll, Cameron Weiland, Zach Brown
Zach Brown, the #3 ranked wrestler in Class A Minnesota, won all three matches he wrestled. He received a bye in the first round before winning the next two matches by pin to advance to the championship. In the championship, the first period was scoreless and with one minute left in the second period Zach trailed 1-0 after an escape and that was the score after two periods. In the third period, Brown started in the down position and escaped right away to tie the match at 1-1. With 56 seconds left in the match, Brown had a takedown to take a 3-1 lead. Late in the match, Brown let his opponent escape and his lead was 3-2. With a couple of seconds left in the match, Brown’s opponent had a nice move and came close to a takedown as the buzzer sounded and after a short discussion with the officials no points were awarded, and Brown won the match 3-2. “It was a great match with two very good wrestlers,” said Coach Hanson. “His opponent fired off a few shots and Zach was able to counter some of his best stuff early and we were feeling good about that. Zach was able to get a takedown and was able to ride out. He had a very good performance this weekend.”
Lukas Meier, the #6 ranked wrestler in Class A Minnesota, received a first-round bye and won his second round match by pin in 56 seconds. In the semi-final match, Lukas won a hard-fought 7-5 decision to advance to the championship match. In the championship, about 15 seconds into the match he was injured and 10 seconds later an injury timeout was given.  Lukas was in pain and after a minute he decided to try to tough it out and with 40 seconds left in the first period there was a stoppage and Coach Hanson could tell he was in pain and asked and suggested he might want to withdraw to not injure himself any further in the first weekend of the season. Luke withdrew and finished second place. “He had a very good semi-final match and was trailing 4-3 in the middle of the third period and come back to win,” said Coach Hanson. “I feel bad for him because it was the second year in a row he has been injured in this tournament. We decided to pull the pin and we hope he is good to go for us soon.”
Ethan Bowman finished fourth place at 106 pounds going 4-2 on the weekend. He received a first-round bye and lost his second match to put him in the wrestlebacks. Ethan won his first match on Saturday 3-2 and beat his teammate Carter Coauette 12-0. He won an exciting 12-11 match to advance to the third-place match and ran into a tough opponent and lost 9-3 to finish fourth. “The match that he is probably most proud so far this season and his career is the consolation semi-final where he won 12-11,” said Coach Hanson. “He got a reversal late to win 12-11 and that was a huge victory for him.”
Cameron Weiland finished fourth place at 132 pounds going 3-2 on the weekend. He won his first two matches on Friday to advance to the semi-finals and lost his third match and bounced back with a 4-3 victory over Lucas Volstad of Frazee. He lost by pin in the second period of the third-place match. “Cam had two nice pins yesterday and showed today that he can win a close one with a 4-3 decision over Frazee,” said Coach Hanson. “Cam had a very good weekend for us and it was a good start to the season for him.”
Ethan Boll finished third place at 152 pounds going 3-2 on the weekend. Ethan had a tough start to the weekend with a 9-4 loss in his first-round match with Joshua Worral of Fargo North. He received a bye in the wrestlebacks before winning his first match on Saturday by a pin. He lost the next match by pin before bouncing back with a 13-7 win over Joshua Worral (the kid that beat him in the first round) to advance to the third-place match. Ethan continued his outstanding wrestling on Saturday with a pin towards the end of the second period to beat Mason Newling of Frazee. “Ethan really had a great day today and was wrestling better,” said Coach Hanson. “The way that he battled back to finish third place was awesome to see him out there today. He is explosive and had a much better day today.”
Damian Hodgson finished fifth place at 182 pounds going 2-2 on the weekend. Damian received a first-round bye before he won his second-round match by pin in the first period to advance to the semi-finals. Damian lost the next two matches by decision to put him in the fifth-place match. He came out strong in the fifth-place match and pinned his opponent 45 seconds into the match to end the weekend with a victory and a fifth-place medal. “He wrestled a quality opponent in the semi-finals and it was nice to see him finish with a pin,” said Coach Hanson. “He has been at this tournament many years and to see him up on the podium on his senior year was great.”
The rest of the Pirates had some good matches and they were able to see some top-notch competition and that will prepare them for the rest of the season. Coach Wes Hanson was happy with his team’s effort on the weekend. “It was nice to see teams from North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota with a variety of competition,” said Coach Hanson. “I thought it was great to see the guys compete at a high-level whether it was their first wrestling match, their first varsity action it takes a lot of courage and it was an admirable performance by the guys and I am proud of their efforts this weekend.”
Crookston will travel to Grafton on Tuesday to wrestle Grand Forks Central and Grand Forks Red River in the annual border battle.
Zach Brown in control in the second period of his championship match
Team Scores
1. Lisbon 242
2. Frazee 227.5
3. Grand Forks Central 185
4. Brookings 182.5
5. Sisseton 136
6. Crookston 124
7. Wahpeton 74.5
8. Border West 71
9. Fargo North 70.5
10. Kindred 46
West Fargo Sheyenne 46
12. Breckenridge 41.0
Carter Coauette (left) and Ethan Bowman (right) wrestle each other at 106
| PIRATES | Opponent/Results | Place | |
| 106 lbs | Ethan Bowman | Friday Beat Patrick Forcier- Border West by Pin 1:23 Lost to Tyson Gass – Grand Forks Central by pin at 1:17 ———————– Saturday Beat Cole Sykora – Border West 3-2 Beat Carter Coauette – Crookston 12-0 Beat Connor Manske – WF Sheyenne 12-11 Lost to Carter Wallner – unattached 9-3 |
4th |
| 106 lbs | Carter Coauette | Friday Lost to Connor Manske – West Fargo Sheyenne by Pin at 1:49 Bye ——————————- Saturday Beat Preston Meyer – Wahpeton by pin at 1:50 Lost to Ethan Bowman – Crookston 12-0 |
DNP |
| 113 lbs | Zach Brown | Friday Bye Beat Tristin LaRocque – West Fargo Sheyenne by pin at :42 —————————- Saturday Beat Eli Larson – Border West by pin at 3:56 Beat Boeden Greenley – Lisbon 3-2 |
1st |
| 120 lbs | Nolan Dans | Friday Bye Lost to Isiah Grimm- Sisseton by pin at 2:54 ——————– Saturday Bye Lost to Christian Carlson – Frazee 10-2 |
DNP |
| 126 lbs | Braxton Volker | Friday Beat Devan Diemert – Wahpeton by pin :54 Lost to Josh Isassi – Grand Forks Central by pin at 3:46 —————————- Saturday Beat Keyara LaRocque – WF Sheyenne by pin at :56 Lost to Brayden Williams – unattached by pin at 2:01 |
DNP |
| 132 lbs | Cameron Weiland | Friday Beat Silas Reinke – Lisbon by pin 3:56 Beat Kaleb Mostoller – Wahpeton by pin at 2:48 ————————— Saturday Lost to Keanan Pikarski – Sisseton by pin at 1:46 Beat Lucas Volstad – Frazee 4-3 Lost to Shea Truesdell – unattached by pin at 2:44 |
4th |
| 138 lbs | Hunter Knutson | Friday Bye Lost to Brock Roesler – Kindred by pin at 1:04 ————————– Saturday Bye Lost to Mike Erickson – GF Central by pin at 1:53 |
DNP |
| 145 lbs | OPEN | ||
| 152 lbs | Ethan Boll | Friday Lost Joshua Worral – Fargo North  9-4 Bye ————————– Saturday Beat Anthony Benda – Sisseton by pin at 3:31 Lost to Burchill – Wahpeton by pin at 2:35 Beat Joshua Worral – Fargo North 13-7 Beat Mason Newling – Frazee by pin at 3:57 |
3rd |
| 160 lbs | Lukas Meier | Friday Bye Beat Ekoue Kev Gbadoe – West Fargo Sheyenne by pin at :56 ————————– Saturday Beat Ben Stevens – GF Central 7-5 Lost to Logan Bowes – Brookings by Injury Default |
2nd |
| 170 lbs | Cade DeLeon | Friday Bye Lost to Isaac Deal – Border West by pin at 1:18 ————————- Saturday Bye Lost to Matthew Moen – Sisseton by pin at 2:12 |
DN-P |
| 182 lbs | Damian Hodgson | Friday Bye Beat Lance Nelson – Border West by pin at 1:33 ————————- Saturday Lost to Jacob Schoon – Brookings 14-2 Lost to Cameran Bridgeford – GF Central 9-4 Beat Lance Nelson – Border West by pin at :45 |
5th |
| 195 lbs | OPEN | ||
| 220 lbs | Blake Fee | Friday Lost Sam Rieger – Lisbon by pin :27 Grant Sullivan – Grand Forks Central ————————- Saturday Lost to Grant Sullivan – GF Central by pin at 1:17 |
DNP |
| 285 lbs | OPEN |
Ethan Boll makes a move in a wrestleback match on Saturday
