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Hibbing Invitational Tournament: 4th Place

The Chisago Lakes wrestling team finished fourth out of nine teams in the Hibbing Invitational Tournament Friday, January 6 and Saturday, January 7. The Wildcats fell to White Bear Lake 42-24 to open the tournament, but rebounded to beat Nashwauk-Keewatin-Greenway 57-21. The Wildcats won a thriller over Crookston 33-28 and finished the tournament by beating Park Center 45-26.

The Crookston match was in doubt as the Wildcats led just 25-22 going into the last two weight classes. Jason Schumann (215) was losing in the second period when he threw his opponent, getting the fall and six points to put the match away for the Wildcats. “The Crookston match was tough,” said Wildcat head coach Shawn Frederixon. “They won eight matches and we won six, but the pins at the end by Chad Stenson, Troy Montague and Schumann made the difference for us.”

Frederixon continued, “Brian Jones was the only one of our wrestlers who was 4-0 for the tournament. He moved up a weight for three of the matches and he made it through. Brian’s win against White Bear Lake put him past Steve Peterson and into second place on the all-time Wildcat victory list, trailing only Dan Dellwo. Brian collected his 50th career pin earlier this year. Bobby Ferrier collected his 50th career pin today against NKG.

CL 44, North Branch 26

CL 56, Zimmerman 18

The Wildcats swept a home triangular meet Thursday, January 12, beating conference and section opponent North Branch 44-26 and rolling over Zimmerman 56-18.

“We wrestled pretty well against North Branch,” said Wildcat head coach Shawn Frederixon. “We won seven of the first eight weights, but this was by no means easy. There were a lot of close matches. Chad Stenson sealed the win for us with an overtime victory over Greg Arnt at 160. The boys had a lot of fun and we look forward to seeing them again in the section tournament.

“Against Zimmerman, there were no real standout performances, with the exception of our heavyweight, Tony Gall. Tony got a pin for us to go along with his pin against North Branch.”

Centennial 55, Chisago Lakes 16

Shakopee 33, Chisago Lakes 30

The Wildcats took on some tougher opponents at a triangular at Centennial Saturday, January 14. They opened by losing to the host team, Centennial, 56-18. The Wildcats then took Shakopee down to the wire, before falling 33-30.

“Going into Saturday we were down two wrestlers due to illness and injury,” said Frederixon. “So that made it tough going against a team like Centennial. But we did well against Shakopee. The matches were split evenly, 7-7. Mike Michaelson (112) and Tony Gall (Hwt) both won overtime matches. Tony came close to a pin in his match. Even though that would have given us a tie, we would have lost by the tiebreaking procedure.”

Frederixon talked a little more about Michaelson and Gall. “Tony had a good weekend,” said Frederixon. “He was 3-0 with two pins. It was especially nice to see his overtime victory over Shakopee’s L.B. Paulsen, who had pinned Tony last year. And Mike had a good weekend, too. He was 4-0, including an overtime victory, a double-overtime victory and a win at 119.”

The Wildcats become busy road warriors this week, with away matches three days in a row. Tuesday, January 17 they were scheduled to travel to Big Lake to take on Big Lake and Foley in a triangular meet. Wednesday they were scheduled to face Southwest at Southwest High School in Minneapolis. And tonight (1/19) the Wildcats are scheduled to be at St. Francis for a conference match at 7:30 p.m.

Individual records for matches above:

Wt. Wrestler

103      Travis Kammerer 5-3

112      Mike Michaelson 6-1       

119      Adam Bettcher 1-5

119 Mike Michaelson 1-0

125      Mitch Anderson 7-1

130      John Hogie 2-1

130 Brian Jones 2-0

130 Jonathan Barwin 1-0

130 Billy Ferrier 0-2

135    Brian Jones 3-0

135 John Hogie 1-0

140    Dan Gemuenden 4-1

140 Kelby Kowalenko 1-2

145    Bobby Ferrier 7-0

145 Dan Gemuenden 0-1

152   Mike Welle 2-4

152 Bobby Ferrier 0-1

152 Dan Gemuenden 1-0

160   Chad Stenson 3-1

160 Mike Welle 0-2

160 Shane Hultman 0-1

171 JD Ford 1-3

171 Chad Stenson 2-1

189    Troy Montague 4-4

215    Jason Schumann 1-7

275    Tony Gall 3-4

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