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Chisago Lakes Quadrangular

In last week's Chisago Lakes Quadrangular, the Wildcats sandwiched two crushing wins over Robbinsdale Cooper and Columbia Heights around an exciting 35-33 win over conference rival Totino Grace. The three wins vaulted the Wildcats into first place in the North Suburban Conference with a 6-0 record. The match took place at Chisago Lakes High School Thursday, January 5.

The Wildcats opened the evening with a 63-18 win over Robbinsdale Cooper. Against Totino Grace, Kyle Schoenecker led off with a 4-0 decision over Ben Smith to give the Wildcats an early 3-0 lead. Nathan Graeve was pinned at 113, but Dylan Connell (120) pinned Jared Florell in the first period to retake the lead at 9-6. Jake Frascone was pinned at 126 and the Wildcats trailed 12-9.

Quade Zupko (132) was up by five points entering the third period of his match with Pierce Rothenbacher. Zupko poured it on, adding ten points to win by a technical fall at 5:13, 21-6. The five points earned by a tech fall put the Wildcats back on top 14-12. The Wildcats stretched their lead to 26-12 when Bobby Sontag (138) pinned Will Rog and Mark Sontag (145) pinned C.J. Caliendo.

Joe Virga (152) and William Pool (160) each lost a decision, but David Barwin (170) pinned Aaron Kusch in 37 seconds to allow the Wildcats to maintain a 14-point lead at 32-18. Jaryd Young (182) was pinned and the Wildcats forfeited at 195, cutting the Wildcats lead to two at 32-30. Jonah Westbury (220) lost a close match to Joe Schiller. Schiller scored a takedown in the second period to increase his lead to 3-0. Westbury scored a couple of escapes, but ran out of time and lost 3-2. The Wildcats trailed 33-32. "Jonah wasn't able to get a takedown to get the win," said Wildcat head coach Shawn Frederixon. "But he kept the score close and gave us a chance to win at 285." Chase Kammerer came through in the final, beating Richie Donovan 4-2 to give the Wildcats a 35-33 win. Frederixon said, "Chase just had to wrestle a smart match to win it. He didn't need to take chances to get bonus points."

The bonus points earned by Zupko proved to be the difference in this match. Frederixon said, "That was a tough one. They won seven matches and we won seven matches. Quade was able to score a couple of bonus points and we were able to hold Totino down just enough to get the win. We talk to the kids about saving points and getting bonus points here and there. We did that against Totino and it made a huge difference. That was a big conference win for us."

The Wildcats finished out the evening by shutting out Columbia Heights 78-0.



Chisago Lakes 63, Robbinsdale Cooper 18

106: Kyle Schoenecker won by fall

113: Nathan Graeve won by forfeit

120: Dylan Connell won by fall

132: Quade Zupko won by maj. dec.

138: Bobby Sontag won by fall

145: Mark Sontag won by tech fall

152: Joe Virga won by fall

160: William Pool won by fall

170: David Barwin won by forfeit

220: Jonah Westbury won by fall

285: Chase Kammerer won by fall

Chisago Lakes 35, Totino Grace 33

106: Kyle Schoenecker won by dec.

120: Dylan Connell won by fall

132: Quade Zupko won by tech fall

138: Bobby Sontag won by fall

145: Mark Sontag won by fall

170: David Barwin won by fall

285: Chase Kammerer won by dec.



Chisago Lakes 78, Columbia Heights 0

106: Kyle Schoenecker won by fall

113: Dylan Connell won by forf.

126: Jake Frascone won by fall

132: Quade Zupko won by forf.

138: Bobby Sontag won by fall

145: Mark Sontag won by fall

152: Joe Virga won by fall

160: William Pool won by fall

170: David Barwin won by forf.

182: Jaryd Young won by forf.

195: Kevin Schmidt won by forf.

220: Jonah Westbury won by fall

285: Chase Kammerer won by fall



Hibbing Duals

The Wildcats certainly had a successful trip to Hibbing last weekend. They came in second as a team in the Hibbing Duals. Five individuals went 4-0 and were named to the All-Tournament team: Quade Zupko (132); Bobby Sontag (138); Mark Sontag (three at 145 and one at 152); Joe Virga (one at 145 and three at 152); and Jonah Westbury (220).

The Wildcats opened the weekend by beating the host team, Hibbing, 67-12 on Friday afternoon, January 6. The win put the Wildcats in the championship bracket. They wrestled the other three teams in the bracket in a round robin format to determine the tournament champion.

On Friday evening, the Wildcats lost 39-25 to Centennial in the opening of bracket play. Saturday morning, they beat Princeton 47-30 to even their bracket record at 1-1. The Wildcats beat Bemidji in a tight match, 37-29, Saturday afternoon to finish with a 2-1 record in bracket play, which earned them the second place trophy in the eight team tournament.

Wildcat head coach Shawn Frederixon was pretty fired up by his team's performance. "We had a lot of solid wrestling going on up there," he said. "That was some of the best wrestling I've seen all year. We really put it all together. We had five individuals go undefeated. We've been to that tournament a number of times and we have never had that many guys do that well. And the fact that they did that in the championship bracket makes their achievement even more impressive. Our middle weights - Quade, Joe, Bobby and Mark - really knocked off some tough kids up there. Things worked out well and we are happy with the weekend."

Something worth noting from the JV tournament in Hibbing: Wildcat Austin Hable (126) pinned all three of his opponents in under two minutes (total) to win the Pins Trophy. The Pins Trophy is awarded to the wrestler who has the most pins from the tournament in the shortest combined time.

The Wildcats will host a triangular tonight at Chisago Lakes High School. They'll open at 5 p.m. against conference foe Spring Lake Park and wrestle the last match of the evening against Hinckley-Finlayson, starting at about 7:30 p.m. Saturday, January 14, the Wildcats will split into two squads to wrestle in tournaments at St. Croix Lutheran (9:00 a.m.) and Hinckley-Finlayson (10:00 a.m.).

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