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Rock Ridge Wolverines Invitational

Three Wildcat wrestlers finished atop their weight classes at the Rock Ridge Wolverines Invitational last Friday, December 22.  Michael Amos took first place at 145, Connor Frederixon won the championship at 215, and Logan Bender remained undefeated at 13-0 after capturing the crown at 285.  Five other Wildcats placed in the eleven-team tournament, which helped the Wildcats to a fourth place finish as a team:  Conner Aspenson (107), third place; Lucas Yang (121), third place; Sam Bird (133), sixth place; Franklin Stark (139), fourth place; and Chuck Gilman (285), third place.

 Amos, seeded first at 145, had a bye until his semifinal match against Carson Carlbom of Rush City-Braham.  Amos won the match by a 16-3 major decision over Carlbom.  The championship match pitted Amos against Jackson Kendall of Rock Ridge.  Amos made short work of Kendall.  He got a takedown 57 seconds into the match and pinned Kendall at 1:24 to take first place.

 Frederixon’s day began in the quarterfinals against Devin Lopez of Robbinsdale Armstrong.  Leading 7-1, he executed a reversal at 3:43 and pinned Lopez at 4:00 to move on to the semifinals.  Frederixon’s match against Jayden Perry-Mattson of Hibbing in the quarterfinals followed the same pattern.  Frederixon led 5-0 after the first period.  He got a reversal at 2:17 and pinned Perry-Mattson at 2:48.  Frederixon had to work harder against Dulton Bengston of Rush City-Braham in the final.  He led 4-0 after a first period takedown and a second period reversal.  In the third period, Bengston chose top.  Frederixon executed a reversal at 4:43 and took just three seconds to pin Bengston and win the championship.

 Bender, ranked fourth in the state at 285, took a little over three total minutes to win all three of his matches.  In the quarterfinals, Bender took down independent Akex Henderson nine seconds into the match and pinned him at 52 seconds.  Bender’s semifinal bout put him against teammate Chuck Gilman.  Bender got a takedown at 16 seconds and won by fall at 1:10.  It didn’t take much longer for Bender in the final.  Wrestling against Ian Larrabee of Hibbing, Bender executed a takedown at 36 seconds and pinned Larrabee at 1:15 to claim the crown.

Individual Results

107  Conner Aspenson                   

3-1         3rd

121  Lucas Yang                               

1-2         3rd

127 Brannick Malchow                 

0-2         DNP

133 Sam Bird                                   

0-3         6th

139 Franklin Stark                          

1-2         4th

145 Michael Amos                         

2-0         Champ

215  Connor Frederixon                 

3-0         Champ

285 Chuck Gilman                          

3-1         3rd

285 Logan Bender                          

3-0         Champ

 

Team Results

1 Rock Ridge 175.5

2 Deer River 151.0

3 Rush City-Braham 150.0

4 Chisago Lakes 123.0

5 Roseau 95.0

6 Aitkin 79.0

7 Hibbing 70.0

8 Robbinsdale Arms. 69.0

9 Nashwauk-Keewatin 62.0

10 Proctor-H’town 59.5

11 Blackduck Cass Lake Bena 46.0

Wrestling Whangdoodles

The next action for the Wildcats will be a home triangular against Mississippi 8 Conference foes Monticello and Zimmerman on Thursday, January 4 starting at 5 p.m.

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