Hilltopper wrestlers 1-2 at LaCrescent duals
By Kelsie Hoitomt
LACRESCENT, MN — The Glenwood City grapplers hit the road to LaCrescent, Minnesota this past Saturday morning where they wrestled Logan, Aquinas and Wabasha-Kellogg high schools.
The Toppers had a handful of wrestlers who went undefeated or had winning records on the day including Riley Knops 3-0, Adam Holmquist and Austin Moe who each had two pins and a forfeit, Jake Carlson and Brennan Kessler each were 2-1 with a pin, a decision and a loss, Donovan Fornal was 2-1 with a pin, forfeit and a loss and Kyle Peterson was 2-1 with two pins and a loss.
Solo victory
The Toppers’ only win as a team was against the Logan Ranger’s in a 42-35 victory that was sealed by heavyweight Kyle Peterson who pinned his opponent in 27 seconds. The score was 36-35 going into that final match.
The Rangers started out with the lead after the Toppers forfeited 106 and Damian Hoitomt was tech falled.
Knops put the team on the board after he pinned Jaron Poff in just over a minute. The Toppers then took the lead when Jake Carlson pinned David Rodriguez in just over a minute as well to put the score at 12-11.
The Rangers carried the lead for the majority of the matches until Jeff Kopacz pinned Jonah Stuhr at 170 which put the score at 30-26. Their final points were scored after Kessler lost on a 5-0 decision and Alex Little was pinned.
Pair of losses
The Toppers then lost to the Aquinas Blugolds 36-45 and the Wabasha-Kellogg Falcons 30-43.
The Blugolds racked up points against the Toppers after a forfeit at 106, Hoitomt, Carlson, Clarence Rodgers, Billy Norenberg and Hunter Chouinard and Littler were all pinned and Kopacz lost on a 8-3 decision.
The Toppers scored their 36 points from Knops, Moe and Fornal who each had forfeits, Holmquist and Kessler had pins in the second period and Peterson pinned Caleb Pedretti in a minute.
The dual against the Falcons was similar with the lighter weights in the roster struggling. The Toppers did score points from Knops who pinned his opponent in just 15 seconds, Carlson won by a 7-3 decision, Holmquist had a forfeit, Chouinard won by a 9-3 decision, Moe had a pin in the second period and Kessler had a pin in a minute and a half.
Fornal was bumped up from 195 to 220 and wrestled Zack Shepard who only had a 3-0 lead until he pinned Fornal in the third period. Peterson was also pinned.
