Boyceville wrestlers finish second in D-SC behind Cardinals
By Kelsie Hoitomt
HAMMOND — On Tuesday night the Boyceville grapplers traveled to Hammond to wrestle the St. Croix Central Panthers for their final Dunn-St. Croix Conference dual of the season.
The Bulldogs won 48-22, which put them at 3-1 in the conference behind the undefeated Spring Valley Cardinals. This is the third straight year the Cardinals have won the D-SC title.
On Tuesday night, the Bulldogs finished victorious with six pins and four decisions. They had just three losses by a decision and then one forfeit.
Austin Wolfe defeated freshman Zeke Orme by a fall in 1:52 and then Brock Swenson followed suit with a first period pin over Frank Holter in 1:31.
James Palmer received a forfeit at 120 for an additional six team points. Then Cody Frederick was up against junior Lukas Smith. They went a full match with Frederick persevering through with a 7-3 decision win.
At 138, Tyler Krueger matched up against Drew Malecek and won by a similar decision with the final score at 7-4.
The next win for the Bulldogs came at 152 pounds when Zach Smith won over senior Ray Gandy.
Garrett Joles then won by a big decision over junior Trent Smith with a final score of 10-3. Logan McAbee-Thomas followed that up with a fall over Cody Gostovich near the start of the second period.
Finishing out the roster was Jake Lake with a 6-0 decision over Josh VanBeek and then Brandon Windsor won at heavyweight over Decker Grass by a fall of 3:58.
The Panthers received points when Jacob Nyhagen pinned Dyllon Johnson near the end of the first period.
Then Ryan Gulich won by a major decision of 11-1 over Justin Malean for four team points.
Kyle Larson then pinned Jordan Morse late in the match at 5:20 and the Bulldogs forfeited 195 for the Panthers final six points.
Micah Johnson, Alex Lovett and Tyler Stroo were not on the roster and are questionable on their returns due to injuries.
The Bulldogs were in River Falls on Saturday for the kick off to the tournament season with the Big Rivers/Dunn-St. Croix Conference Wrestling Challenge. They will then be at hom Saturday, February 14 for the Regional match.