Colfax-Bloomer grapplers drop first match of the season to Ladysmith

COLFAX — The first dual match of the season turned out to be within the Heart O’North Conference as the Colfax-Bloomer wrestling squad lost 53-28 to Ladysmith in the Colfax gym Dec. 3. This will be the only match for the team in Colfax as all other home meets will be in Bloomer.

Starting at 152 pounds, C-B wrestler Collin Bungartz fell behind early and lost by a technical fall 17-4. Austin Summerfield pulled out a 10-2 win at 160 pounds but  Zack Arvold lost by a pin at 170 pounds in the first period to a wrestler who was a state qualifier two years ago. But Cole Anderson-Olson came back with a pin of his own at 182 pounds at the 1:29 mark and after Tom Johnson took a forfeit by Ladysmith at 195, C-B was up 16-11 in the team points. They upped the lead to 22-11 when Brady Hedtke won by a fall at 1:12 at 220 pounds but the lead slowly faded away as Gabe Naumann lost by a pin at 285 pounds at :32 and Cody Goettl gave up a 9-2 lead and lost by a pin at 3:42 to make it 23-22 for the Lumberjacks.

Dalton Klukas competed at 113 and dropped his match by a pin at 3:44, C-B forfeited at 120 and Jared Stoll was ahead 5-0 on his opponent at 126 but ended up on his back and was pinned at 3:04. C-B had to forfeit at 132 pounds and Jarrod Kressin put up a battle at 138 but had to quit in the third period due to a medical issue. Brady Simonson started his road to a return trip to state by pinning his opponent at 2:48 for the final C-B points.

“For our first meet of the season, our inexperience really showed,” C-B coach Jim Poirier said. “We have a lot of work to do and we just need more practice. What we have been doing in practice didn’t show up tonight. We have a few wrestlers who have been injured or didn’t make weight so we will have a different lineup when everyone is back. But our three seniors (Brady, Brady and Zack) have been good leaders and our whole team wrestled hard. That is something we can build on,” he added.