CL grapplers put in a busy week with nine duals

The Clear Lake wrestling team had a very busy first week of wrestling. The Lions participated in nine duals and ended up 7-2. 

The week started on Tuesday, Dec. 2, with a double dual with St. Ansgar and Lake Mills. The Lions beat St. Ansgar, 64-15. In the second dual, Clear Lake and Lake Mills finished in a tie, 36-36.  After 20 minutes of looking at the rule book, it was decided that Lake Mills won on the eighth criteria.

On Friday night, the Lions traveled to Waverly to take on traditional power Waverly-Shell Rock and 2013 state champion, West Delaware. The Lions came home with two wins, beating West Delaware, 60-21, and edging Waverly, 42-36. 

“The best thing about Friday night is that Ryan Faught and Dylon Crotty have been released from the hospital, stated coach Weber. “ Those were two big wins for our kids.”  Weber said Faught was injured when his opponent performed an illegal drop; Crotty sustained a concussion in his match.  Both are expected to make full recoveries and should be back in the line-up soon.

Saturday had the Lions at the 10-team St. Ansgar duals. The Lions went 4-1 and finished in third place.  New Hampton beat Clear Lake, 36-23. After that, the Lions rattled off four wins to put them at 7-2 on the week.  Clear Lake beat Garner, 57-21; Austin, Minn., 40-32; Rockford, 60-6; and Perry, 57-18.  

“When I started coaching in 1982, you were only allowed nine duals for one year.  Now we have that many in a week.  The kids and coaches were very tired by Saturday night,” said Coach Gary Weber.  “It was a very good week. We have several starters out of our line up and many of our young wrestlers filled in and did an awesome job.  Aarron Canchola, Dalton Grell and Will Kirshbaum all wrestled some varsity on Saturday and did a great job.”

The Lions only have two home dual meets this year and one occurs this week.  It should be a dandy, as the fourth ranked Lions (2A) take on the fourth ranked team in Class 1A, Clarion-Goldfield.  Clarion-Goldfield won the Class 1A State Dual Meet Tournament last year and boasts the Portillo brothers, who moved from Ohio last year and placed first and third in state.  They face possible match ups with third ranked Brennen Doebel and third ranked Ryan Schmalen.  Last year Doebel won in overtime.  Thursday night will start with Clear Lake vs. Iowa Falls at 6 p.m.; Clarion-Goldfield vs. Iowa Falls at 7 p.m.; and Clear Lake vs. Clarion-Goldfield at 8 p.m.

Weekly wrap-up

Here are Coach Weber’s comments for the week:

•106:  Ben Hillyer.  This is Ben’s first year on varsity and he is giving it his all, we just need to perfect some technique.”

•113: Brennen Doebel,  9-0.  “Brennen had a great week, beating two ranked wrestlers.  He major decisioned the state runner up from New Hampton, which is quite an accomplishment.”

•120: Ryan Schmalen, 9-0. “Ryan also had a great week. He also beat a ranked wrestler from Perry and is wrestling very well.”

•126: Ryan Leisure, 9-0. “Ryan also wrestled extremely well.  He moved up to 132 to help the team  and won all of his matches. That is a real team leader.”

•132: Dylon Crotty, 1-1. Dylon had a big win against Saint Ansgar and was injured at Waverly. We hope he makes a speedy recovery.”  We wrestled Kirshbaum and Canchola and they did well.”

•138: Spencer Orr, 7-2.  “Spencer showed improvement on his technique from last year.”

•145: Christiano Gonzalez, 3-1. “Chris moved up two weight classes to help the team due to Faught’s injury and looked great.  He is going to have a very good year.

•152: Brad Hillyer.  Brad showed some great effort. This is his first year on varsity and it will take a little time to get used to the competition.

•160: Kaleb Froiland. Kaleb only weighs 150 and did a great job picking up some wins while giving up so much weight.

170: Dalton Mennenga started out the meet and was wrestling very well against St. Ansgar before he was injured. We have to forfeit this weight until Logan Wilcke can make it down to this weight.

•182: Logan Wilcke, 8-1. Logan will have a good year. He beat a ranked wrestler from Lake Mills in overtime. 

•195: Rowdy Yates. Rowdy had some good wins this week.  He will have a good senior year. 

•220 Ace Walton, 7-0. Ace moved up a weight to help the team and ended up 7-0. His weight lifting has paid dividends.

•285 Kyle Willms, 7-2. Kyle had a great week. He darn near was 9-0 on the week. He and Ace spend hundreds of hours in the weight room and it is really paying off.

•285: Nate Benson, 1-1. Nate had a big pin against Rockford, which delighted his teammates and fans.