Clear Lake wrestlers off to 5-0 start

It looks like the Clear Lake wrestling team has gotten it’s swag back!.  The Lions have jumped out to a 5-0 record after finishing last season with their first losing record in over 20 years.  This week the Lions are at home on Thursday.  Clear Lake will wrestle at an earlier time than usual because they will host a double dual. Varsity and junior varsity will wrestle Eagle Grove at 6 p.m. At 7, Eagle Grove will wrestle Hampton, followed by Clear Lake wrestling Hampton.

“We could not be more proud of our young men.  All 35 of our boys are wrestling as hard as they can and that is all that matters,” said Head Coach Gary Weber.  

The Lions started the year off Thursday night with a 43-21 win over a very good Ft. Dodge St. Edmond’s team.

“Mitchel Jordan epitomized what hard work can do by pinning his opponent in 1:01 to set the tone for the entire night and season,” said Weber.

“The crowd and wrestlers were really energized by Jordan’s pin at 285.” 

The Lions won every close match on Thursday. 

Noah Holt won in overtime; Spencer Orr pinned his opponent with :08 seconds left in the match and trailing 7-5.  Brice Wilcke and Blake Kelso also pinned their opponents. Winning by decision was Ryan Schmalen, Ryan Faught, Sam Lakose, and Logan Wilcke.

St. Ansgar Duals

On Saturday, the Lions traveled to the eight-team St. Ansgar dual meet tournament and came home 4-0 with a first place finish. 

Five wrestlers went 4-0 on the day.  Ryan Schmalen, Ryan Faught, Carson Farmer and Logan and Brice Wilcke remained undefeated.

“We beat some good teams on Saturday.  All 35 kids contributed to the wins,” said Coach Weber.  “Forest City beat the second ranked team in the state, Emmetsburg,  on Thursday night so we were real happy with our effort and wins.  Our conditioning was far superior to some of the other teams and we were able to wear our opponents down and win the third periods.  It looks like we could be in for a good year. We do not have any state qualifiers on the team and only three boys with winning records back from last year. What they are accomplishing is amazing.”

Here are Coach Weber’s comments about each of his grapplers’ performances:

106: Ryan Schmalen, 5-0. Ryan has grown into his weight class and is ranked fourth in the state. He was trailing the Forest City kid 5-0 and came back and won 20-6. He also pinned the fifth ranked wrestler in state from Central Springs.

113: Brennen Doebel, 3-2. Brennen only weighs 106, so he is still giving up a lot of weight. He had a huge win over a ranked wrestler from Central Springs.

120: Ryan Faught, 5-0. Ryan is wrestling awesome.  His off-season wrestling is really paying dividends.

126: Spencer Orr, 3-2. Spencer has two big come-from-behind wins totally on perseverance. He is just a freshman and doing fantastic.

132: Sam Lakose, 3-2. Sam has been a JV wrestler the past two years - Read More VIa e-Edition