Detroit Lakes, MN (KDLM) – The Section 8AA Team Wrestling Tournament was held at the New Lakeshirts Fieldhouse on Saturday night. In the Semifinals, the Detroit Lakes Lakers lost to the #4 ranked team in Class AA, the Pequot Lakes/ Pine River-Backus Road Crew 55-15.
“This may be the best Pine River team I’ve ever seen,” said Laker coach Rob Ullyot after the match. “This team won the Section last year, and they brought everybody back. They had the experience of being here before. You gotta give them the recognition they deserve. They’re a really good team.”
The Road Crew went up 25-0 before the Lakers got on the board with a Major Decision win by senior captain Bradley Swiers.
“We’re very young on the front end,” says Ullyot. “Our first guy out there at 106 is our little seventh-grader Talan Baker. He’s been doing a great job all year, but he is still so undersized. He’s gotta drink water to make the minimum weight to wrestle. He’s improved a lot and he works really hard. We had (seventh grader) Jeremy Linn wrestle against one of their better kids in Parker Zutter, who won 38 matches this year. We bumped Beau Somdahl to 120 after losing another wrestler to injury last Tuesday. We felt that was the best matchup for us. He lost a tight match, and he battled hard. Beau’s done a great job all year and continues to improve. At 126 we’ve got another guy in Izaiah Vargas who is filling in for another injured wrestler in Cole Weber. Izaiah is still a young wrestler. It’s only his second year on the team. He goes out and wrestles hard and his best days are to come, no question about it.”
Tyson Ullyot followed Swiers’ win with a tech win, which was followed by two more Laker victories: Cade Okeson won the 160 matchups 10-4, and Cade Jackson won a thriller 8-7.
“We put Brock Swiers in at 152. Brock probably had the win of the meet in the quarters against DGF last Tuesday. Brock had a tough challenge in Chance Abraham tonight. Brock wrestled tough, by Abraham a little more experienced wrestler. We moved Cade up from 152 to 160 to fill the spot of Cale Abraham, who is injured.”
The Road Crew wrapped up the win, winning 182 thru HWT.
“Pine River has one of the most experienced 182 guys in the state in Connor Tulenchick. He’s a two-time state finalist. He’s 38-2 this season. And Charlie Zok got him tonight. Zok is new to wrestling this year. He’s still learning the sport a little bit, and he’s doing a great job. He got their best wrestler tonight. Zok got pinned, but he can go home tonight and say that he wrestled a two-time state finalist. But Charlie’s been learning and working, and that’s what I love about him: he’s such a hard worker…he’s smart. He’s got a couple of years left and he’s going to be a really good wrestler for us.”
Senior Austin Ataricha (30-1) defeated sophomore Tynan Simpson at 220, and Detroit Lakes forfeited the heavyweight.
“At that point, the match was out of reach,” explained Ullyot. “And we’re looking forward to the individual tournament next week to see our heavyweight Jeff Moen wrestle him there.”
On the other side of the bracket, the Thief River Falls Prowlers survived a late comeback by the Perham Yellowjackets 35-33. That set up Thief River Falls vs PL/PRB in the section championship. Thief River Falls came out on top after TRF heavyweight Jackson Ingram pinned sophomore Riley Peters to win the section title, 36-33.
Up next for the Lakers: the Section 8AA Individual Section Tournament next Friday and Saturday, February 25-26 at Melrose High School.
