By Brenda Erdahl
Sports Editor
The Annandale-Maple Lake Lightning wrestling team traveled to Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted High School on Friday, Jan. 20 to dual with Wright County Conference rival, the Lakers and won 46-19.
On Saturday, Jan. 21, the Lightning returned to the HL-W-W gym where they joined 14 other teams in an individual tournament. Cassen Brumm was the lone champion for the Lightning.
ANML 46, HLWW 19
Friday’s border-battle featured two teams in the top half of the conference this season. The Lakers wrestled the Lightning close until ANML shut the door on them by winning the final four matches, three of them by fall.
“Brumm started off the match with a big pin, and the ANML crowd was immediately into it,” ANML Head Coach Ben Youngs said.
“Next up, Porter Pribyl wrestled a gutsy match, bumping up a weight to wrestle last year’s class A runner-up. He wrestled very tough and smart, even earning a takedown to narrow the lead before getting caught and put to his back. However, he didn’t give up, and even against a bigger kid, he didn’t relinquish the pin. That is true team wrestling.”
The Lightning followed with three straight wins – Xavier Jones, Ayden Fitzgerald, and Noah Gindele who all picked up victories for 13 points.
Other highlights include Jack Nilson’s loss to a solid wrestler in a tight match; Cole LaFave’s big pin and Mitchell Koss and Carson Cooper’s “hard-fought” losses in a couple of “tough” matches, Youngs said.
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