by Marianne Gasaway
Clear Lake wrestlers took on one of North Iowa’s best teams last week and posted an impressive 43-24 victory over Lake Mills. The Lions were at North Union Tuesday, Jan. 31, for their final regular season meet. Results of that competition will appear in next week’s Mirror-Reporter.
Lion wrestlers begin the post-season with Districts at Iowa Falls on Saturday, Feb. 11.
Coach Evan Johnson said the Lake Mills dual showed his team is peaking at the right time.
“We knew that this was going to be a difficult outing because traditionally Lake Mills has been one of the best teams in 1A and that trend continues this year. There were a few toss up matches and our kids stepped up to the challenge.”
The meet started at 145 with Tyler LeFevre scoring a major decision and getting the Lions off to a strong start. Christian Dunning and Carter Perry followed with decisions at 152 and 160 and Hayden Rieck (170) and Kaleb Hambly (182) recorded pins for a 22-0 lead. Jake Trenary continued the wins at 195 with a decision.
The Lions forfeited at two weights and suffered losses at three more.
Max Currier (132) and Aiden Hippen (138) ended the meet with pins at their weights, giving the Lions a 32-24 victory.
“We, as a whole, wrestled the best that we have all year. It was a great week competition wise and it is really nice to see our athletes compete at such a high level,” said Coach Johnson. “As we get closer and closer to districts, we hope to continue to polish up some things technically speaking. Our kids are really fired up for the challenge ahead and we hope to continue to grow so that we wrestled our best meet next weekend.”
CL 43, LM 24
145: Tyler LeFevre (CLLA) over Austin Stene (LAMI) (MD 9-1) 152: Christian Dunning (CLLA) over Cody Cox (LAMI) (Dec 8-3) 160: Carter Perry (CLLA) over Garrett Ham (LAMI) (Dec 6-2) 170: Hayden Rieck (CLLA) over Beau Kaufman (LAMI) (Fall 3:31) 182: Kaleb Hambly (CLLA) over Ethan Lawson (LAMI) (Fall 0:39) 195: Jake Trenary (CLLA) over Andrew Grunhovd (LAMI) (Dec 5-3) 220: Wyatt Hanna (LAMI) over Dylan Evenson (CLLA) (Dec 8-4) 285: Aaron Richtsmeier (CLLA) over (LAMI) (For.) 106: Lucas Oldenkamp (LAMI) over (CLLA) (For.) 113: Geraldo Vazquez (LAMI) over Jeseb Prestholt (CLLA) (Fall 1:39) 120: Royce Peterson (LAMI) over (CLLA) (For.) 126: Hayden Helgeson (LAMI) over Noah Potter (CLLA) (Dec 5-1) 132: Max Currier (CLLA) over Carter Christianson (LAMI) (Fall 1:56) 138: Aiden Hippen (CLLA) over Justin Rygh (LAMI) (Fall 0:48)
