LA CROSSE — Jonathon Lamprich stepped onto the mat in the middle of the Reinhart Athletic Complex with a chance to give his Holmen High School wrestling team a victory it had been wanting for a long time.
Consecutive losses the past two years to Aquinas didn’t feel good, and the Vikings were ready to be back on top in the MVC. All Lamprich had to do was win his 165-pound match by decision, and that would happen.
So when the referee slapped the mat to indicate a pin before the first period even ended, half of the crowd in attendance erupted, and teammates rose out of their chairs to cheer for what became a 41-25 victory over the Blugolds in a dual between two state-ranked teams on Thursday.
“I knew a win would seal it, but I wanted the pin,” Lamprich said. “That’s what I was going for.
“This is huge. We haven’t won conference since I was a freshman, and we’ve gotten our butts kicked by them the last couple years.”
Holmen, ranked third in Division 1 by Wisconsin Grappler, beat Aquinas, ranked third in Division 3, with a solid performance throughout the dual.
Coach Justin Lancaster was looking for good wrestling more than he was a victory, and he walked out a happy person.
“It’s one of those rivalries, but it doesn’t affect our year at all,” Lancaster said. “What we were looking for was for them to wrestle well because that’s something you can build on.
“If we went out and got pinned in a bunch of matches, that’s a different feeling. But we minimized majors and got pins when we needed to get pins, and that was the difference-maker.”
The momentum the Vikings needed was supplied by freshman Rex Lancaster after the Blugolds won the first three matches and took a 12-0 lead when Chase Schams beat Jagger Jepson 1-0 in the 285-pound bout.
Lancaster, ranked fifth in Division 1, beat Aquinas freshman Lincoln Stanek, ranked seventh in Division 3, by technical fall on a takedown in the third period at 106. He took Stanek down four times in the first period to break open what many thought could be a close match.
“We started out a little rough, but Rex went out there and just brough it,” Holmen senior Turner Campbell said. “He was taking him down and cutting him. I think that brought our aggressiveness up with it.
“That gave us a lot of energy.”
Jin Xiong and Conley Vogel followed with pins at 113 and 120, and Campbell followed a brilliant performance by Aquinas freshman Martez Sheard at 126 to put the Vikings in front 23-16.
Sheard put together a very impressive 15-3 major decision over Holmen sophomore Brock Needham, who only scored on escapes.
Waylon Hargrove had the Blugolds within 29-25 after a 4-2 victory over Colin Griffin at 157 but Griffin’s performance primed Lamprich for the clinching victory. Hargrove needed a takedown with 39.6 seconds remaining to break a 1-1 tie.
