LA CROSSE — The Aquinas High School wrestling team went down to the wire in its final of three dual matches at the Reinhart Athletic Center on Friday, but the Blugolds emerged victorious in its own quadrangular.
Aquinas beat Baldwin-Woodville 66-17 in the first round, Prairie du Chien 50-17 in the second round and G-E-T/Melrose-Mindoro on criteria after the teams tied at 39 to close out the night.
The Blugolds and Titans maneuvered around most of the big head-to-head matchups that could have happened, and the final six matches ended by pin. G-E-T/Mel-Min’s Kodu Purney pinned Cal Smith in 24 seconds during the final bout at 113 pounds to tie the match. Aquinas won in criteria after an unsportsmanlike penalty on the Titans earlier in the dual.
G-E-T/Mel-Min’s Landon Windsor did pin Marcus Klar in 1:59 at 175 in the biggest of the individual matchups.
“We knew that was going to be a close match,” Aquinas coach Deke Stanek said of the final dual. “I think they were very motivated to wrestle hard. I think they maybe thought they didn’t wrestle as well as they wanted as a team against Prairie (du Chien) and wanted to prove something against us.
“We knew it would be a great dual, and our kids did just enough.”
The Titans tied the Blackhawks at 35, but Prairie du Chien received the win on criteria in that one, too, by winning eight of the 14 bouts.
PdC’s Bryce Lenzendorf beat Windsor at 165, and PdC’s Jack Simmons handed Aaron Dunigan a 21-19 defeat at 285.
“That was a dual we definitely should have won,” said G-E-T/Mel-Min coach Pete Peterson, whose team placed third and beat Baldwin-Woodville 59-20 in the second round.. “Great battle, good guys, but that’s the way it ended up.”
Tyler Paulson wrestled three matches for Aquinas and won all of them. He recorded pins at 126 in the first two, then bumped to 132 and won by technical fall. Roger Flege also wrestled three bouts at 138 and won twice by pin and once by major decision. Trevor Paulson won three matches at 150.
Aquinas junior Tyson Martin, a two-time WIAA state runner-up, wrestled twice and beat his final opponent by pin. He also beat Prairie du Chien’s three-time state place-winner Blake Thiry 7-4 in sudden victory at 215. Martin has won two of three matches against Thiry this season.
Lincoln Stanek (106), Martez Sheard (120) and Waylon Hargrove (157, 165) also won twice twice and accepted one forfeit for the Blugolds.
Colton Koss (126) won by pin three times for the Titans.
