Thief River Falls senior Kale Geiser finishes a single leg attack against Fosston/Bagley’s Jacob Rudie during their match at 152 pounds Thursday night. Geiser won the match 15-8. Thief River Falls hosted the triangular that also included Detroit Lakes and Fosston/Bagley at Red Lake County Central in Oklee. RLCC is part of the Thief River Falls wrestling co-op.

by Scott DCamp
Sports Editor

Thief River Falls was a heavy favorite in both of its matches Thursday night during the Prowlers’ annual Takedown Cancer event in Oklee. But the triangular meet’s other participants, Section 8AA rival Detroit Lakes and former Section 8AA member Fosston/Bagley, didn’t get the memo.

“We showed up expecting to win, but these teams came in and battled and wresteld very well,” said Thief River Falls Head Coach Kenny Geiser.

Fosston/Bagley took a 30-6 lead through seven matches, but DL won six of the final seven matches, including five by fall to win the opening dual 39-36.

The Lakers, who represented Section 8AA at the state tournament in 2020, looked to keep the momentum going in their dual with the Prowlers.

Talon Baker gave the Lakers an early 6-0 lead with a win by fall over Damian Kazmierczak at 106, but the Prowlers quickly answered with a win by forfeit from Ian Jacobson at 113 and a win by fall from Nick Svir over Carlin Mastin at 120.

The Prowlers led 12-6 through three matches and they looked like they would be adding to their lead when Noah Jacobson built a 7-0 lead over Beau Somdahl through one period of wrestling at 126. Somdahl rallied with a feet-to-back move in the second period to cut the deficit to two points, before taking the match 9-7.

The Lakers regained the lead at 132 with a win by fall from Leroy Lacrosse over Maverick Iverson.

The Prowlers answered with a second period win by fall from Keigan Hermanson over Brock Bouche at 138 to take an 18-15 lead.

The lead was short-lived, however, as the Lakers regained the advantage with a win by fall from Sawyer Stroeng over Tallon Vorderbruggen at 145.

One of the night’s most anticipated matches took place at 152 between DL’s Tyson Ullyott and Kale Geiser. The match-up got away from Geiser early, as Ullyott countered a body lock with a sag headlock to go in front 5-0 in the first period, and he turned Geiser with another headlock that appeared to be illegal to the Thief River Falls bench, to go in front 8-0 through one period of wrestling.

Kale Geiser kept attacking but he wasn’t able to score an offensive point against Ullyott in an 11-1 loss that pushed DL’s lead to seven points.

Trailing 24-18, the Prowlers needed to win at least four of the final six matches to have a chance at winning the dual and the Lakers were heavily favored in two of the four. That meant the match between Ethan Lane and Brock Sweirs would go a long way toward deciding the outcome of the dual.

Lane scored the first takedown late in the first period, but Swiers used a switch to quickly secure a reversal to tie the score at 2-2. Swiers chose down in the second period and Lane kept him there for the entire two minutes to keep the score knotted at 2. Lane chose down in the third. He reversed Swiers and maintained control for the remainder of the period to keep the Prowlers’ hopes alive with a 4-2 win.

Griffin Lundeen gave the Prowlers their first lead since 138 with a 16-1 win over Cade Okeson at 170.

Damon Ferguson made it 32-25 in favor of the Prowlers with a first period win by fall over Colby Ortloff at 182.

The Lakers got back to within one point of the Prowlers when Cade Jackson pinned Riley Poissant at 195, but the Prowlers had the final laugh as Carter Engebretson clinched the dual with a win by fall over Henry Lee at 220.

The dual’s final match featured fourth-ranked Jeffrey Moen of Detroit Lakes against Jackson Ingram, who brought an eight-match individual winning streak into Thursday night’s action. The two battled to a scoreless first period. Moen took a 1-0 lead with an escape in the second and eventually worked Ingram to the mat with a snapdown, before securing the winning fall late in the second period. Moen’s fall got the Lakers back within a point of the Prowlers for the final score of 38-37.

The Prowlers won nine of 14 matches against the Brawlers in the night’s second dual, but the final score was much closer than it needed to be since the Brawlers won by fall in four of the five matches, with a forfeit accounting for the other.

Red Lake County Central senior Damon Ferguson, who competes for Thief River Falls as part of RLCC’s co-op with TRF, controls Fosston/Bagley’s Kaden Sanford. Ferguson won the match 16-4. It was his final match in the RLCC gym in Oklee. Thief River Falls won both duals, defeating Detroit Lakes 38-37, before ending the night with a 47-30 win over Fosston/Bagley.

Picking up wins by fall for the Prowlers were Landen Larson over Kadin Harwood at 120; Noah Jacobson over Domanick Thompson at 126; Lane over Dylan Lomen at 160; Poissant over Luke Sannes at 195; and Carter Engebretson over Jonathan Rose at 220. Lundeen added a win by forfeit at 170.

The Brawlers got pins from Ian Phrakonkham over Kazmierczak at 106, Shane Thompson over Eli Magnell at 113, Aiden Wolfe over Iverson at 132, Zach Thompson over Vorderbruggen at 138 and Alex Hagen by forfeit at heavyweight.

Meanwhile, much like the first dual, the Prowlers failed to maximize their bonus point opportunities.

At 145, Hermanson just missed a technical fall in a 14-0 win over Koltyn Larson. At 152, Kale Geiser missed a major decision by one point in a 15-8 win over Jakob Rudie; and at 182, Damon Ferguson fell short of getting a tech or a pin in a 16-4 win over Kaden Sanford.

“These other teams know how to manage matches better than us in matches where they aren’t favored,” Kenny Geiser said. “Damian Kazmerzczak, Maverick Iverson and Riley Poissant, three nice wrestlers for us, all got pinned against DL.”

“Fosston came out and battled hard,” Geiser added. “They competed at every weight.

Thief River Falls 38,
Detroit Lakes 37
106: Talen Baker (DL) fall Damian Kazmierczak 1:43; 113: Ian Jacobson (TRF) won by forfeit; 120: Nick Svir (TRF) fall Carlin Mastin 0:42; 126: Beau Somdahl (DL) dec Noah Jacobson 12-8; 132: Leroy Lacrosse (DL) fall Maverick Iverson 1:51; 138: Keigan Hermanson (TRF) fall Brock Bouche 3:11; 145: Sawyer Stroeing (DL) fall Tallon Vorderbruggen 0:53; 152: Tyson Ullyott (DL) major Kale Geiser 11-1; 160: Ethan Lane (TRF) dec Brock Swiers 4-2; 170: Griffin Lundeen (TRF) tech Cade Okeson 16-0; 182: Damon Ferguson (TRF) fall Colby Ortloff 0:57; 195: Cade Jackson (DL) fall Riley Poissant (TRF) 1:07; 220: Carter Engebretson (TRF) fall Henry Lee 3:46; 285: Jeffrey Moen (DL) fall Jackson Ingram 3:43.

Thief River Falls 47,
Fosston-Bagley 30
106: Ian Phrakonkham (FOBA) over Damian Kazmierczak (TRF) (Fall 0:57); 113: Shane Thompson (FOBA) over Eli Magnell (TRF) (Fall 0:54); 120: Landen Larson (TRF) over Kadin Harwood (FOBA) (Fall 3:50); 126: Noah Jacobson (TRF) over Domanick Thompson (FOBA) (Fall 1:54); 132: Aiden Wolfe (FOBA) over Maverick Iverson (TRF) (Fall 1:16); 138: Zach Thompson (FOBA) over Tallon Vorderbruggen (TRF) (Fall 0:25); 145: Keigan Hermanson (TRF) over Koltyn Larson (FOBA) (MD 14-0); 152: Kale Geiser (TRF) over Jakob Rudie (FOBA) (Dec 15-8); 160: Ethan Lane (TRF) over Dylan Lomen (FOBA) (Fall 1:30); 170: Griffin Lundeen (TRF) over (FOBA) (For.); 182: Damon Ferguson (TRF) over Kaden Sanford (FOBA) (MD 16-4); 195: Riley Poissant (TRF) over Luke Sannes (FOBA) (Fall 1:37); 220: Carter Engebretson (TRF) over Jonathan Rose (FOBA) (Fall 1:51); 285: Alex Hagen (FOBA) over (TRF) (For.).