The Lakeland wrestling team traveled down to the Ford center in Nampa, Idaho for the state tournament.
Unfortunately it did not go as planned. The Hawks were ranked number two as a team going into the tournament. They ended up in fifth and did not come home with a trophy.
“I think the team wrestled well, we definitely could have wrestled better,” Head Coach William Edelblute said.
That took 15 boys to the tournament and 7 were able to come home with medals.
Cruz Knopp was able to overcome Tyler Wood in the third and fourth place match. Knopp has wrestled Wood multiple times this year and lost, including districts and at state while they were both on the front side of the bracket.
“It feels pretty good because first off I placed higher than the last time we wrestled, but I haven’t beat him in a while so it feels good to finally beat him,” Knopp said.
It was a battle but Knopp was able to get a spade and get four points of near fall winning by a decision.
Also a 106, Zach Teal was the runner up.
At 113 Colby Adams did some damage. In the blood round Adams was able to pin the number two seed who had beat him early in the season getting his get back and going on to place fourth.
Carson Leonard was the runner up at 120 pounds.
Cole Cooper got fifth at 144 pounds.
At 175 Gage McWatters and at 215 Emmit Rivadeneira came in third.
At 215 Rivadeneira was not just the only freshman to place at 15 but the only non-senior, truly making his name known.
Even though the team did not end how they had hoped they had a young team with only one of the placers being a senior.
Having a young team leaves room for improvement and growth and will hopefully lead to a ring season next year.
