Spencer holds off SLP for Lakes crown

Spirit Lake Park had Spencer on the ropes but couldn't deliver the knockout punch with the Lakes Conference title on the line in a battle of conference unbeatens Thursday, Jan. 19 at Spirit Lake High School. With the Tigers clinging onto a 28-24 advantage, Spencer put the dual away with wins three straight wins from 126 to 138 pounds en route to a 44-30 victory and their sixth consecutive conference championship.

The Tigers used a lineup switch to put the Indians in an early hole to start off the dual, bumping their first four wrestlers up a weight class. Alex Doppenberg (152), Class 3A No. 4 Tanner Schaefer (160), Tanner Logan (170) and Blaine Johnson (182) gave Spencer the early momentum and a 17-0 dual lead with wins.

Schaefer won an important swing match over Rick Maris despite a strong finish from Maris, who scored two takedowns in the final 62 seconds of an 8-6 setback.

"Rick definitely had a slow start, but was able to work himself into the match and made it exciting at the end," said SLP coach Rick VanderWoude. "He can use that to get better. Two great wrestlers are only going to make each other better. You always want to get the wins and that's a state tournament quality match -- both of them are possible place winners, but that's what's going to happen at state and those are the ones that you have to win are the close matches with good kids."

Tayler Tatman increased the deficit up to 23-0 after pinning Taylor Mercer with 50 seconds left in their 195-pound bout.

Nathan Kyle sparked the Indians with a pin at 220, throwing Austin Allen at the 1:41 mark.

SLP's trio of Cody Norton (285), Doug Miner (113) and Zach Skopec (120) followed with pins of their own. Norton tossed Kyle DeVlaeminck in 1:59, Miner pinned Bailey Hawn in 4:39 and Skopec needed 1:32 to pin Nick Gross to the mat. Miner is now 30-0 this season and 104-8 for his career, joining Isaac Lundgren as one of two Century Club members for SLP.

"A lot of times wrestling doesn't get the credit for being a team sport, but you can see when a kid gets a win how it sparks the team and they basically just compete better. The next guy up seems to build off the momentum just like any other team sport, including wrestling," said VanderWoude. "Those matches are toss-up matches that could have gone either way and we walked away with pins, so Nathan Kyle stepping out and getting the fall was able to bring on three more (falls), which was huge."

After SLP sliced the deficit down to 28-24, Spencer put the Indians away by capturing three of the final four matches from 126 to 145 pounds.

Fourth-ranked (Class 3A) John Christopherson pinned Sam Bosma in 5:01, then No. 8 Levi Gilmore topped Kenten Murray by a 12-0 margin.

2A No. 6 Isaac Lundgren tried to be a momentum killer for SLP, building a 6-2 advantage over 3A No. 5 Jack Randall. Lundgren, however, got high on a move and was tossed to his back with 42 seconds left in the second period.

"(Isaac) came out and looked incredible, taking Randall down while they both were fresh in the first period and was very excited about that. He was thinking without a doubt that it was going to go his way and he was looking as good as he's looked on his feet," VanderWoude said. "He got high in one bad position and that's a big part of wrestling. It's like any other sport, you can't make mistakes and you have to stay in good position and we weren't able to do that, and it happened pretty early in the match, so that's got to be motivating for him to wrestle that well and realize that one bad position can end a match."

No. 10 Dylan Bryce pinned Chayton Quail in 3:31 in the final match at 145 to close the final gap down to 14.

Spirit Lake Park next hosts rival Okoboji Thursday and then wrestles at the Lakes Conference Tournament Friday at the Spencer Fieldhouse.

Spencer 44, Spirit Lake Park 30

106 -- Trevor Streuli (Spencer) won by forfeit; 113 -- Doug Miner (SLP) pinned Bailey Hawn (Spencer), 4:39; 120 -- Zach Skopec (SLP) pinned Nick Gross (Spencer), 1:32; 126 -- John Christopherson (Spencer) pinned Sam Bosma (SLP), 3:01; 132 -- Levi Gilmore (Spencer) major dec. Kenten Murray (SLP), 12-4; 138 -- Jack Randall (Spencer) pinned Isaac Lundgren (SLP), 3:18; 145 -- Dylan Bryce (SLP) pinned Chayton Quail (Spencer), 2:31; 152 -- Alex Doppenberg (Spencer) major dec. David Trucksess (SLP), 9-0; 160 -- Tanner Schaefer (Spencer) dec. Rick Maris (SLP), 8-6; 170 -- Tanner Logan (Spencer) major dec. Javier Tapia (SLP), 15-4; 182 -- Blaine Johnson (Spencer) pinned Jacob Jenness (SLP), 3:29; 195 -- Tayler Tatman (Spencer) pinned Taylor Mercer (SLP), 5:10; 220 -- Nathan Kyle (SLP) pinned Austin Allen (Spencer), 1:41; 285 -- Cody Norton (SLP) pinned Kyle DeVlaeminck (Spencer), 1:59.

*--Spencer was deducted a point for unsportsmanlike conduct