Lakeland College

Lakeland Opens Season 1-2 After Lakeland Duals

Athletics - posted on 11/12/2005

The Lakeland College Muskies opened their 2005-06 wrestling season with the Lakeland Duals on Saturday, Nov. 12. The Muskies went 1-2 defeating University of Wisconsin Eau Claire (27-19), while dropping matches to Cornell (25-14) and Manchester (34-10) in very close, hard fought matches.

"I think competing with such a young team we did well today," said head coach Pete Rogers. "We were up against juniors and seniors and we had a couple of injuries in the lineup today. I am really amazed with how we wrestled and I think it will only get better for us. We didn't do all of the things that we needed to right, but it is the first match of the season and we can work on things. I am extremely excited about how we did today."

On the day sophomore Calvin O'Neal, wrestling in the 174 weight class, would go 3-0 defeating all three opponents that he faced. He defeated freshman Kyle Kehru from Cornell (12-4), freshman Jon Erichsen (8-3) from UW-Eau Claire and sophomore Ben Ragowski (14-5) from Manchester

"Calvin O'Neal just wrestled a phenomena day," said Rogers. "He did not have a close match. I don't know how many takedowns he had, but he dominated everyone he wrestled."

The Klister brothers, freshmen Casey and Chris, wrestled well for their first ever college matches as they both went 2-1 on the day. Casey Klister defeated sophomore Greg Murphy (8-2) from Cornell and freshman Andy Miller from UW-Eau Claire via a pin in the 133 weight class. He dropped his third and final match of the day to junior John Sheets from Manchester via a pin.

Chris Klister also went 2-1 starting his day off with a defeat in the 141 weight class over freshman Dave Parameki (14-5) before rebounding to take his next two matches. Against UW-Eau Claire, Chris defeated freshman Dustin Follen (4-0) and took a 4-3 decision from senior Joe Lampiot of Manchester.

Lakeland fell to Cornell, 25-14 in the first round of the day. Cornell had just defeated Simpson College, one of the top wrestling programs in D-III, coming into today's match. The Muskies received wins from Casey Klister (8-2) at the 133 weight class, O'Neal (12-4) at 174, sophomore Paul Hartt (10-4) at the 184 class and junior Matt Benson (13-5) at heavy weight.

The Muskies record would improve to 1-1 with a victory over UW-Eau Claire 27-19 in the second round of the day. The Lakeland victory would give Rogers his first ever victory over a state school since being named head coach, five years ago. Freshman David Copp won the 125 class via a forfeit, while the Klister brothers won at the 133 and 141 division. Freshman Mitch Nooyen took a 5-2 decision at 157, while O'Neal (8-3) and sophomore Paul Hartt (pin) won at the 174 and 184 classes respectively.

The Muskies would drop their match against Manchester 34-10 in the final round of the day to drop the Muskies overall record to 1-2. Chris Klister would take the 141 division with a 4-3 decision, while junior Matt Priemesbeger won 5-4 at the 149 class. O'Neal was the only other wrestler to win against Manchester for Lakeland with a 14-5 decision at the 174 level.

The Muskies will next be in action on Wednesday, Nov. 16 when they take on UW-Oshkosh at 7 p.m. on the Lakeland campus. It will be the second of six home matches during the season for the wrestling team.

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