GRAND FORKS, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – Valley City headed up to Grand Forks Saturday for Triangular with the Central Knights and Thief River Falls. The Hi-Liners split the two duals, but set a team record for dual wins in a season in the process.
In the first dual of the day, Valley City faced off with Grand Forks Central. A team they have faced once before at the beginning of the season and won 54-21. Saturday the score was very similar, 59-18 Hi-Liners.
Jonathan Redfearn and Carson McGough got pins to start the dual at 195 and 220 respectively. Daniel Suda pinned Devyn Thornton with six seconds left in the match to make it 12-6 Valley City.
Starting with Koltyn Grebel at 106, Valley City had five straight pins. Koye Grebel at 113, Tucker Johnson 120, Logan Novara at 126 and Ethan Miller at 132 to make it 42-6.
The dual was clinched by Isaiah Schuldheisz with a take down in overtime for a 6-4 win over Hayden Mack at 138 to make it 45-6. Espen Kunze had a tech fall at 145 beating Brendan Winn-Kelley 17-0. Valley City went up 50-6.
Mike Erickson would get a pin of Evan Mielke at 152 to put the score at 50-12.
Ezra Hanse had a win at 160, 5-4, over Cyncere Haskins and Broden Muske got a pin at 170 to make it 59-12. The Knights would receive a forfeit at 182 for the final margin of victory.
The win was Valley City’s ninth straight at 17th of the season setting a new team record for dual wins in a season.
In the second match, the Hi-Liners faced Thief River Falls. A team they wrestled, and beat 37-36 in a great match two weeks ago in West Fargo. In that match, the Hi-Liners were down 36-13 with four weights to go and got a pin in all four to pick up the win. Saturday, they would not be able to repeat that performance.
Carson McGough won 4-0 to start things at 220 over Jolson Sargent. Collin Bruggeman pinned Devyn Thornton at 285 to make 6-3 Thief River Falls. At 106, Koltyn Grebel would get a 10-7 decision to tie the dual at 6.
In the next three matches, Koye Grebel, Logan Novara and Tucker Johnson all got pins at 113, 120 and 126. The combined time of the three pins was 2:22. The Hi-Liners were up 24-6.
The Prowlers would win the last eight matches with two decisions, four pins, one major decision and a forfeit. The dual was not clinched until Dakota Fellman pinned Jonathan Redfearn at 182 to make it 40-24.
The loss snapped the Hi-Liners nine match winning streak and brings the team dual record to 17-2.
The Hi-Liners will travel to Bismarck Legacy for a triangular with the Sabres and Jamemstown on Thursday.