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Solid performances net 3 Honkers 2nd place...

Lathan Stroklund, Skyler Ford and Zane Miller altogether scored 50 points in the Kenmare Invitational Wrestling Tournament on Friday, finishing second in each of their respective weight divisions.

12/11/18 (Tue)

Come-from-behind win... Lathan Stroklund prepares to flip John Lunday of Northern Lights during wrestling action in the Kenmare Invitational Tournament Friday. Trailing 7-1, Stroklund turned Lunday over and pinned him early in the second period for his first win. Stroklund later finished second in the tournament. Photo by Andrea Topolski

By Marvin Baker

Lathan Stroklund, Skyler Ford and Zane Miller altogether scored 50 points in the Kenmare Invitational Wrestling Tournament on Friday, finishing second in each of their respective weight divisions.

In addition, Payton Witt took third, Derrick Handeland and Maverick Ford both finished fourth, Diontrea Anderson and Andrew Christensen placed fifth and Taden Overton and Tyler Burtch both finished sixth.

But it was Stroklund, Ford and Miller who had the fans wound up on Friday.

At 138 pounds, Stroklund picked up two pins and a decision, before suffering his only loss on the day to Liam Shannon of Class A Watford City.

However, Stroklund came back to win his final match against Gavin Houle of Northern Lights in a pin and take second place.

Ironically, it was his first match against another Northern Lights wrestler, John Lunday, that set the stage for his entire day.

Stroklund was trailing Lunday, 7-1 in the second period when something went right and Stroklund stuck Lunday to the mat for his first win.

Much of the tournament turned out to be come-from-behind wins for the cardiac kids of Kenmare-Bowbells and Burke Central.

Ford, wrestling at 152 was seen dancing around like a prize fighter, loosening up before his first match against Weston Wahus of Des Lacs/Burlington.

Ranked third in the state, Ford was focused and was ready to live by his “improve 1 percent each day.”

He too was falling behind 4-1 in his match and suddenly turned the tables on Wahus and pinned him at 3:24 to take the first of four consecutive pins before meeting up with Walter Winkler of Velva, who stopped Ford in his only loss of the year thus far.

Zane Miller said he was excited to be wrestling at 220 in front of the hometown crowd.

Miller, who spent a lot of time since last year, working on his game, stuck his first two opponents in less than 2 minutes each, before losing to Tioga’s Cameron Johnson in a long and hard battle.

But just like Stroklund, Miller came back in the finale to pin Benjamin Roundy of Killdeer in just over a minute.

Witt’s day went well also as he earned a first-round pin and a decision before getting defeated by Riley Zachmeier of Rugby. He won his next match in a technical fall and Cody Rudolph of Stanley decisioned him 6-5 in his final match.

The day’s highlight at 145 and arguably the entire tournament was during Witt’s second match against Dylan Tabor of Killdeer.

Witt and Tabor were so evenly matched that they fought to a 2-2 tie that extended to the end of overtime.

The match went into an ultimate tie breaker where Witt squeaked out a third point to win the match.

Handeland and Maverick Ford both finished fourth, at 113 pounds and 120 pounds, respectively.

Handeland secured his first pin as a varsity wrestler over Brandon Younker of Killdeer and picked up his second in the finale over his teammate Overton to secure fourth place.

Ford opened with a bye, lost a decision, received a second bye, then pinned Isaac Jaggi of Killdeer and took an 11-6 decision over Jakob Hudson of Northern Lights, before losing a decision in the third-place match.

Anderson was gifted three byes, lost two matches then won his finale, 7-2 over Logan Berg of MonDak.

Christensen was another come-from-behind wrestler, dropping his first three matches before picking up a critical, 4-0 decision over Gavin Houle of Northern Lights.

Burtch finished fifth, as did his opponent Darian Wilson of Northern Lights. He had picked up three pins, one of them in impressive fashion, but his two losses were at crucial points, dropping him to fifth.

Overton’s day wasn’t the norm as he dropped all five of his matches in his first attempt at varsity wrestling. One loss included his teammate Handeland... Read EVERY WORD on EVERY PAGE of The Kenmare News by subscribing--online or in print!