And the plan was to win. In the beginning I was a little overly ambitious and needed to slow down a little.”

Sam Lankow

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Park hosts East Ridge and Mounds View in a triangular meet Thursday, Jan. 11, starting at 5 p.m.

Two matches that didn’t go the expected way sealed the deal Thursday as the 12th-ranked Park Wolfpack hosted a lean and mean Forest Lake team in Suburban East Conference wrestling.

Forest Lake scored key wins at 127 and 133 pounds to earn a hard-fought 39-30 dual meet victory over the Wolfpack.

Park got big wins from several of its stars, including Nolan Bloch at 107, Zack Carr at 139, Gunnar Mullen at 160, Dylan Richardson at 172 and Sam Lankow at 189. But those two early losses were too much for the Wolfpack to overcome.

Carr, Lankow had pins for the Wolfpack, Bloch had a technical fall, Mullen a major decision and Richardson a 10-4 win.

“I was planning on, regardless no matter how good the guy was or what the score was, the plan was to go out and compete,” said Lankow. “And the plan was to win. In the beginning I was a little overly ambitious and needed to slow down a little.”

Landen Brooks of the Wolfpack was wrestling well at 127 against sixth-ranked Grant Marr of the Rangers when he got hit on the bridge of the nose and had to withdraw from the match. Then at 133, Forest Lake’s Kody Kohoutek scored a major decision over Kyler Jubinal who came in to the meet after going 6-for-6 in the Eau Claire Holiday Duals.

“Not what we expected,” said head coach Jim LaBrosse. “We thought we were going to get a win tonight. The 27-pound match was a swing match, and 33. Both I thought we were going to win. The 27 match, great match, the kid is ranked sixth. He’s ranked sixth for a reason, Marr, that was his 100th win. It’s just unfortunate how the match played out. It was 4-to-4 when we had that incidental head contact and that’s what ended the match. It’s just unfortunate but that happens in this sport. Other than that, I thought our kids wrestled well. If we wrestle them again, we can beat them, but it didn’t happen tonight.”

There was plenty of action featuring top 10 ranked wrestlers.

Fourth-ranked Carr had a quick 2:23 pin at 139 pounds. Second-ranked Parker Lyden of Forest Lake pinned Park’s Joey Chilton in 2:41. Third-ranked Mullen scored an 11-1 major decision over Dayton Dale at 160 pounds. Top-ranked Mark Rendl of Forest Lake won by forfeit at 285.

“It was a pretty good match, major, 11-1,” said Mullen who improved to 23-4 on the season. “I feel a little sick right now but It’s going to bounce back. I feel like I’m wrestling good, wrestling strong, just wrestle to wrestle, not wrestling scared.

In addition to the first five Park wins, Jesse Wright of the Wolfpack pinned his opponent in 2:27 at 215 pounds.

Bluejacket Invite

Park’s Gunner Mullen pinned his way to the 160-pound title in the Bluejacket Invite Saturday, scoring falls in 1:58, 1:13 and 3:20 en route to the title. Mullen pinned Wyatt Lease of Elk River in 3:20 for the 160-pound championship.

Zack Carr won the 139-pound division. Carr had a bye, an 11-5 win and pinned Brock Brown of Cambridge-Isantin in 1:38 in the finals.

Kyler Jubinal finished second at 133 pounds. Jubinal won twice then lost a 20-5 technical fall in the finals.

Dylan Richardson of the Wolfpack finished second at 172 pounds. Richardson had a pin in the semifinals and then was pinned in 3:16 in the first-place match.

Joey Chilton finished third with a 17-2 technical fall over Connor Carlson of Cameron in the third-place match. Samuel Lankow was third at 189 with a first-round pin, a technical fall loss in the quarterfinals, a pin of teammate Fiyin Taiwo in the consolation semifinals and a pin in the third=place match over Shawn Henderson of Cambridge-Isanti in 3:11. Jesse Wright finished fourth at 215 with a bye, a loss by fall, a win by fall and a loss by major decision in the third-place match.

Nolan Bloch got a bye to finish fifth at 107. Aiden Winsor was fifth at 152, winning with a 5:36 fall in his last match. Jackson Jubinal was pinned in the fifth-place match at 114. Jairus Boston finished sixth at 285.

Host Cambridge-Isanti won the team title with 223 points, followed by 2, Elk River, 203; 3, St. Francis, 154.5; 4, Park, 5, 150.5; 5, Two Rivers, 79; 6, Mahtomedi, 58.5 and 7, Cameron, 39.

Park hosts East Ridge and Mounds View in a triangular meet Thursday, Jan. 11, starting at 5 p.m.

Forest Lake 39, Park 30

107 – Nolan Bloch, Park, scored a technical fall over Redi Mold, FL, 18-1.

114 – Devin Struntz, FL, scored a technical fall over Jackson Jubinal, Park, 18-3.

121 – Evan Yang, FL, pinned Dylan Dragich, Park, 1:19.

127 – Grant Marr, FL, over Landen Brooks, Park, injury.

133 – Kody Kohoutek, FL, scored a major decision over Kyler Jubinal, Park, 12-4.

139 – Zack Carr, Park, pinned Lincoln Gallmeier, FL, 2:23.

145 – Parker Lyden, FL, pinned Joey Chilton, Park, 2:41.

152 – Jackson Marr, FL, pinned Aiden Winsor, Park, 2:57.

160 – Gunnar Mullen, Park, scored a major decision over Dayton Dale, FL, 11-1.

172 – Dylan Richardson, Park, dec. Trenton Frerichs, FL, 10-4.

189 – Samuel Lankow, Park, pinned Hunter Harms, FL, 1:29.

215 – Jesse Wright, Park, pinned Brandson Grams, FL, 2:27.

285 – Mark Rendl, FL, won by forfeit.