Jubinal's thoughts on Hastings dual

Honestly, I thought it went better than I expected. We closed the gap really well. If we had everyone ready to go, cut down, I think we could easily beat them. Not easily but we could get them.”

Kyler Jubinal

It’s always interesting when Park and Hastings get together for a wrestling war. Friday’s match was no exception.

Park earned a split decision Friday as the 2024-2025 high school wrestling season got under way.

The 12th-ranked Wolfpack bounced Ellsworth 40-28, then dropped a hard-fought 45-28 to ninth-ranked and nemesis Hastings in the second match. Hastings rolled Ellsworth 59-12 in the opener.

Park won eight of 13 matches in the match against Ellsworth, getting victories from Wyatt Murphy at 121, Kyler Jubinal at 139, Joey Chilton at 145, Layne Frandrup at 152, Zach Carr at 160, Gunner Mullen at 172, Dylan Richardson at 189 and Jesse Wright at 215.

Park fell in a 22-4 hole to start the match but then won seventh straight matches to earn the victory, including pins by Kyler Jubinal, Carr, Richardson and Wright and a 15-0 technical fall from Mullen.

Against Hastings, the Wolfpack won just five matches, Wyatt Murphy at 127, Kyler Jubinal at 145, Carr at 160, Mullen at 172 and Richardson at 215. Murphy, Jubinal, Carr and Mullen all won by pins. Murphy scored a fall in 4:53, Jubinal pinned his opponent in 3:44, Carr pinned Hastings rival Mark Svoboda in just 1:04 and Mullen scored a fall in just 35 seconds.

“It was a good start, obviously to beat Ellsworth, they’ve got a great history, but they’re kind of rebuilding right now,” said Park head coach Jim LaBrosse. “That was a good match for us to start with. Hastings – we’ve got some work to do. We’ve got to clean up some things down below. And then the 52 match we’re up 6-1 and that one kind of got away from us. And I could have done some different things up top with some of the guys and kind of move some guys around. They bumped, we bumped and we’ve got some different things we can do against them next time.

“But I think the guys wrestled well,” LaBrosse continued. “Our good guys wrestled really good. They beat some really good kids, some ranked kids, so that’s exciting. They really wrestled well. It just kind of tells you where they’re at and how much work they’ve been doing. We’ve got to clean up some other things with some other guys and we’ve got a few other guys we can throw in the lineup. We weren’t full tonight, and neither were they. We closed the gap and that’s what we wanted to do tonight.”

Kyler Jubinal, seventh ranked at 139 pounds, had a big win against sixth-ranked Jack Bainbridge of Hastings.

“I was coming in No. 7 ranked against the No. 6 ranked kid, you know the underdog,” said Jubinal. “I’ve faced this kid last year. I went 0-2 against him. So, it was good to get that match back. All week I’ve been prepping for this and yea, it just felt great to get that W.”

About if he thought that dual against Hastings went how he thought it would Jubinal said, “Honestly, I thought it went better than I expected. We closed the gap really well. If we had everyone ready to go, cut down, I think we could easily beat them. Not easily but we could get them.”

Park’s Landen Brooks, for example, fourth ranked at 133 pounds, didn’t wrestle Thursday,

Carr, Mullen and Richardson then followed Jubinal’s efforts with impressive wins for the Wolfpack.

“It was a good match,” said Carr. “I’ve wrestled that kid last year a couple of times. I was bumping up a weight class and it was just great to get that pin for the team.”

About Hastings, Carr said. “I feel like we’re closer than ever and feel we can make a run in sections and then hopefully state.”

“Hastings, my match was good. I wish it would have lasted a little bit longer, get some takedowns in,” said Mullen. “But the dual went good. We’ve got some stuff to fix here and there but we should be good. … We’ve got some guys that are sick and hurt. They’re going to come back and help out the program too.”

Park fell in a 29-6 deficit to start the match against Hastings, winning just one of the first six matches, and could never make up the lost ground.

Park second in the Coon Rapids invitational

Park followed up Thursday’s action with a successful run at the Board Hyland Cardinal Invitational at Coon Rapids, finishing a close second overall.

Zach Carr at 152 pounds, Gunnar Mullen at 172 and Dylan Richardson at 189 all won individual titles in the meet.

Carr took first place with a 19-5 major decision at 152 pounds, topping Lane Olson of Royalton-Upsala in the finals. Mullen scored a 15-0 technical fall over Ray Pember of Menomonie in the 172-pound finals. Richardson won a 13-7 decision over Max Morgan of Mankato East for the 189-pound crown.

Freshman Nolan Bloch of the Wolfpack was second at 107, Jaxon Jubinal was fourth at 121, Kyler Jubinal took third at 133, Joey Chilton finished sixth at 145, Jesse Wright was fifth at 215 and Jarius Boston fifth at 285.

Hastings won the 13-team meet with 177 points. Park was second with 171. The rest of the teams participating were: 3, Menomonie, 157.5; 4, Mankato East, 144.5; 5, Eden Prairie, 124.5; 6, Royalton-Upsala, 119.5; 7, Centennial, 119; 8, White Bear Lake, 111; 9, Mahtomedi, 81; 10, Coon Rapids, 67.5; 11, Maple Grove, 65.5; 12, Minnetonka, 32; and 13, McDonel Catholic/Elk Mound, 0.