Sports 8 December 2020

Chickasaws break even on mat during first week

Alex Kriener looked at the scoreboard Thursday night, and the New Hampton/Turkey Valley senior was not happy; in fact, he was downright angry as he stared at a 9-2 deficit against Decorah’s Brady Stille late in the second period of their 138-pound match.
“That guy beat me a couple of times last year,” Kriener said, “and honestly, I was wrestling like crap. I was reacting to everything he was doing. I spent two periods basically playing defense.”
He paused and laughed.
“And obviously, it was 9-2 so I wasn’t doing it that well.”
Kriener made the decision that no matter how the match ended, he was going to get offensive, and an escape and a takedown late in the second period cut the deficit to 9-5. And early in the third period, he again escaped, took Stille to his back and pinned him to keep NH/TV in the meet.
And fellow senior Cade Murray almost made it two miracle comebacks in a row as he rallied from a 7-2 deficit, put the Vikings’ Ben Wymer on his back twice in the third period but had to settle for a 13-10 victory that gave Decorah a 39-36 win in the season opener for both teams.
“I think that’s one thing I want our guys to take from Decorah,” NH/TV coach Matt Paulus said. “You keep fighting, no matter what the score is. That’s what Alex and Cade did, and we need to understand that in our sport, you battle all the time.”
— For more on this story, see the Dec. 8 Tribune

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