STANLEY – The Des Lacs-Burlington boys wrestling team made the trip west to face the Blue Jays and were able to bring home a 40-29 win over the hosts to stay warm on the trip east after the meet.

The meet began at the 172-lbs classification with Jack Smith getting a pin over Stanley’s Ace Johnson to give the Lakers the 6-0 lead. At 189, Kenny Smith recorded a major decision over the Blue Jays Griffin Wilhelmi for the 10-0 Laker lead.

Laker 215 wrestler Johnathan Smith received six points due to Stanley’s lack of a rep at that weight. Des Lacs-Burlington’s Carter Kaul at 285 posted a decision win over Levi Uran to extend the Laker lead to 19-0 at that point.

At 107, Stanley began to mount a comeback with Levi Nichols winning by pin over Cooper Rakness. Tucker Miller gained the lost team points back at 114 with a pin over Chase Brown from Stanley for the Laker 25-6 lead.

At 121, Stanley’s Louden Haugen pinned Brody Hansen and Cohen Bell at 127 did the same over Maverick Trowbridge to narrow the Laker lead to 25-18 with five matches left.

Easton Hansen at 133 for Des Lacs-Burlngton added six points back to the cushion with a pin over Anthony Nardacci. Shawn Barrette at 139 edged a win for the Lakers over Brayden Fritel for Des Lacs-Burlington to hold the 34-18 lead with four more matches.

Dane Dunham posted a technical fall at 18-3 over Jamison Nelson at 145 for the Blue Jays to narrow the score to 34-23 and Stanley collected the six point win at 160 due to lack of a Laker at that weight. The score with one match left was 34-29 for Des Lacs-Burlington. A major decision would tie the dual while a technical fall or fall would give the Blue Jays the win.

With the dual in question, Breyden Buee pinned Kane Reep for the six points and the win for Des Lacs-Burlington over Stanley in a dual that was closer than the score indicated.

The Lakers will be at the Kenmare Invitational today while Stanley has a meet at Rugby on their calendar to start the new year.