Emma Buee/MDN Shawn Barrette, senior (left) and Bishop Ryan sophomore Nolan Braun (right) face off at 133 pounds. DLB-LC duals Bishop Ryan to finish off their last home event and celebrate seniors night.

The Des Lacs-Burlington Lakers hosted Bishop Ryan and Northern Lights for an exciting seniors night celebration.

The first dual of the night between the Lakers and Northern Lights belonged to Northern Lights winning 42- 25.

The boys from Northern Lights came out strong starting at 145 pounds and won the first match. The next few matches went back and forth with two sets of brothers from the Lakers.

Breyden Buee for the Lakers with an impressive pin over Jeremiah Schmidt in the first minute of his match. Following B. Buee, Jack Smith at 160 and Eli Buee at 172 both lost their matches for the Lakers. To turn things around, Lakers senior Kenny Smith won his match by pin, followed by his brother John Smith also by pin at 215-lbs. John also collected his 100th career win of the night in this match.

The heavyweight match and the 133 were the most intense matches of the dual with the Lions.

Carter Kaul at heavyweight for the Lakers had a slow back and forth match for the first two periods ending the first two periods with a close score. The final period of this match was a race for the final take down. Kaul, behind in this match attempted one last shot that he couldn’t finish in time letting his opponent Matthew Jacobs take the win by decision of 9-6 for Williams County.

The final match of the dual was Shawn Barrette, a senior for the Lakers, who had a great match to watch for his last home competition. Barrette and his opponent Levi Jensen for the Northern Lights competed at 133.

The two scrambled back and forth struggling to get a take down. In the final period Barrette was ahead, got into another scramble and was brought to his back with seconds left unable to keep his lead for the match.

Northern Lights went home with their second win of the night in the second dual against the Bishop Ryan Lions. The Lions had a strong showing with three of their matches won by pin. Cade Okeson, heavyweight, over Jacobs in the first period. Followed by Afton Ost at 114 pinning Kase Brown and Jason Spain at 189 over Jakob Peterson, both pins in the third period.

Drew Zwak for the Lions and Rocker Aguilar for Northern Lights both projected to place high at state, battled at 172. It was a tough match between the two but Zwak took home the win for the Lions with a decision of 7-1.

With all these wins the lions don’t have the numbers to compete with the larger teams like their opponents and had to forfeit most of their matches giving Northern Lights the 46-26 win.

The final dual of the night went to the home team 42-26 over the Lions.

Wyatt Schaff for the Lakers had a tense match with Ost at 114. The two fought through all three periods with Ost taking the 11-3 decision over Schaff. The Lakers put out Braden Jundt at heavyweight against Okeson, it was a quick match resulting in a pin for the Lions in the first period.

Laker Jamison Nelson’s match at 139 ended similarly with his opponent Zachary Spain getting the pin in the first period. Eli Buee at 160 and Shawn Barrette at 133 both put up a fight and held off the pin, but got beat by technical decision, giving the Lions 10 more team points. In his last home match of his career, Kenny Smith wanted to impress. At 189 Kenny pinned his opponent for the Lions, Jason Spain, in under two minutes.

After winning his final match of the Senior Night, one of the two seniors Kenny Smith talked about his experience wrestling for the Lakers. Smith was asked what he had learned from his years in the Laker wrestling program.

“How to handle adversity and how to fight through the challenges,” said K. Smith. “[That] sometimes it’s better to persevere through the suck.”

Kenny is hoping to continue wrestling for Bismarck State College next winter.

The Lakers aren’t taking a break and travel to Casselton for the boys and girls to wrestle today and Saturday, January 11.