The Hayfield wrestling team, while controlling most of the contest, lost a very close meet against Hiawatha Valley League cross-conference rival Cannon Falls Friday night by the score of 37-36. The exciting finish would come down to the last period of the last match of the evening.

Hayfield coach Will Pazurek made some crucial moves which involved strategically moving nine of his 12 wrestlers into weight categories other than what they would normally compete in. Knowing that the team would have to concede 12 points to forfeits in the 140 and 171 pound weight groups, Pazurek was hoping for key wins from those nine wrestlers to not only make up the 12 point difference, but to come away with the victory.

The Vikings started out strong by getting important momentum gaining falls in the first two matches. Tom Brown pinned Chad Johnson in the 215 pound match and heavyweight Carl Bamlet, who is having a great season so far, pinned Lucas Tauber in the first period of their match to give Hayfield a 12-0 edge.

Cannon Falls wrestlers took the next two matches to close the gap to 12-9. Zach Ehmke took his match into the last period, before succumbing to a pin by Seth Flodeen at 103 pounds and Danny West went the distance in the 112 match, but came up short to Brian Meyers in a 12-9 decision.

Steven Emerick made quick work of his opponent at 119 pounds by pinning Patrick Zeman 52 seconds into the first period. Teammate Shane Masching won the 125 pound match, by pinning Brandon Rohr in the second period of their confrontation. Hayfield had a 24-9 lead with six matches left.

Jeremy Nelson wrestled Josh Evans to a 17-5 major decision at 130 pounds to narrow the lead 24-13.

Brandon Klocke put Steven Johnson on his back in the first period to record a Viking fall at 135 pounds, which put the team score at 30-13.

Micah Flodeen picked up the forfeit at 140 pounds and fellow Bomber Levi Price recorded a fall at 145 pounds against Bruce Erath to close the score to 30-25

George Evjen was on the mat all three periods to record a 7-6 decision over Matt Wilson at 152 pounds and Sam Rud wrestled a full six minutes and came away with a 6-4 decision over Marc Kane at 160 pounds. Hayfield gave up its last forfeit at 171 pounds to bring the contest to 36-31 in favor of the home team with only the 189 pound match to go.

Brad Evens wrestled his way to a 10-0 first period lead over Cole Heinke and wrestled hard in the second period, giving up an escape and a takedown to make it a 10-3 with only two minutes left in the dual. Heinke managed to put Evens on his back and record the fall for the victory.

Hayfield will wrestle again on Friday, January 10th, where they will host a triangular meet against Kasson-Mantorville and Waterville-Elysian-Morristown.

Hayfield Grappler Shane Masching recorded his 98th career win on Friday night, and can reach his 100th career win this coming Friday during the triangular.