The Austin Packers celebrated Parents' Night on Thursday when they hosted the Grand Meadow/LeRoy-Ostrander/Kingsland wrestling team, and the hometown crowd did not leave disappointed. The Packers finished strong to emerge with a 42-29 non-conference victory.

"I felt we matched up well against them tonight. This is our third year wrestling Grand Meadow and they always bring a good team to the mat." said Austin coach Bill Kinney.

Both teams forfeited two matches during the event. Austin gave GMLOK the 125- and 152-pound matches, while the Bulldogs gave away the 215- and 275- pound categories. Of the 10 matches wrestled, five were decided by pins.

Kyle Stern got the first Bulldog win at 189 pounds over Garett Plotts by a 7-3 decision. Plotts fought off a chicken wing in a fall predicament during the final seconds of the second period to take the fight into the final two minutes.

Austin was awarded GMLOK forfeits in the next two matches to take a 12-3 advantage going into the 103-pound match. Danny Rysavy prevailed in a 7-6 decision over Seth Schlee in that match. Schlee executed a reverse to a suicide cradle in the final moments of the match only to have Rysavy get a counter reverse after the near fall to come away with the one point victory.

"Both boys wrestled well tonight. These are two of best kids around in this weight group," Kinney said.

Josh Bain earned a major decision over Nate Granahan at 112 pounds to narrow the Packer lead to 15-7. Bain had two near falls, executing a nice standing cradle to end the first period. He reversed Granahan in the second period, which set up a head and arm near fall. Bain got his second near fall on a cradle, which had Granahan on his back as time expired in the third period.

Bulldog grappler Adam Schlee wrestled at 119 and limited Kyle Granahan to only one escape point in the match to come away with a 9-1 major decision. Granaham fought off a 55 second near fall in the second period to rob Schlee of the pin. An Austin forfeit at 125 gave GMLOK a 17-15 edge.

T.J. Parlin put his 27-0 record up against 130-pound challenger Mitch Mosher and bested the Bulldog 10-5 in the tussle. Though Parlin added five more takedowns to his season tally, Mosher brawled his way through the contest to avoid getting his back turned.

Brent Bunne made short work of Nick Zrucky at 135, pinning the Packer 1:22 into the first period. Despite this, Austin remained in control of the dual 24-23 going into the 10th match of the evening.

At 140, Dave Cunningham earned the first of the four Packer pins that would propel the Packers to the win. The fall came at 3:11 seconds into the fray. Teammate Andy Graham put Justin Turner on his back to earn a fall in the first period at 145.

Nate Simpkins would be awarded GMLOK's last points of the night on a Packer giveaway at 152 pounds, which put the Bulldogs within one point, 30-29.

Marcus Ball wrestled his way to an Austin victory at 160 over Mitch Lunning, coming away with a fall with just 30 seconds left. Teammate Josh Solberg followed Ball's lead and defeated Lance Peters in the final skirmish of the night by a pin the second period.

"The boys wrestled hard tonight. I told the boys, that if we were close going into the final two matches, we would be in good shape," Kinney said.

His Packers, now 8-15 in duals, have a pair of Big Nine Conference matches left in before the end of the regular season. Austin visits Mankato West tonight at 5:30 p.m., and the Packers play host to Rochester John Marshall next Thursday at 6 p.m. Team sections for Austin begin Feb. 13.

GMLOK wrestles at Caledonia on Tuesday and hosts Lake City in its final regular-season dual next Thursday night in LeRoy.