NORTHWOOD — The Lake Mills wrestling team came close to defending its title at the Northwood-Kensett dual tournament, but in this case the tie didn’t go the Bulldogs’ way.

Lake Mills tied Byron 36-36 in the tournament’s championship matchup, but Byron was awarded an extra point for having more pins in the dual. Lake Mills, Northwood-Kensett, Byron, Rockford, Southland and Turkey Valley were the schools that made up this year’s field at the tournament.

Lake Mills rolled through Southland 54-24, Northwood-Kensett 60-18, Turkey Valley 46-26 and Rockford 57-18 before running into the tough Byron squad.

“We had a nice day today,” Lake Mills head coach Alex Brandenburg said. “As tough as it was to take a close loss in the last dual, I thought we wrestled better than we had all year.”

Brady Schmidt at 145 pounds, Noah Irons at 152 and Slade Sifuentes at 160 all went a perfect 5-0 for the Bulldogs on Saturday.

Northwood-Kensett went 1-4. The Vikings’ win was a 39-25 victory over Southland. Casey Dahlby, Keano Batton, Coleby Bratrud, Mitchell Athey pinned their Rebel opponents. Bratrud earned the Vikings’ fastest fall by pinning Corey Hemmingway in 1 minute and 6 seconds.

Rockford edged Northwood-Kensett 40-39, and the Vikings lost to Byron 49-30, to Turkey Valley 48-24 in addition to the loss to Lake Mills.

This weekend was the first time the Bulldogs have been healthy all season as 13 of their 14 regulars were in the lineup. The injuries combined with a youthful lineup in general meant Lake Mills didn’t expect to get off to a running start this season, but Brandenburg said he has seen improvement.

“We lost 11 wrestlers from last year’s team and have eight freshman,” he said. “So to say I am happy to have an 8-4 record at this point would be an understatement.”

Lake Mills will be back in action Jan. 7 when it takes on Clarion-Goldfield, Eagle Grove, and West Hancock.

Northwood-Kensett will wrestle Jan. 4 at a tournament in Le Roy.