MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – During his high school senior season, Kellan Aure battled not only his opponents, but injury on his way to winning a state wrestling title.
Aure injured his knee, but toughed his way through the 2023 state tournament on his way to winning the 132-pound class with a 5-1 win in the championship match.
A red-shirt freshman, Aure is in his second season at NCAA Division I Central Michigan University. During his first season in Mount Pleasant, Aure redshirted the season, wrestling in a number of open meets, posting a 6-4 record in the 141-pound class, recording two major decisions and one technical fall. He finished fourth in the freshman/sophomore division at the Michigan State Open.
This season, Aure is in the varsity line-up and has posted an 8-11 overall record in the 141 weight class, recording one pin, one technical fall and two major decisions. The Chippewa have two other wrestlers at 141.
In addition to Aure’s Wiscconsin state championship in 2023, Aure was the 2022 Wisconsin state runner-up at 132 and a two-time first team all-Big Rivers Conference (BRC) selection (2022, 2023) and a second team all-BRC pick (2021).
Central Michigan returns to action Sunday, Jan. 26 when they travel to Washington, DC, where they will face Campbell University at noon, host-school American University at 2 p.m. and CSU-Bakersfield at 4 p.m.
• Cody Kwak started off his collegiate career at NCAA Division III St. John’s University, but transferred to NCAA Division II Minnesota State, Mankako, where he is seeing action at 285-pounds. Kwak is currently 3-2 overall, recording three falls at the Buena Vista University Open in December, finishing sixth overall.
At Menomonie, Kwak was a three-time regional champion, two-time team captain and earned first team all-BRC honors in 2022 and 2023. In football, Kwak was a three-time all-conference selection, a team captain and a member of the National Honor Society. At St. John’s, Kwak participated in football and wrestling. Kwak finished his freshman year with a 19-11 overall record at St. John’s, wrestling at 285 and leading the team in pins with 15.
Minnesota State returns to action Thursday, Jan. 30, when they host UW-Parkside.
Layne Pitt is the retired UW-Stout sports information director and also worked more than a decade at The Dunn County News.
Menomonie Collegians is a regular feature of Menomonie News Net. The column is not limited to student-athletes, but may be a former Menomonie area student in a play, forensics, music or any type of collegiate competition. If you know of a Menomonie Collegian, please email [email protected].
The column Menomonie Collegians by Layne Pitt is licensed under a CC BY SA 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/