Parkland graduate Ethan Lizak took second place in the nation in the NCAA Division I wrestling championships last week.

Lizak, a sophomore at the University of Minnesota, met former youth wrestling rival Darian Cruz in the 125-pound NCAA final last week.

The two former Valley Elementary Wrestling League foes squared off in St. Louis last Saturday with No. 4 seed Cruz taking the title via a 6-3 decision in the title bout.

“It’s going to be a VEWL Finals,” Lizak said before the championship match. “I wrestled him in elementary school like five times. He won most of the time, but it will be nice wrestling him just right down the road, just like club practices in the day.

Lizak, who took a redshirt last season, went 30-7 in the regular season after going 28-15 in his freshman season in 2014-15. He earned the No. 6 seed for the championships and won four matches to reach the final, including a 15-0 technical fall in the quarterfinals and a 7-0 decision in the semifinal.

“I knew going into [the] match I had to be ready to go off my feet right away, and that’s exactly what I did,” Lizak said at a news conference before the final bout. “Got the first takedown and then second period I knew if I got the other takedown, that would seal the deal and I could ride my way out.”

Lizak has been nearly unstoppable on top this season and during his college career. He told reporters in St. Louis that it goes back to his early training with his father.

“Basically it’s huge advantage,” he said, “because every time I get a takedown, I know I can ride them out if not get some back points with it, so pretty much if I get a couple takedowns every match I can pretty much seal the deal. I’ve been - especially when I was in elementary school, me and my dad worked on top wrestling a lot in the basement because we knew a lot of guys, their weakness was bottom. So if you can use that to your advantage you can come up big in a lot of matches.”

The runner-up finish puts a shine on a season that had was marred by offseason controversy. The former two-time Pennsylvania High School state champ was suspended in fall and was not permitted to wrestle until January 1.

“I was just really sad about what happened this past year and I knew I had to make up for it big-time,” he said. “So, this summer, I got a job working landscaping. Was up at 6 shoveling rocks, doing a lot of stuff and that was basically my lift for the day. After that, I’d go for a run, 5 to 10 miles every day. I think that’s helped a lot this year. Especially working with Zach Sanders. He’s helping me a lot especially on my feet wrestling. I think it’s been showing I’ve been getting more takedowns in the Big Ten and in this tournament.”

With two more seasons to go at Minnesota and the school having fired its head coach this season, Lizak could be the new face of Gopher wrestling. However, he would rather just be one of many great wrestlers in the Minnesota wrestling room.

“I think it’s mostly got to be a team effort on this one,” he said. “We have a lot of great guys around my weight McKee, Thorn and new guys coming in. Gable Steveson just committed today, so we will have a lot of tough guys on our team. So I think that will help transitioning from last year.”