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Wildcat senior Mitch Anderson, seeded first in the section at 125 pounds, won all three of his matches at the Section 7AAA individuals meet last Thursday and Friday, February 23 and 24, to advance to the state tournament. Anderson will wrestle his first match of the tournament, against Brian Theroux of White Bear Lake, today, Thursday, March 1 at noon at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

Anderson started off the day with a bang, pinning Alex Van Krevelin of Andover at 1:34 of the first period to advance. In the semifinal round, Anderson faced Joel Dubiel, a state tournament entrant last season. Anderson scored a takedown in the first period to take a 2-0 lead. Dubiel got an escape in the second to pull within 2-1. Anderson rode Dubiel out in the third period to claim the 2-1 win and advance to the championship match.

In the championship match, Anderson went up against Alex Geving from Cambridge Isanti, ranked ninth in the state at 125. The wrestlers were tied 0-0 at the end of the first period. In the second period, Geving chose bottom and Anderson rode him out to keep the score at 0-0 after two periods.

In the third period, Anderson started on the bottom and escaped for a 1-0 lead. He then got a takedown that increased his lead to 3-0. Geving managed a reversal to cut the score to 3-2. Anderson later escaped to increase his lead to 4-2 and held on for the victory and a trip to the state tournament.

"Mitch deserves it," said Wildcat head coach Shawn Frederixon. "He was the top seed in the section and wrestled up to his seed. He had to wrestle his opponents hard to the end. Since we're in such a tough section, it's a pretty big accomplishment to get to the state tournament out of this section. Chisago hasn't had a state entrant the past two years. Now Mitch has to find a little more energy to give himself a chance to do well at state."

Wildcat Cameron Gilliam (160) nearly made it to state, as well. He won his first match over Erik Berdahl of Coon Rapids 8-3, and then lost to number-one seed Robbie Kriesel of St. Francis 9-1. Gilliam then beat Moses Chea of Champlin Park 5-3 and Ross Dankers of Cambridge Isanti 4-2 to claim third place. Since Gilliam had not yet wrestled the second-place wrestler, Brent Kolbow of Forest Lake, he got to wrestle Kolbow in what's called a "True Second Place" match. The winner of this match would advance to the state tournament as the second place entrant at 160. Gilliam fought hard, but lost 10-6 to Kolbow and remained in third place. "Cameron had two tough matches just to get to the true second place match," said Frederixon. "It was a tough challenge and he gave it everything he had, but he came up just short."

"Overall, this was a good tourney for us," continued Frederixon. "We placed seven guys, and that's the most guys we've placed at the section tournament in the six years I've been here. That's quite an accomplishment. I know the kids may not feel that way now, since it's heartbreaking to lose. But they'll look back and realize it's a pretty good thing. And it's nice to have Mitch Anderson as a state entrant. Sure, Anoka is sending ten guys to state. Top programs like Cambridge and Forest Lake are sending two wrestlers each, and another top program like North Branch is sending one. So for us to get one wrestler there is a good accomplishment."

Individual Results

Wt. Name Record Place

103 Tim Welle 1-2 DNP

112 Travis Kammerer 3-2 5th

119 Mike Michaelson 1-2 DNP

125 Mitch Anderson 3-0 1st

130 Jonathan Barwin 0-2 DNP

135 John Hogie 3-2 5th

140 Shane Hultman 0-2 DNP

145 Mike Welle 3-2 4th

152 Derek Silbernagel 0-2 DNP

160 Cameron Gilliam 3-2 3rd

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189 Troy Montague 3-2 5th

215 Jason Schumann 0-2 DNP

285 Tony Gall 1-3 6th

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