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Viking junior Boyd Suparat pinned freshman Steve Keogh of Thief River Falls/Goodridge to win the state 130-pound Class AA wrestling championship Saturday, March 1 at the Xcel Energy Center. Suparat became the first Viking wrestler ever to win a state championship in wrestling.

Suparat, ranked seventh in the state going into the tournament, opened his championship run Wednesday, February 27 with a 10-5 win over sophomore Tommy Teigen of Meadow Creek Christian/RCA. In Thursday's quarterfinal, Suparat squeezed by junior Connor Anderson of Simley 1-0, scoring the only point of the match on an escape.

"He spent no time on the bottom in this one," Viking head coach Tony Aho said of the defensive battle. "And he was careful on his feet. We were hoping he'd win this match to at least get to the semifinals."

Suparat's opponent for Friday's semifinal was top-ranked A.J. Jenniges, a senior from Wabasso/Cedar Mountain. Jenniges took Suparat down in the first period for two points, but Suparat quickly escaped to cut Jenniges' lead to 2-1. In the second period, Suparat started on the bottom, escaped and took Jenniges down for a total of three points and a 4-2 lead.

Suparat increased his lead to 6-2 in the third period when he got Jenniges in a headlock and recorded a near fall. "When he put the headlock on the other kid," said Aho, "he looked over at me and I told him to hold on."

The headlock became illegal when Jenniges slipped an arm out. Jenniges was awarded one point because of the illegal headlock, cutting Suparat's lead to 6-3. Jenniges later scored one point on an escape, but it was the last point either wrestler scored. Suparat's 6-4 win moved him into Saturday's championship match.

Neither Suparat nor the fourth-ranked Keogh had scored a point when Keogh made an aggressive move just over a minute into the match. Suparat stopped Keogh's move and put him in a front headlock. As Keogh started to come out of the headlock, Suparat took him to his back. As Suparat stepped over Keogh's hips, Keogh almost rolled out of the hold. Suparat stopped him and held his shoulders down long enough for the referee to slap the mat, signifying the pin at 1:35 of the first period and making Suparat the state champion.

"I've been coaching wrestling for 20 years," said Aho. "We've had some wrestlers get to the semifinals, but, before Boyd, we'd never had one win a championship. When I looked over at Boyd after the championship match, I saw a mixture of excitement and relief on his face. But he wasn't parading around with his fists pumping. What a class act. I know it's all he's been thinking about since he won. I told him to enjoy it, because you never know when you'll have a chance to do something like this again.

"Boyd is one of those kids who deserves everything he gets," continued Aho. "There's nothing lucky about it. He put everything he had into it. He really went after the weights the last two years, and that made him so much stronger. He sets a good example for our other wrestlers."

Senior Greg Arnt also placed in this year's state tournament. Arnt had a tough draw in his first match at 171 pounds, losing 4-0 to second-ranked Mac Stoll, a senior from Perham. In the wrestlebacks, Arnt beat Colton Evans of Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 9-4 and Eric Grabosky of New Prague 8-6. He lost his next match 4-3 to Bruce Babcock of Stewartville. In the fifth place match, Travis Peralta of Thief River Falls pinned Arnt, leaving Arnt with the sixth place medal.

Freshman Jake Kostik (103) lost his first round match to ninth-ranked Cody Paulsen of Totino Grace by a score of 6-2. Since Paulsen lost his second round match, Kostik didn't get a chance to participate in the wrestlebacks. Kostik's brother, Erik, was the only Viking to make it to last year's state tournament.

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