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Junior Wildcat wrestler Clay Olson (171) is the Wildcats' only representative at this year's Class AA state tournament. Olson beat Nick Hopkins of Grand Rapids 6-3 in the true second place match last Saturday, February 28 in Cloquet at the Section 7AA tournament to earn his berth. This is Olson's first trip to the state tournament.

The tournament is being held at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Olson (38-3), who had the most wins among all 171-pound Class AA state entrants this season, was scheduled to wrestle his opening match late last night against senior Connor Fogarty of Scott West. The results were too late for publication in this week's Chisago County Press. Depending on the results of last night's match, Olson could wrestle today, tomorrow and Saturday, as well. Check out the high school wrestling results on the guillotine.com for updates about Olson's progress.

Wildcat head coach Shawn Frederixon was pretty proud of Olson. He said "I figured Clay had a pretty good shot at it. Clay was seeded second in the tournament by the other coaches in the section. He works really hard and deserves to be rewarded like this."

Olson lost to Ammoren Dohm of Milaca 6-4 in the championship match at the section tournament, setting up the true second place match with third-place finisher Hopkins. After a scoreless first period, Hopkins got a reversal early in the second period for a 2-0 lead. Olson tied it 2-2 with a reversal of his own. Just before the end of the period, Olson took a 4-2 lead with a near fall.

Olson chose down in the third period and got another reversal to expand his lead to 6-2. Hopkins managed an escape later in the period to cut Olson's lead to 6-3, but couldn't take Olson down after that. Olson was bound for the state tournament as the number two seed from Section 7AA.

Travis Kammerer was seeded second in the section tournament at 145, but finished third with losses in the championship match and true second place match. Pao Thao (119) won the third place match, but lost the true second place match to also finish third. "Overall, we wrestled very hard," said Frederixon. "We're a young team and have a few guys on the bubble of being state entrants. They'll need to work hard in the offseason to get to the next level. The section tournament was fun and heartbreaking all at the same time and really taught some lessons."

Section 7AA Individual Tournament Results

103 Quade Zupko - 4-2 4th

119 Pao Thao - 4-2 3rd

145 Travis Kammerer - 2-2 3rd

160 Derek Silbernagel - 4-2 5th

171 Clay Olson - 3-1 2nd

215 Jake Nase - 2-2 5th

285 Dylan Hoyt - 3-3 6th

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