---

Chisago Lakes 48, St Paul Humboldt-Open World Learning 30

The third-seeded Wildcat wrestling team opened the Section 4AA team section tournament with a 48-30 win over sixth-seeded St Paul Humboldt-Open World Learning.  The tournament was held Saturday, February 17 at South St. Paul High School.

The teams split two forfeits, and the eleven contested matches were all decided by pin.  The Wildcats went 7-4 in those matches.  Five Wildcats pinned their opponents in the first period:  Landyn McChesney (107), Franklin Stark (133), Michael Amos (152), Connor Frederixon (215) and Logan Bender (285)  Diesel Lundeen (160) pinned his opponent in the second period and Aydin Lemke (139) won by fall in the third period. 

South St Paul 54, Chisago Lakes 19

The South St. Paul Packers showed why they were the second seed in the section tournament, beating the Wildcats 54-19 in their quarterfinal dual.  The loss ended the team season for the Wildcats.

Conner Aspenson (107) pinned Briana Martinez in 55 seconds.  But South St. Paul won the next six weights to take a 36-6 lead.  Michael Amos (152) won by a major decision over Johnny Mendez to cut the Packer lead to 36-11, but South St. Paul put the match away by winning the next three weights.  The Wildcats won at the two highest weights, as Connor Frederixon (215) decisioned Andrew Bonk 5-2 and Logan Frederixon (285) won by fall over Enrique Rayes, needing just 54 seconds to complete the pin.

North Branch 48, Proctor-Hermantown 30

The seventh-seeded Vikings defeated the tenth-seeded Proctor-Hermantown Rails in the play-in round of the Section 7AA tournament Saturday, September 17 at Mora.  A sign of progress for the Vikings is that they were able to fill all 13 slots for the matchup  The Rails filled just eight slots, which enabled the Vikings to pick up 30 points from forfeits.  All eight contested bouts in the matchup ended in pins.  Vikings winning by pin were Jack Baker (114), Aiden Schwartz (133) and Logan Rediske (152).

Pierz 71, North Branch 3

In the quarterfinals, second-seeded Pierz crushed the Vikings 71-3.  Jack Baker picked up the only points for the Vikings with a 6-4 sudden victory win over Gauge Johnson.  Baker trailed Johnson 3-0 entering the third period.  Baker scored two points on a takedown at the beginning of the period.  Johnson escaped at 4:37 to increase his lead to 4-2, but Baker got another takedown at 5:13 to tie the score at 4-4.  Johnson got a stalling warning at 5:24, but the stayed tied at 4-4 and went into overtime.  Baker’s takedown with 14 seconds remaining in the first overtime period gave him a 6-4 win and allowed the Vikings to avoid a shutout.

The loss ended the team portion of the Vikings’ season.

---