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CHISAGO LAKES WRESTLING

At St. Paul Harding High School last Saturday, the fourth-seeded Wildcat wrestling team made it to the semifinals of the Section 4AA Team Tournament before losing to top-seeded South St. Paul 54-21. South St. Paul went on to beat Mahtomedi 43-22 in the section championship and will represent and will represent Section 4AA at the state tournament.

The Wildcats easily beat 13th-seeded St. Paul Washington Technology Magnet School 54-19 in the play-in round.  In the quarterfinals against seventh-seeded St. Paul Harding they came up with a solid 50-23 win.  But they didn’t have an answer against South St. Paul, falling 54-21 and ending their team season.

Individual Section Preview

Four Wildcats – Grant Hansen (107), Conner Aspenson (121), Lucas Yang (139) and Matt Raboin (285) – went undefeated on the day, perhaps giving the team and fans a sneak preview of wrestlers who will have a high level of success at the individual Section 4AA tournament this Friday and Saturday at Cretin-Derham Hall. With Simley no longer in Section 4AA, there are essentially two state tournament spots up for grabs at each weight for the rest of the section. The Wildcats will be competitive throughout the lineup, as most Wildcat varsity wrestlers have records above .500 for the season. The youthful Wildcats are ascending and will only get better over the next few seasons.

NORTH BRANCH WRESTLING

The eighth-seeded Viking wrestling team beat ninth-seeded Mora 45-20 in the play-in round of the Section 7AA Team Section Tournament on Valentine’s Day at Milaca High School.  But top-seeded and eighth-ranked Pierz showed the Vikings no love in the quarterfinals, shutting out the Vikings 75-0 on their way to the state tournament. Against Mora, the Vikings led 22-20 after the 160-pound matchup before Ayden Loren (172) of North Branch pinned Connor Sjodin of Mora at 1:06 and Jaxon Loren (189) won by a 17-0 technical fall over Ethan Hanson of Mora in a speedy 2:33. Those two wins gave the Vikings an insurmountable 33-20 lead with two weights to go.  Mora forfeited the final two matchups to make the final score North Branch 45, Mora 20.  In the quarterfinals, the senior-laden Pierz lineup had no trouble with the youthful Vikings.

Individual Section Preview

The Vikings will head North to Rock Ridge High School this Friday and Saturday for the Section 7AA Individual Section tournament. The Vikings are in full rebuild mode this season and will not likely send anyone to the state tournament.  Tucker Kovarik (107) and Aiden Schwarz (152) are the two Vikings with the best chance to spring some upsets and earn the trip to St. Paul. The section tournament will give the Vikings a chance to see how far they need to go over the next few years to get competitive at a section level at all weights.

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