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5 Knight Wrestlers Reach State, Sykora and Lohse Section Champs

By Kevin Fick, 02/23/20, 10:15PM CST

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Over the last weekend every team in Minnesota participated in their respective section tournaments. AAA, AA, and A classes battled it out, searching for two participants to represent each weight in St. Paul at the Minnesota State High School League Wrestling Tournament. Grapplers maneuvered and wove their way through sometimes daunting brackets, at times facing new foes, at others defending former victories and yet at other moment trying to cast off demons of the past.

Eleven teams compose Section 6A with the West Central Area/Ashby/Brandon-Evansville Knights being one of them. Saturday, February 22nd these eleven squads converged upon the Wadena High School and went to battle. Following a full day of high caliber competition each weight class crowned a champion and a runner-up, both of whom had earned the opportunity to wrestle at the Xcel Energy Center in the states capital.

Wrestlers compete in tournaments all season long, they put it all out on the mat night after night and Saturday after Saturday. These guys are used to giving it their all and rising up to the next challenge. The difference of a section tournament over other in-season venues is that this marks an end for all but two entrants for each of the weight classes. For the rest, their high school season is over and for some this means their career. Overall the Knights wrestled quite well, placing all 14 grapplers on the podium. Some of the WCAABE wrestlers got what they were after, some may have not. Trips were earned to State, advancement as a wrestler for the future certainly happened, incredible sportsman ship was witnessed (thank you Nathaniel Kisgen and Kolbe Booker, that was truly inspiring) there was success and there was heartache. That is the unpredictable beauty of what can make sport tantalizing. Controlling the controllables in order to to not let the uncontrollable control. I am quite sure I have heard Coach Gruchow say that somewhere. 

The milestone reached on Saturday was Sophomore Colton Lindquist whom gathered his 50th career victory in his win over Wyatt Differding (BRECK).

Five Knights have control yet over their future. Both 138 lb. Freshman Anthony Sykora and 152 lb. Junior Jordan Lohse punched their tickets with a section championship and 106 lb. 7th grader Hunter Gruchow, 170 lb. Junior Nathaniel Kisgen and 220 lb. Senior Devin Stone ground out section runner-up...also earning a trip to State. These young men will travel to St. Paul to compete in 16 man brackets. They will each get after it and when Friday and Saturday are over the final six wrestlers at each weight in the state will take their final steps onto a podium.

Each of the Knights, their records and who they face in the first round at state are as follows:

106: Hunter Gruchow 30-19 vs. #9 Jevon Williams 34-7 Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City

138: Anthony Sykora 33-12 vs. Kaden Hiemenz 29-18 Frazee

152: #8 Jordan Lohse 40-3 vs. Bradley Bernu 33-6, Mille Lacs

170: #5 Nathaniel Kisgen 43-4 vs. Taylor Fester 25-9 ACGC

220: Devin Stone 22-11 vs. Danny Mosford 18-8, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted

A recap of each of the Section 6A schools and their number of state entrants include: Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale/Parkers Prairie (6), WCAABE (5), Ottertail Central (5), New York Mills (3),

Border West (2), Breckenridge (2), All Saints School (1), Barnesville (1), Pelican Rapids (1), Staples-Motley (1), Wadena-Deer Creek (1).

Results for Section Tournament (numbers following hashtag represent state ranking)

106: Hunter Gruchow 2nd Place

Defeated River Mcquiston (WDC) per fall 1:24, defeated Kolby Peters (OTC) per fall 1:59, 1st place match defeated by #10 David Revering (BHVPP) per fall 1:35, true 2nd match defeated Cole Sykora (BW) per fall 3:28.

113: Adam Lohse 5th Place

Defeated by Cody Jacobs (OTC) per fall 2:57, defeated Reece Henkes (PR) per fall 1:04, defeated by Ayden Hauck (BARN) per fall 1:11, 5th place match defeated Chris Yoder (NYM) per decision 5-0.

120: Solomon Wales 5th Place

Defeated Dawson Gregg (BARN) per fall 3:33, defeated by Simon Snyder (WDC) per fall 3:27, defeated by Aiden Larson (BHVPP) per decision 3-0, 5th place match defeated Oakley Carlson (PR) per fall 1:27.

126: Ashton Danner 5th Place

Defeated by Reese Thompson (BHVPP) per fall 1:35, Defeated Dalton Wells (SM) per decision 9-4, defeated by Brien Poser (OTC) per decision 8-3, 5th place match defeated Tommy Thach (PR) per decision 12-9.

132: Dierk Geoden 5th Place

Defeated by Derrik Wegsheid (NYM) per fall :52, defeated Brandon Wheeler (WDC) per fall :42, defeated by Carter Johnson (PR) per fall 4:52, 5th place match defeated Justin Koehn (BHVPP) per decision 12-5.

138: Anthony Sykora Champion

Defeated Grant Davis (BRECK) per fall :49, defeated Reed Leabo (OTC) per fall 2:47, 1st place match defeated Jason Koehn (BHVPP) per decision 6-4.

145: Kaleb Getz 6th Place

Defeated by Logan Weite (SM) per decision 4-3, defeated Connor Dirks (WDC) per fall 4:46, defeated by Logan Shleske (OTC) per fall 5:59, 5th place match defeated by Hunter Anderson (BARN) per decision 7-5.

152: #8 Jordan Lohse Champion

Defeated Logan Small (NYM) per major decision 12-2, 1st place match defeated #10 Mathew Ziebell (PR) per major decision 11-2.

160: Bret Duncan 5th Place

Defeated by Mason Schroeder (BHVPP) per fall 1:20, defeated Sam Stafford (BW) per major decision 11-0, defeated by Nik Gardin (OTC) per major decision 11-3, 5th place match defeated Max Dykoff (PR) per decision 8-4.

170: #5 Nathaniel Kisgen 2nd Place

Defeated Alex Giza (SM) per fall 1:09, defeated Hunter Dean (BHVPP) per decision 5-1, 1st place match defeated by #2 Kolbe Booker (ASHS) per ultimate tie breaker (4th overtime) 2-2, true 2nd match defeated John Ziebell (PR) per decision 5-2.

182: Colton Lindquist 4th Place

Defeated Wyatt Differding (BRECK) per major decision 11-0, defeated by #10 Gideon Ervasti (BHVPP) per fall 3:29, defeated Noah Kapenga (PR) per decision 7-0, 3rd place match defeated by Cody Wheeler (WDC) per fall 1:23.

195: Deklin Goeden 4th Place
Defeated Tyler Eggert (BHVPP) per decision 8-5, defeated by #7 Zane Swanson (OTC) per fall 1:40, defeated Emmitt Winkels (SM) per fall 1:50, 3rd place match defeated by #9 Michael Dennis (BW) per fall 1:33.

220: Devin Stone 2nd Place

Defeated Chase Janu (OTC) per decision 5-3, defeated by #3 Daniel Erlandson (BRECK) per fall 3:48, defeated Braedon Peterson (SM) per fall 2:16, 3rd place match defeated Chase Janu (OTC) per decision 8-1, true 2nd match defeated Jaden Finck (BHVPP) per decision 9-4.

285: Justin Blascyk 5th Place

Defeated by Jacob Willits (PR) per overtime decision 3-1, defeated Tim Wells (BARN) per fall 3:49, defeated by Cole Winkels (SM) per fall 3:09, 5th place match defeated Alex Sandoval (NYM) per decision 5-3.