The plan this year goes as such: Each weight class in each section would wrestle its way down to the final four. There were no championship or third place rounds wrestled, just qualifying for them. Those four would move onto the first round of the proposed state tournament called the Preliminary Round which would be held at a super section location. A super section, this year, is a pairing with the nearest geographical neighboring counterpart. This provided a quite large field for the first round of state consisting of 32 wrestlers per weight class. The reasoning for pairing the sections was to limit contact from distant communities around the state in one location, instead keeping the weeding out process regional. Each super section would maneuver its way to a champion and runner-up, which would move onto the quarterfinals held in St. Michael on the 27th. The remaining eight contestants will vie for the four placements being awarded for the season. Like it or not, this is the plan and its well in motion. Personally, I struggle with portions of the proposal but the alternative could be far worse and as a fan of the sport having a form of post season or simply wrestling at all is far better than the alternative we were facing back in August.

The week began with WCA/A/B-E hosting the individual round of the Section 6A tournament. Section 6A is composed of ten teams and they kicked it off Tuesday the 16th to wrestle their way down to the final four in each weight class. Having covered wrestling for many years, it seems quite odd to not have any placements at a tournament, but none the less head coach of the Knights Brandon Gruchow and his team made the most of the opportunity qualifying 8 out of the 14 weights wrestled to move on.

Successful mat men that day included: 120: Adam Lohse, 126: Solomon Wales, 145: Reubens Swanson, 152: Jordan Lohse, 160: Anthony Sykora, 182: Nathaniel Kisgen, 220: Colton Lindquist and 285: Justin Blascyk.

The breakdown of teams sending on individuals included: Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale/Parkers Prairie (11), WCA/A/B-E (8), Border West, New York Mills, Pelican Rapids and Staples-Motley each had (6), Ottertail Central (5), Barnesville and Breckenridge (3), and Wadena-Deer Creek (2).

Saturday, March 20th found Section 6A headed to Long Prairie for its super section match-up with Section 5A. 20 teams make up this super section, inside of it the talent is astounding, perhaps the largest collection of ability in one room in Class A this year to date. To give an idea the following teams and their state rankings were involved... #1 Long Prairie-Grey Eagle/Browerville, #2 Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa, #5 BH/V/PP, #6 WCA/A/B-E, #7 Minnewaska Area and #20 Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg. The level of those teams alone is staggering, add in the rest of the playing field and it became like navigating a mine field to reach the end. Top ten wrestlers dropped like dominoes.

The Knights wrestled brilliantly. Five out of their eight grapplers placed in the top two, thus punching their tickets to join the final eight in St. Michael in quest of state hardware. Those five include: Reubens Swanson, Jordan Lohse, Anthony Sykora, Nathaniel Kisgen and Colton Lindquist. Congratulations to each!

When pairing to two sections together the talent sent to the next level was fairly equal. Section 5 sends 15 while Section 6 moves on 13. A closer look at both sections that starts with 5 includes: LP-GE/B (5), BBE (4), MWSKA (2), Bold (2), KMS (1) and Benson (1). Section 6 placers going to the quarterfinals include: WCA/A/B-E (5), BH/V/PP (3), Border West (2), NYM (2), BRECK (1).

Milestones and notable mentions for the day on Saturday are a plenty. Jordan Lohse’s decision over Reichmann (MWSKA) earned him his 175th career victory. Anthony Sykora picked up his 125th career win with a major decision on Kampsen (BBE), and Nathaniel Kisgen earned his 125th career win following a pin over Hilldahl (Quad County). Reubens Swanson was clutch in the semi-finals as he pinned the #4 ranked 145 lber in the state to advance to the championship round in his bracket. Last but not least….Colton Lindquist faced and came out of a juggernaut of a bracket. Five on the eight entrants were state ranked. Colton lost his first match of the day by a point.  He was able to put that behind him and claw his way through the next four bouts and all the way to a win in a true second match. He faced and put down three top ten opponents.