Kenyon-Wanamingo, Z-M, Northfield All Section Wrestling Champs

The Kenyon-Wanamingo Knights won the Section 2A wrestling title while Zumbrota-Mazeppa rolled over Grand Meadow/Leroy-Ostrander/Southland for the 1A crown Saturday. Northfield was also the Section 1AAA Champion.

With the State Tournament changes due to the COVID 19 pandemic teams didn't get a very long time to savor their Section titles.

In Section 2A Guillotine #12 Class A ranked Kenyon-Wanamingo defeated Lean and Mean Blue Earth Area for the championship 45-24. The Knights started right where they left off in the Semifinals against Maple River on Thursday. Falls in the first three weights to gain a 18-0 lead. Following a major decision and tech fall K-W built a 27-0 lead.

Kenyon-Wanamingo clinched the match when Bray Olson pinned his opponent in 55 seconds at 152 pounds.

Our Held Bus Service of Kenyon Wrestlers of the match were Olson and Tate Miller. Miller got the day rolling at 106 with a fall in 3:38.

In Section 1A Zumbrota-Mazeppa defeated GMLOS 50-15 after jumping out to a 17-0 lead. The Cougars did what Z-M does in the postseason. Stay off their back. The Super Larks collected one pin in the match. Both teams were in the Lean and Mean of the final Class A rankings.

Meanwhile Z-M had 3 falls, a tech fall and benefitted from three GMLOS forfeits.

Freshman Jack Krier started the Cougars day with a tech fall at 106. GMLOS senior and top ranked 106 pound Class A Anthony Romero did not wrestle. In the latest Guillotine rankings Krier is rated #7 at 106.

At 126 sophomore Cohen Wiste of GMLOS is rated #5 and freshman Kaleb Lochner of Z-M is ranked #9 in the state in Class A. Wiste won 7-1.

At 145 pounds Cougars Mason Goodman pinned #6 ranked GMLOS junior Donavon Felten in 1:44.

Class A 152 #4 rated Rece Voigt, junior from GMLOS did not get the bonus points I'm sure the Super Larks were hoping for. He won 7-1 over Beau Jurrens.

GMLOS senior Daniel Smith is ranked #2 at 160. He won but no bonus points awarded in a 5-2 decision over Tanner Mancilman.

The Section Champions had to turn around after a half hour and go back to the mat for the quarterfinal round of the Class A State Tournament. MSHSL called these events the Super Sections. The Section title match was a Super Section Semi. I'll stick with Section title.

Would you rather be a Section Champion or Super Sectional Semifinal winner?

#11 ranked Jackson County Central had a tough match with Minneota (33-28) before their 45-30 win over Kenyon-Wanamingo in the State Quarterfinal at St. James High School.

At 113 pounds the Huskies bumped up their #2 ranked Kie Anderson to wrestle 120 pounds resulting in a major decision over Trent Foss for the Knights. But K-W #8 ranked 113 pound freshman Gavin Johnson pinned his opponent in 1:09.

It was 6-6. Jackson County Central would win the next four weights before Kenyon-Wanamingo cut the lead to 24-18 thanks to back to back falls by Jaedin Johnson (1:17) and Bray Olson (3:05).

#7 ranked 170 pound sophomore Matthew Haley was nearly pinned by K-W senior Tyler Craig in the second period of their match. Craig led 2-1 after the first period and 6-1 at one point before falling 8-6.

Junior Payton Handevidt of Jackson County was ranked #1 at 152 pounds in the Guillotine final regular season listings last Wednesday. He wrestled at 170 Saturday and had pins in both matches. 1:50 against Minneota and 1:02 against K-W.

182 #9 ranked Will Freking of JCC also got a pin before K-W senior Carter Quam had the fastest pin of the day :14 at 195. Quam is rated #5 at 220 pounds. He also had a pin in the Blue Earth Area match at 220. He worked harder for it (3:43).

Our Held Bus Service of Kenyon Wrestlers of the match were the eight seniors who led this team to a terrific season.

I asked Head Coach Nathan Lexvold if he thought his team would be Section Champions at the end of the season when the season started and he did not hesitate in saying he did believed they would with eight seniors leading the way.

Lexvold pointed out the Knights have been in the Section Finals (different sections too I might add) since 2008. An amazing run when you consider there have also been two Head Coaches in that time.

Kimball Area Cubs advanced to the Class A Semifinals after defeating Zumbrota-Mazeppa 35-23 in New Prague Saturday. The Cougars captured the first four weights to take a 17-0 lead before Kimball Area scored the next 12 points.

The Cubs picked up two falls while winning five of the last six matches to advance to the team semifinals on March 27th at St. Michael-Albertville High School.

Big news of the day in Class A was the upset of top ranked and two time defending State Champion Lester Prairie/Grey Eagle/Browerville by #2 rated Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa in the Section 5 title match 33-23.

The only falls in the match were achieved by BBE wrestlers while winning six of the first seven matches.

Other Class A teams to advance to St. Michael-Albertville are :