ROCHESTER - As a pre-holiday gift to the wrestling fans crammed into the Regional Sports Center at Rochester Community and Technical College, organizers of the 25th annual Minnesota Christmas tournament elected to hold all but two championship matches in order.
The bouts at 132 and 145 pounds were saved for the end, which meant Apple Valley's Mark Hall and Ben Morgan of Forest Lake were once again thrust into the spotlight.
A year ago at this tournament, Hall -- an unranked seventh-grader -- stunned the masses when he knocked Morgan, a two-time defending champion at the Christmas tournament, into the consolation bracket with a 10-0 major decision in the 130-pound semifinals. Hall went on to win the 130 bracket and later the state championship.
"It's hard to get back on top sometimes," Morgan said. "I've had a lot of ups and downs. I was totally motivated for this."
Several rounds of rhythmic breathing preceded Morgan's match Saturday in the 132-pound finals against another defending champion from Apple Valley -- Dakota Trom (125). The two wrestled to a scoreless first period before Morgan took a 3-2 lead into the final two minutes. A two-point reverse halfway through the third iced the 5-3 decision, which helped earn him the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler nod.
"I was psyching myself out for this; my teammates kept telling me to relax," Morgan said. "This is a great springboard to get your confidence up. Dakota and I have been friends forever. I knew I just had to fight the entire time. And that's what this one was: a legal street fight."
Soon after, Hall continued his impressive run through impressive names when he out-dueled Simley's Jake Short in the 145-pound finals. Short, last year's Most Outstanding Wrestler after he pinned Apple Valley's Brandon Kingsley in the 140-pound finals, had Hall scrambling in the third period. But Hall got Short on a duck under takedown with 40 seconds to go, and the middle-schooler walked off the mat with a 3-0 decision.
"I wanted to get my offense going a little more than I did," said Hall, who was called for stalling while riding out Short the entire second period. "But as the match went on, it was a mental game until that big flurry. I was really looking for that [duck under] and got my two points."
Hall's championship was one of five for Apple Valley in the 14 weights, helping the Eagles to the team championship by a robust 94 points over Simley.
And the future remains bright. Other than Kingsley, a senior who won the 160-pound bracket, Apple Valley's other winners were a sophomore (Seth Gross at 120), a freshman (Dayton Racer, 138) and another eighth-grader (Mason Manville, 152).
