State Wrestling Meet: First round of individual is complete

The controlled mayhem that is the first round of the Individual Meet at the Wrestling State Meet has concluded. Thing went pretty much as expected, with no real upsets or surprises to speak of.

CLASS 3A

All three of Irondale's Weinmann brothers are still alive. Twin sophomores Ryan and Dustin won their matches at 103 and 112 pounds, respectively, and junior Derek pinned his opponent at 140 pounds.

Team champion Apple Valley was almost perfect in the first round, with 12 of the Eagles 13 qualifiers advancing to the quarterfinals

White Bear Lake heavyweight Donny Longendyke looks like a man on a mission. The defending champion had his streak of 88 consecutive victories broken in the Section 4 finals, losing to longtime rival Brock Horwath of Stillwater. In four matches so far (including Thursday's team competition), Longendyke has four pins, all in the first period.

Horwath, by the way, also won his first round match, pinning his opponent in 55 seconds

CLASS 2A

Eight wrestlers from Simley's state champs are hanging tough.

The two undefeated heavyweights, Jesse Hein of Perham and defending champion Austin Goergen of Caledonia/Houston, both won. They are in opposite side of the bracket, setting up a potential gargantuan match-up in the finals.

CLASS 1A

All three undefeated wrestlers at 152 pounds won. Two of them, No. 1-ranked Anthony Caputo of Crookston and No. 2-ranked Brett Pfarr of Le Sueur-Henderson, will wrestle each other in the quarterfinals. The prize? A likely chance to meet another undefeated wrestler, Joe Franta of Blue Earth Area.

Cooper Moore of Jackson County Central won the Taking-One-For-The-Team award Thursday. Undefeated and ranked No. 1 at 160 pounds, he wrestled up two weights in the Huskies team championship match against Frazee. He was pinned by Kody Sorenson, who was ranked No. 1 at 189, sacrificing his undefeated record. Moore bounced back Friday, winning by tech fall.

The mayhem begins again in a little more than an hour. Should be fun.