Park Center wrestling took part in the Section 5AAA meet last week, where Jackson Sanders earned a spot at the state meet, while Champlin Park qualified three wrestlers with Alex Gau, Isaiah Wright, and Christy Ayemere.
Park Center
Park Center wrestling took part in the Section 5AAA individual meet last week at St. Michael-Albertville High School, capping off a big year for the program with a state qualifier and several third-place finishes.
Sophomore Jackson Sanders grabbed headlines for Park Center at the meet, finishing second in the 152 pound weight class with third-place and second-place match wins over Wayzata’s Nathan Granberg and Maple Grove’s Thomas Schlangen.
Sanders journey to state was a complicated one, starting with a loss to Granberg and a move to the consolation matches. A pin in his first consolation match gave him a rematch with Granberg. Park Center wrestling head coach Justin Miller retold the dramatic journey that followed to the Sun Post.
“[Sanders] knew if he won, he’d get a shot at the second place match. ... Jackson had wrestled [second-place match opponent Thomas Schlangen] every year for the last few years and every time they’ve met Sanders has lost by fall,” Miller explained. “He gave up a takedown early in the match but he got an escape real quick and started what we call sprinting. He went for something and his opponent grabbed his leg and returned [Sanders] to the mat. He went from his feet to the mat and things looked bad. He locks his hands and bridges really hard and, sure enough, he turned the kid onto his back. So he went from being on his back one moment to having the opponent on his back the next. Held him there for about five seconds before he was able to get his shoulders down and pin.”
Sophomore Owen Yang finished sixth in the 107 weight class, making a run to the fifth-place match, which he lost on a technical fall against Maple Grove’s Lincoln Rudek. Freshman Alex Brennan finished fourth in the 114 weight class, losing by a decision to Maple Grove’s Damian Seubert in the third-place match.
Sophomore Kai Beattie earned third in the 121 weight class, losing on a decision to St. Michael-Albertville’s Brody Bergeron in the true second-place match after beating Armstrong’s Andrew Ankeny in the third-place match.
Sophomores Zaye Vang (127) and Payton Snyder (133) both earned fourth place in their respective weight classes, while juniors Avery Phillips (139) and Aaron Dungy (145) both earned fifth. Sophomore Jacob Hansen (160) and freshman Samouka Kanneh (189) both finished in third place, adding to the list of near-qualifiers for the Pirates amid a very competitive meet.
Park Center had 10 total place finishers at sections while also having the highest seed-place differential at the tournament. Five wrestlers outperformed their seeding. The Pirates had the most wrestlers in third-place matches, while also having the third-best pin count in the least amount of time and the fourth-most overall points earned.
Miller noted that the youth of his roster remains a major part of their story this season and another reason to find promise in their results at sections.
“We’re still pretty young. We’ve got a team full of sophomores with a couple of juniors and freshmen sprinkled in there,” he said. “We set expectations for ourselves as coaches and just communicated to the athletes that their job is to kind of ignore the seeds, ignore the records, and just go out there and wrestle, do our best and see what happens.”
Miller also added that the results, both for Sanders and his teammates were a big moment for the team to affirm their dedication to the project of growing and changing the wrestling program at Park Center High School.
“It’s such a phenomenal feeling, just the opportunity that we had as a coaching staff to sit back. It felt like we were in awe of what happened,” he said. “We really emphasize our kids and their improvements. It’s that emphasis that gets us the results that we want. One of the positive sides of being in a section with so many tough opponents is it raises our level and forces us to find out how to solve that puzzle. ... [these results] were really special for our team and it felt like a stamp of affirmation for all the work we’ve put in and all these kids have done.”
Champlin Park
Champlin Park took on the Section 7AAA meet at Anoka High School last week, sending two wrestlers to state. Alex Gau (114) and Isaiah Wright (285) both earned second-place finishes for the Rebels to qualify for state. Gau beat Anoka’s Finnegan Bromenschenkel on a fall. Wright won the second-place match on a decision over Anoka’s Michael Chamberlain.
Zach Mayo (121) earned fourth, making the third-place match before losing by fall to Elk River’s Walker Gaulrapp.
Nikabu Bagana (152) and Royal Dickson (160) both earned sixth place in their weight classes after making their respective fifth-place matches. Elk River’s Lars Nelson won fifth in 152, while Cambridge-Isanti’s Quinton Harcey won fifth in 160.
Champlin Park's Christy Ayemere also qualified for state in girls wrestling, marking three Rebels with tickets to extend their wrestling seasons.
The MSHSL state wrestling tournament goes from Thursday, Feb. 29 to Saturday, Mar. 2 and is hosted at the Xcel Energy Center.
Most Popular
Comments / 0