Rangers win Section 7AAA title, qualify as a team for state
The Forest Lake wrestling team punched its ticket back to the Minnesota state wrestling tournament for the first time since 2020 by claiming the Section 7AAA championship last Friday, Feb. 16, at Elk River High School. The Rangers had a monumental night, winning all three of its matches and upsetting No. 1-seeded Anoka along the way to initiate the squad’s return to the Xcel Energy Center.
Forest Lake entered the tournament seeded at No. 2 behind the Tornadoes – the team who ultimately cut the Rangers’ season short a season ago by defeating them in a battle to head to the 2023 state tournament. However, the tables would turn in favor of the Rangers this year, as a total team effort unfolded.
But it wasn’t Anoka that gave Forest Lake the most trouble.
The team’s first-round matchup against No. 7-seeded St. Francis was a fight to the very end, but the Rangers found themselves sneaking by, winning the quarterfinal round 32-29.
“It was our closest match by far,” head coach Joe Kunshier said, noting the tough first-round dogfight. “They had some kids that were injured that came back to wrestle strong for their team – they’re top two to top three kids in the state – and that kind of flipped. We just didn’t match up the greatest with them.”
Kunshier made the decision to forfeit the 127 weight class as a strategic move.
“We had a kid to put there obviously, but Grant Marr had lost to the kid earlier in the year twice. So we decided we were going to not have him wrestle and then move him up to 133 to wrestle. At that point, we decided to gamble and roll the dice a little bit to gain 3 points instead of losing 12, and that would’ve made the difference in the match,” Kunshier said.
As the Rangers forfeited the 127 weight class, the team must continue to forfeit one of its lower weight classes throughout the entirety of the state tournament.
Kunshier gives credit to his assistant coach Ben Dahmes for the strategy.
“He was a real advocate of doing that. ... If we wouldn’t have made that move, we wouldn’t have gotten by St. Francis. We would have lost the first round,” Kunshier said.
With the forfeiture helping the Rangers skate by, the rest was up to those on the mat, beginning with junior Marr, who got the first victory for his team in the 133-pound weight class. Marr defeated his opponent by an 8-2 decision. In the next highest weight class, senior Parker Lyden won by fall in 1:06 in the 139 class before sophomore Cullen Christenson came up big and beat his opponent in the 160 weight class by way of a technical fall. Then sophomore Aidan Wasilk won by fall in 1:50 in the 172, while former state champion and senior captain Mark Rendl needed no more than 30 seconds to beat his opponent by fall, sending the Rangers onto the semifinal round.
The next matchup for Forest Lake proved to be much easier than its first-round battle, as the team stomped the Andover Huskies by a final score of 44-15.
The young buck in eighth grader Kaden Clark won his Section 7AAA tournament debut by beating his opponent off a technical fall at 17-0. Grant Marr secured his 150th career varsity win by defeating his opponent by a 5-0 decision; sophomore Kody Kohoutek won his weight class of 133 by winning in a 15-10 decision; Lyden continued his with another victory by fall; and senior Jackson Marr won by way of sudden victory at 6-4. Sophomore Dayton Dale, Christenson, Wasilk, Rendl and senior Hunter Gruba rounded out the last handful of Ranger wins in the semi-finals facet.
Rematch vs. Anoka
Going into the championship round 2-0, the Rangers found themselves right back in the same exact spot they were in last year: the Section 7AAA championship rematch against Anoka.
Last year, the team narrowly missed its state bid by falling short to the Tornadoes 33-30.
Forest Lake made sure they weren’t going to go down without a fight, and Clark continued his impressive day with a second win in the 107-pound class. Marr picked up his 151st win by going 3-0 at the tournament, beating his opponent by fall, while Kohoutek, Lyden, Jackson Marr and Christenson all won their respective matchups.
Forest Lake continued to diffuse the Tornadoes in a dominating victory, breezing by with a 39-19 final score for the section title and a state bid.
“To win this year, and to win in dominating fashion, it was great,” Kunshier said. “We’ve become real close with their [Anoka’s] coaching staff over the years. Rich Miller was a teammate of mine in college and he’s their head assistant coach. We’ve sort of always had this rivalry. Some years he gets to rub in my face a little bit, and this year he came over to me and hugged me and said, ‘You got me this year.’ It’s one of those things where it’s an extremely healthy rivalry – our kids respect each other, our coaching staff respects each other – it’s something that’s healthy and it’s fun. There’s never been any bad blood between us, just a really strong and competitive rivalry.”
The team’s victory gives the wrestling team its first state berth since 2020 and just its sixth appearance since 1958.
“I think it’s great. I mean, in the history of Forest Lake wrestling – with having such a strong section,” Kunshier said.
This is his third time sending the team to state, tying his own head coach from his wrestling days as a Ranger: former Forest Lake head coach Bob Dettmer.
“To have that as a feather in my cap, it’s special. The tradition that he started when he was my coach – to just be able to carry on that tradition is huge, especially for our wrestling community.”
Kunshier added that the support the Ranger community brought to the section tournament was “awesome” and he hopes to see more at the state tournament.
The kids like to get out of school and get rowdy, and there was a great fan base for us in Elk River on Friday. ... I think there’s going to be a big group of kids heading down to support us in the state tournament,” he said.
With the Rangers now having earned their sixth trip to state in over six and a half decades, Kunshier says that the team is just aiming to enjoy themselves.
“We’re going to go down there and have fun. There’s about five or so superpower programs in the state that are going to get seeded ahead of us. That’s fine. We’ve made it to that point already now. Making it to the state tournament was something we as a team had marked for ourselves as a goal,” Kunshier said. “I’m just proud of our hometown kids that got through their section and to be able to make it to the state tournament. It’s amazing.”
The Rangers will next compete in the individual section tournament on Saturday, Feb. 24, at Anoka High School before taking on No. 1-seeded Mounds View as a team at the Xcel Energy Center beginning Thursday, Feb. 29.
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