ST. PAUL — After climbing several weight classes, Stillwater’s Cittadino Tuttle also moved up one spot on the podium while finishing as the state runner-up at heavyweight in the Class AAA individual state tournament on Saturday, March 2 at the Xcel Energy Center.
Tuttle was one of four placewinners in the tournament for the Ponies, who also produced one medalist in the girls state tourney with Audrey Rogotzke’s third-place showing.
Joe Dauffenbach and Noah Nicholson each placed fourth for the Ponies in the 107- and 114-pound weight classes while Lindson Turner added a sixth-place finish at 160 pounds.
“Overall, it was a pretty good tournament for our guys and everybody who went,” Ponies coach Steve Polakowski said.
Making his third state tournament appearance, Tuttle placed third at 182 pounds a year ago. He wrestled most of the year at 215 pounds before moving up a weight class for individual state.
Tuttle (42-5) cruised through the first two rounds, pinning his first opponent in just over a minute before winning by technical fall in the quarterfinals. He then held off Forest Lake’s Mark Rendl 5-2 to earn a spot in the finals. It was just the second loss of the season for Rendl (39-2), an all-state linebacker in football who defeated Tuttle in a close match earlier in the season.
“He avenged a loss in the semifinals to get into the finals,” Polakowski said. “He just knew he had to keep his hands on him because he’s super athletic. He controlled the match by keeping his hands on him.”
That earned Tuttle an opportunity against Eden Prairie’s Will Sather (41-1), who won the state championship at heavyweight as a sophomore and finished as the state runner-up a year ago. Sather scored early and held on for a 5-3 victory to claim his second state title.
“We knew we couldn’t probably give up a takedown early because he was going to be hard to take down,” Polakowski said. “Cito went for a move early, but didn’t get it and it cost him. He’s always going to try and do something to win, that’s just how he is. We felt like he was super close to it. He couldn’t have been more prepared or wrestled better.”
It wrapped up a solid showing for the Ponies, who featured entries in 9 of 13 weight classes.
“Obviously a little disappointing ending with Cito, but he really gave himself a chance,” Polakowski said. “You always want to win those close ones, but overall it was really good.”
After competing at 114 pounds for much of the season, Dauffenbach (38-13) posted a 3-2 record for the Ponies at state to place fourth at 107 pounds. The junior advanced with a 12-3 victory in the opening round and then scored a 2-0 quarterfinal victory over Anthony Heim (47-4) of Shakopee.
Eventual champion Liam Collins (41-1) of Prior Lake stopped Dauffenbach in the semifinals, but he bounced back with a 4-2 win over Mounds View’s Owen LaRose, who he lost to in the finals of the individual section tourney. Heim then came back to defeat Dauffenbach 2-1 in the third-place match.
“We’re just really happy for him,” Polakowski said. “He really lived the sport this year. It was tough for him to make that weight, but he gave himself a chance to place in the state tournament and that was pretty special for him.”
Nicholson (36-14) also lost to the eventual champion while competing for the Ponies at 114 pounds. After advancing to the semifinals with an 8-6 victory over Anthony Nichols of Edina, Nicholson fell to Brett Swenson (45-2) of Mounds View 9-1 in the semifinals, but came back with a major decision over Tyler Chenevert of Farmington. Cambridge-Isanti’s Leo Edblad defeated Nicholson 9-3 in the third-place match.
“The guys that we thought he could beat he did really well against,” Polakowski said.
Turner (35-17) posted a 3-3 record to place sixth for the Ponies at 160 pounds. The junior lost to a familiar opponent in Colton Loween of Mounds View 4-2 in the fifth-place match.
“I thought he wrestled really well,” Polakowski said. “He’s made a lot of progress and that’s where he’s at. The only guys he lost to were really good guys so it was exciting to get him on the podium.”
Three of Stillwater’s placewinners did not carry gaudy records into the state tournament, which is a credit to the work they put into the season but also a sign of the rugged schedule the team faced. Dauffenbach, Nicholson and Turner each finished with 13 or more losses this season.
“We look at that as a good thing,” Polakowski said. “We got to a lot of hard tournaments and bump guys up and that’s what prepares them for the big matches in the state tournament.”
Mack Carlson (14-7), who joined Tuttle as the only seniors in Stillwater’s state contingent, won two matches but did not place while competing for the Ponies at 189 pounds. Mikey Jelinek (26-13) won his opening match for Stillwater before getting eliminated with consecutive losses at 127 pounds.
Stillwater also qualified wrestlers at 139 (Cohen Lumby, 11-15), 145 (Cael Spates, 28-22) and 172 (Isaac Hunter, 29-17) pounds.
The Ponies finished second to eventual state runner-up Mounds View in the Suburban East Conference and in Section 4AAA and also handed state champion St. Michael-Albertville its only dual meet setback on the way to finishing with a 27-6 record.
“We felt we wrestled as well as we could have with the kids we had,” Polakowski said. “We got a lot out of that group. We know we’re a little on the younger side so it was good to get some of those other guys in the state tournament. We had 26 kids wrestle varsity this year so we know we have a lot of good, young kids in the room that will continue to get better and many got to wrestle in the state tournament for the first time.
“We’re definitely excited to get older with this team.”
Results
Stillwater finishers, finals
107 — Joe Dauffenbach (3-2, 4th place): major dec. William Bainbridge (Hastings) 12-3; dec. Anthony Heim (Shakopee) 2-0; lost by major dec. to Liam Collins (Prior Lake) 11-0; dec. Owen LaRose (Mounds View) 4-2; lost to Heim (Shakopee) 2-1. Finals: Collins (Prior Lake) pinned Dylan St. Germain (Eagan) 2:44.
114 — Noah Nicholson (3-2, 4th place): tech fall Dylan Groess (Albert Lea) 16-0; dec. Anthony Nichols (Edina) 8-6; lost by major dec. to Brett Swenson (Mounds View) 9-1; major dec. Tyler Chenevert (Farmington) 10-0; lost to Leo Edblad (Cambridge-Isanti) 9-3. Finals: Swenson (Mounds View) dec. Lincoln Robideau (St. Michael-Albertville) 5-1.
121 — Finals: Luke Koenen (Wayzata) dec. Lawson Eller (New Prague) 10-5.
127 — Mikey Jelinek (1-2, DNP): dec. Ivan Mares (Willmar) 7-5; pinned by Trey Beissel (Hastings) 3:59; pinned by Abram Anderson (Rosemount) 4:42. Finals: Tegan Sherk (St. Francis) dec. Chase Mills (St. Michael-Albertville) 5-1.
133 — Finals: Logan Swenson (Wayzata) dec. Michael Olson (Albert Lea) 3-2.
139 — Cohen Lumby (0-1, DNP): lost by tech fall to Gabriel Cohn (St. Thomas Academy) 16-1. Finals: Davis Parrow (Farmington) dec. Charles Vanier (Eden Prairie) 3-2.
145 — Cael Spates (0-1, DNP): pinned by Alex Braun (Woodbury) 4:16. Finals: Braun (Woodbury) dec. Tyson Charmoli (St. Francis) 3-0
152 — Finals: Landon Robideau (St. Michael-Albertville) tech fall Brad Little (Woodbury) 23-8.
160 — Lindson Turner (3-3, 6th place): dec. Logan Gilbertson (Eagan) 9-4; lost by major dec. to Jarrett Madsen (St. Michael-Albertville) 13-4; dec. Oliver Ollman (Anoka) 6-3; dec. Edon Davis (Farmington) 11-6; lost by major dec. Jackson Barron (Shakopee) 10-0; lost to Colton Loween (Mounds View) 4-2. Finals: Terae Dunn (Eden Prairie) dec. Charles Petit (Wayzata) 3-1 SV-1.
172 — Isaac Hunter (0-1, DNP): pinned by Steven Cruze (Willmar) 4:00. Finals: Jed Wester (St. Michael-Albertville) tech fall Jaxon Kenning (St. Cloud Tech) 19-3.
189 — Mack Carlson (2-2, DNP): dec. Ryan Kuyper (Northfield) 6-0; lost by tech fall to Cole Han-Lindemyer (Farmington) 20-3; tech fall Alex Loes (Eagan) 15-0; lost to Joseph Muhlstein (Mounds View) 6-4. Final: John Murphy (St. Michael-Albertville) dec. Marcell Booth (Apple Valley) 7-5 SV-1.
215 — Finals: Quin Morgan (Mounds View) major dec. Ben Schultz (Maple Grove) 8-0.
285 — Cittadino Tuttle (3-1, 2nd place): pinned Briggs Opp (Wayzata) 1:04; tech fall Marcus Whiting (Centennial) 17-0; dec. Mark Rendl (Forest Lake) 5-2; lost to Will Sather (Eden Prairie) 5-3.
Contact Stuart Groskreutz at stuart.groskreutz@apgecm.com
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