Nine St. Michael-Albertville Wrestlers Advance to State Tournament

Tommy Thorn has a second straight state championship dead in his sites, and eight other wrestlers are headed to the Xcel Energy Center Thursday with the same goal.

The Knights, for the team tournament, will have nine wrestlers in the State Class 3A individual tournament, including the defending state champion Thorn, now at 113 pounds, who spent all of two minutes on the mat Saturday.

Thorn, who had a quarterfinal bye, defeated Monty Fredrickson in 92 seconds in the semifinals, and then needed all of 30 seconds to pin James Pleski of Forest Lake in order to advance to the state tournament. He will be the No. 1 seed at 113 pounds, and carries a record of 40-1.

Also rolling to a section title was 120-pound Cole Sladek, ranked No. 2 in his class. The top seed in the section, Sladek had an easy go of it as well, getting a quick pin in the semifinals, and then scoring a 14-4 major decision in his championship match against Joe Anderson of Coon Rapids.

At 106 pounds, STMA’s Aaron Dick took the title in upset fashion. The sophomore standout scored a major decision in his opening round match, and then got a comfortable 8-2 win in the semis to square off with freshman and top seed Blaine Tschida of Coon Rapids in the final. Dick pulled out a 6-4 decision in an exciting match to capture the title and a state berth.

Heavyweight and junior Mike Kessler sewed up the team’s final individual championship with a great tournament in the heavyweight class. He scored a second period pin in his quarterfinal match, and had a comfortable 8-0 major decision over Blaine’s Aaron Martin in the quarterfinal. I

In the final, Kessler faced off with No. 1 seed Tanner Lowe of Coon Rapids, a senior, and was able to get a takedown and an escape for a 3-1 win.

Also qualifying for state was No. 1 seed and 220-pound senior Nick Edling, who was knocked off in the championship by Coon Rapids’ Michael Burkhardt in a 5-1 decision.

But Edling rebounded to grab “true second” with a pin in the first period of his state qualifying match vs. Sam Gerlach of St. Francis.

Mitch Eull at 195 pounds. Lincoln Mallinger at 138 pounds, Mark Voss at 132 and Ricky Briggs at 182 also found a way to get through to state.

For Briggs, the day was especially gratifying. The junior pulled out a decision over Nate Lipinksi to make the finals, where he had to default to Cambridge’s Clayton Jennison. But because Lipinksi took third, Briggs could do no worse than second, and qualified, despite battling injuries this season.

Other placewinners for the Knights were Jake Briggs, who took third, Wayne Voss (4th), Colton Schoen (5th) and Owen Gammell (6th).

The 170-pound weight class was the only one the Knights were kept off the podium. The squad built on last year's performance, when it sent seven athletes to state.

The State 3A wrestling tournament begins with action Thursday in St. Paul. Teams will head down Wednesday for skin checks and weigh-ins, weather permitting.