A Record Nine St. Michael-Albertville Wrestlers Place at State Tournament

Two St. Michael-Albertville wrestlers stuck gold again, two nights after the Knights won a share of their first-ever Class AAA team championship, as the blue and gold continued their medal haul in St. Paul. 

Tommy Thorn picked up his third straight state championship with a 9-1 decision over Gannon Volk of Apple Valley, and Jordan Joeseph edege Tartan's T.J. O'Hara, a defending state champion, as 170 pounds to take his first gold. 

Three other Knights–Mark Voss, Lincoln Mallinger and Cole Sladek–all made their way to the finals Saturday night. Voss, at 132 pounds, took on defending champion Seth Gross of Apple Valley and was edged 4-3. Sladek found a familiar foe at the end in Mitch Bengston of St. Cloud Apollo, and Bengston captured another title at 138 pounds with a 7-0 win. Mallinger, who was seeded fourth, scored an upset win in the semifinals and squared off with Dayton Racer in the finals, a rematch of their key match in the state team final. Racer won, 7-2. 

In the third place matches, St. Michael-Albertville came through with three wrestlers. Mikey Kessler dropped a 5-4 decision to Spencer Sorenson of Owatonna in the heavyweight final. Ricky Briggs was beaten 10-0 in the 182-pound third place match. But Mitch McKee ended his season with a win, defeating Christian Bahl of Stillwater 6-3. 

And in his fifth place match, 126-pounder Tanner Mills capped off his career with a 3-1 win over Layton Crosby. 

"We had some wrestlers who had great individual tournaments, and some who really didn't live up to their own expectations, and that's the way this tournament sometimes goes," said head coach Dan Leebvre Sunday afternoon. "It was a great weekend for all of us." 

The Knights qualified 12 wrestlers for the individual tournament and a record number of them placed, with nine.