NYWA State Tournament

Amazing, what a great way to end a season!!!  The past four days have been nothing but exciting for the WCAAE wrestling program!  Eight of our area youth competed in one of the largest tournaments held in the state!!!!!! . Over 4,000 Wrestlers from preschool through eighth grade from all over the state wrestled in the 25 individual tournaments to advance their way to regions.  Approximately 2,500 wrestlers qualified to the regions and just short of 1,000 wrestlers earned a chance in vying for their own state title in Rochester Minnesota at the Mayo Civic Center April 3th-6th.

Left to Right Jon Dingwall 2nd place, Jake Norby 2nd Place, Colton Lindquist 6th place, Brady Lindquist 6th place, and Colbe Tappe 1st place

WCAAE also had great representation in the Invite tournament which is in its 4th year in existence and provides wrestlers who may want to extend their season and wrestle with other wrestlers from all around the state.  Three of our area youth competed in this portion of the tournament. Hunter Norby went 2-2, Hunter Gruchow went 1-2, and Owen Gruchow went 2-1.

In the NYWA State Tournament not only did eight wrestlers compete, five of the wrestlers place in the top 6 in their brackets.  In fact, three of them were in the finals and one took home the State Title.  Levi Larkin in his last year eligible for the NYWA state tournament competed at 120 lbs in the 7th and 8th grade division.  Levi went 2-2 just falling one round short of the medal round.  Anthony Sykora wrestled very well and went 2-2 in his 72 lb. 3rd-4th grade bracket. Will Rustan got his feet wet with some State Tournament action.  In his first ever NYWA State appearance Will went 1-2 in the 130 lb. 1st-2nd grade division. In their first shot at NYWA State brothers Colton and Brady Lindquist both brought home 6th place medals.  Brady was 1-2 in the 90 lb. 1st-2nd grade division, while his older brother Colton was 3-3 in the 100 lb. 3rd-4th grade division.  Jake Norby won his first three matches which landed him in the finals of the 80 lbs 1st-2nd grade division.  He lost in his finals match but sure had a great two days on the mat!  Kindergartner Jon Dingwall also showed up ready to wrestle.  Jon who competed at the 60 pound weight class won his first three matches before losing in the finals.  Kindergartner Colbe Tappe wrestled confident and smart which in-return earned him the 1st place honors at the 50 pound weight class.

Colbe Tappe with a 7-4 victory in his Finals Match vs Cavin Carlson of Willmar

I am proud of all these guys for all their hard work they have put in.  All of their hard work, sweat, blood and tears have finally paid off.  Their parents dedication to the sport has also been a huge aid in their success.  Each of these wrestlers have wrestled forty, fifty, sixty, even seventy plus matches this year and their parents drove them all around the state to get those matches!  We have a lot great talent in the youth program. I have to say this is largely due to the  commitment that our families continue to give to the program and our youth.  2014 will go down in the books as another successful season for the Knights Wrestling Program.