The Becker Bulldogs wrestling team brought home 12 place winners after a great showing at the Section 6AA individual section tournament at Dassel-Cokato High School last Saturday, six of whom qualified for the state tournament.

“Bringing six wrestlers to the state tournament is the most that I have had since I’ve been coaching here at Becker,” said Head Coach Matt Aho. “We had 12 place winners in all, with six that qualified for state.”

Earning their spot in the individual state tournament were champions Jake Nelson (132) (24-3), Lukas Paulson (138) (34-5), Caden DeWall (170) (36-1), and Brayden Weber (220) (34-3), and 2nd place winners Ethan Anderson (126) (35-9) and Reid Kraus (182) (35-13).

Other medal winners include Adam Jurek (145) (35-9) and Kylen Rish (160) (33-9), who both earned 3rd place, 4th place winners Ethan Duncombe (113) (21-16), Dylan Kolby (285) (15-6) and Tyson Ricker (152) (10-14), and Bryce Kuschel (195) (10-16), who earned fifth place.

“We had a great day of wrestling, placing 12 out of our 14 weight classes,” said Aho. “Our guys gave everything that they had. We had a couple guys that came up just short from qualifying.” 

The state tournament was held Friday at the Xcel Energy Center, with (126) Ethan Anderson 35-9 going up against No. 3 seeded Ross Herber, LARP 27-5, No. 5 seeded (132) Jake Nelson 24-3 competing against Connor Roth, Marshall 33-10, and No. 5 seeded (138) Lucas Paulson 34-5 wrestling against Chris Rodriguez, Washburn 20-13.

No. 6 seeded (170) Caden DeWall 36-1 was matched against Michael Ude, Fridley 30-6, (182) Reid Kraus 35-13 against No. 5 seeded Alex Nelson, Hutchinson 32-6, and No. 4 seeded (220) Brayden Weber 34-3 wrestled Wyatt Dunham, UCB 26-8.

Details from the tournament will be featured in next week’s Citizen-Tribune.