Casey Vesledahl laid it all out on the mat in six matches.

 

He won four matches and lost two and his tremendous efforts garnered him a fourth place finish at the 2016 MSHSL State Individual Tournament last weekend at the Xcel Energy Center.

Vesledahl’s two losses were to the same athlete —Sam Anderson of Totino Grace.

 

Vesledahl (seeded 6th) began the tournament in a match against Mark Washa (27-12) of Fairmont/Martin County West and pinned him in 24 seconds. His next opponent was Anderson (22-3), who had just beat Corey Guenther (32-7) of St. Paul Como Park by an 8-1 score. It was a brutal battle, but at the 2:52 mark, Vesledahl succumbed to Anderson’s mastery and lost his chance at a state championship.

 

With the loss, Casey fell to the consolation bracket and his first opponent in that category was Guenther. Vesledahl dispatched of him rather quickly, beating him by fall at 1:34 of the match.

 

Next up, Vesledahl had Cody Coulter (39-5) of Wabasso/Red Rock Central and Casey wasted no time in dispatching Coulter in 20 seconds.

 

Matt Palmer (16-11) of Albert Lea was Casey’s next foe, and Vesledahl, again, wasted little time and effort, beating the junior Tiger in just 11 seconds.

 

For the third place title, Vesledahl faced a familiar foe in Anderson, who had lost to the eventual champion (Logan Swanson) in the semi-finals and had beat Palmer in the wrestle-back to gain the third place match.

 

Anderson had no letup as he extinguished Vesledahl in 44 seconds to end Casey’s high school wrestling career.

 

“I was proud of how Casey finished this season,” said Head Coach Matt Aho. “I felt that he really peaked at the right time.”

 

Vesledahl finished his career with a record of 89-26. He was 35-4 this year and had 25 pins (third in school history for pins). In his high school wrestling career at Becker, he recorded 51 pins.