THREE’S COMPANY: BEISSEL’S, LITTLE SOLDIER TAKE STATE TITLES

The team state championship celebration for wrestling in Hastings grew a little bit more during the weekend as three wrestlers also brought home individual state titles, including two repeat winners.

Trey Beissel earned his first state title at 106 pounds. After a dominant 12-0 first round win, he then shut down a wrestler from Edina 8-0 to move on to the semifinals, taking on a familiar foe from STMA. This win sent him to the finals, where he took on a wrestler from Mounds View. A big third period kept the other wrestler in it, but Beissel had a big enough lead to hang on 6-4 for the championship.

Brother Blake was immediately after Trey on the same mat for the title, which he won in dominant fashion. All he needed though in his first round match was a single first period takedown to advance, where he then dominated 10-2 in the quarterfinals. After a narrow semifinal win it was on to the championship, where Beissel let the world know why he was a defending champion. By a decision win of 5-1, Beissel repeated as state champion.

Raider faithful in attendance had to wait a little bit longer to see Skylar Little Soldier wrestle for a title, but the Pan Am silver medalist left absolutely no doubt in her quest to repeat. After recording two consecutive falls in the preliminary rounds, she advanced to the final where she, having moved up in weight classes, took on Riley Myers from Eastview, the defending champion at 145 lbs. Someone was going to add another state title to the mantle, and it would be Little Soldier, who shut down Myers, with an 8-0 win by major decision.

While these three Raiders earned State titles to make it four trophies in Saint Paul, four Raider guys also earned places in the consolation bracket: Blake Clemons (4th), Aiden Erickson (5th), Josh Route (6th) and Rico Cooper (6th). In total, 16 Raiders participated in the Individual State Championships, and all of them represented the Raiders extremely well. The Hastings wrestling powerhouse certainly made their presence felt this weekend inside the Xcel Energy Center, with rumors that the Boss, Bruce Springsteen, was in attendance as well because of his concert there on Sunday night. Maybe Hastings was Born to Run the wrestling world this year.

   

   

Permanent link to this article: https://kdwa.com/2023/03/threes-company-beissels-little-soldier-take-state-titles/