Corey Huber and Dale Norton captured Section 8-3A wrestling titles Saturday to gain berths in the state meet this week at St. Paul.
The met drew another full house to the Fieldhouse to witness a well balanced field fight it out for the 28 state berths,
Nine of the ten teams will have at least one entrant with Apollo getting six, Brainerd five and Moorhead four.
Rocori lost its only qualifier in the True Second bouts.
There were nine of those with four spots changing hands. Brainerd gained two berths and Apollo and Alexandria one. Buffalo lost two and Alex and Rocori one.
ADVERTISEMENT
Bemidji had six top place winners with Logan and Jake Crosby ending fourth and Craig Maas and Kade Johnson sixth.
Huber continued his outstanding season reaching the 160 final with two technical falls before decking Tanner Rabazze of Buffalo at 3:42 while holding a 12-5 lead.
Norton had a fall and 7-6 decision to reach the 135 final where he scored a major 16-3 decision over Adam Fagerstrom of Willmar.
Logan Crosby at 112, advanced witb a fall to reach the third place match where he lost to Luke Boran of Brainerd 5-1. He had been a pin victim in the semifinals.
His brother Jake at 119 scored a TF and 8-1 decision to gain the third place match where he was pinned in the final second while traiing 5-4.
At 125, Craig Maas fell 5-4 in two overtimes in the semifinals, then lost to Grant Nehring of Apollo and Mtchell Mehwerth of Sauk Rapids to end sixth.
Kade Johnson at 130 won his first wrestleback 11-1 before being pinned in the second round and losing on a fall in the fifth place match.
In other matches, Tyler O'Beirne dropped his opening wrestleback at 103. Cody Thoring dropped a 5-3 decision in thbe wrestlebacks at 140 to be eliminated and Kodi Craft won11-1 before being pinned in the wrestlebacks at 145.
ADVERTISEMENT
LeRoy Pacheco was a fall victim at 152 and Brenden Fredrickson split his two matches at 171, winning 12-8 and bowingf 7-3.
At 189., Tyler Molitor was ousted in his opening wrestleb ack as were Brandon Larson at 215 and heavyweight Alex Johnson.
Coach Rance Bahr, however, was well pleased with the effort of his young squad, almost all of whom will return for next winter.
Chief graduates will be Huber and Norton.
Huber will be making his third straight state trip. Norton will return after a year's layoff after gaining the state as a sophomore.
Joe Gaughn of Moorhead was named Section Coach of the Year for rebuilding the Spuds into a contender this season.
Terry Kepka of Sauk Rapids won the Assistant Coach of the Year Award.
The state meet will again be held at the Xcel Energy Center starting Wednesday with the finals in both the team and individual divisions set for Saturday.
ADVERTISEMENT
Apollo will represent the section in the team tournament after beating Brainerd in the final last week.
