Here are a few more wrestling items that didn’t get sent out over the weekend.
But first….our National Anthem:
That was Dawson Lee of Harrisburg at last week’s South Dakota state wrestling tournament. We’ll have a little more news from that tournament later.
Jackson County champions
Jackson County Central had three individual champions at this year’s state tournament. That brings the total number of state champions from Jackson County to 45.
Payton Handevidt won his third state title, becoming the fifth wrestler from the county to do that.
The list:
Payton Handevidt: 2020, 2021, 2022
Keegan Moore: 2014, 2015, 2016
Bronson Steuber: 2009, 2010, 2011
Nate Baker: 1998, 1999, 2000
Chad Kraft: 1992, 1993, 1994
This is the 13th time Jackson County Central has had multiple champions. You’ll find the complete list of state champions in a bit.
The most champions in a single season were four in 2008. JCC had three champions in 2000 and 2015 in addition to this year.
There have been nine instances of a team from the county have two champions. Heron Lake-Okabena-Lakefield did it once and the Huskies have done it eight times.
Here’s the list of state champions from Jackson County.
Heron Lake-Okabena-Lakefield
1989
130 - Scott Vancura
1990
135 – Chad Gage
1991
119 – Tim Jansma
1992
125 – Chad Kraft
130 – Tim Jansma
1993
140 – Chad Kraft
1994
145 – Chad Kraft
JCC
1998
140 – Nate Baker
145 – Nate Hanson
1999
152 – Nate Baker
275 – Bryce Vancura
2000
130 – Steve Majerus
152 – Dusty Wiliking
160 – Nate Baker
2001
140 – Marc Harwood
2002
152 – Marc Harwood
2004
189 – Tom Nesseth
2006
130 – Torey Stewart
275 – Jared Knips
2007
119 – Cole Von Ohlen
160 – Travis Rutt
2008
130 – Cole Von Ohlen
145 – Torey Stewart
171 – Travis Rutt
189 – Caleb Lines
2009
119 – Bronson Steuber
2010
125 – Bronson Steuber
160 – Cooper Moore
2011
135 – Bronson Steuber
2012
160 – Darick Vancura
170 – Cooper Moore
2013
132 – Eliot Jurries
170 – Darick Vancura
2014
170 – Keegan Moore
2015
160 – Paden Moore
170 – Luke Norland
182 – Keegan Moore
2016
182 – Keegan Moore
2018
195 – Dalton Wagner
2020
145 – Payton Handevidt
2021
106 – Nolan Ambrose
152 – Payton Handevidt
2022
113 – Nolan Ambrose
120 – Kie Anderson
160 – Payton Handevidt
Champions recognized
The Minnesota Wrestling Coaches Association recognizes the team campions from the MSHSL individual state tournament.
Jackson County Central won the Class 1A title, Simley was the Class 2A champion, St. Michael-Albertville won Class 3A.
Bemidji is the first girls team winner.
Here’s the top 10 in the Class 1A standings:
1. Jackson County Central 137
2. Royalton/Upsala 115.5
3. Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa 87
4. Kimball Area 68.5
5. United North Central 62
6. Medford 57.5
7. Tracy-Milroy-Balaton/Westbrook-Walnut Grove 54
8. Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 53
9. Goodhue 51
10. Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 49
(tie) Caledonia/Houston 49
Placings
Here’s where JCC teams have placed in the individual team format in the standings, which are compiled by tstuff.com
Class AA
2005 – 28th
2006 – 2nd
2007 – 3rd
Class A
2008 – 1st
2009 – 3rd
2010 – 1st
2011 – 8th
2012 – 3rd
2013 – 1st
2014 – 3rd
2015 – 1st
2016 – 16th
2017 – 15th
2018 – 10th
2019 – 40th
2020 – 18th
2021 – 1st
2022 – 1st
By section
Here are this year’s Class 1A standings by section:
Section 7A 268.5
Section 5A 267.5
Section 3A 233
Section 1A 216
Section 4A 210
Section 2A 128
Section 8A 127.5
Section 6A 99.5
Three losses
JCC had a 24-3 dual meet record this season.
Those losses were to:
St. Michael-Albertville: Minnesota Class 3A dual champions and first in the unofficial individual standings
Waverly-Shell Rock: Iowa Class 3A (largest) dual champions and third in the traditional state tourney, 13 points out of first place. Iowa does recognize the traditional standings.
Vacaville: Placed 10th in California Interscholastic Federation tournament in Bakersfield
Dear Wrestling
A number of wrestlers from around the state recorded these ‘Dear Wrestling’ segments.
Here’s Payton Handevidt’s:
Medical forfeit
Medical forfeits were all the rage at the Big 10 wrestling tournament.
Congratulations to the Iowa Hawkeyes for their trophy:
JCC senior Will Freking also had to medical forfeit at the state tournament.
His appears to be a bit more legit:
That black eye didn’t stop Will from helping the JCC Knowledge Bowl team win the sub-region championship Monday afternoon in Marshall:
Or from being crowned Winterfest King Monday night:
Another wrestler, Kie Anderson, was on the Knowledge Bowl team. He won a state individual title Saturday. And of course, both were on the team that won the state title last Thursday.
Coach of the Year
JCC’s Nate Hanson was named Coach of the Year in Class 1A by the Minnesota Wrestling Coaches Association.
He’s only the second coach from the county to receive the award.
The other was this guy in 1993:
That was the only time Randy Baker received that honor.
Baker is tied for third in state championship teams coached with seven.
Jim Jackson (Apple Valley, Shakopee) is first with 18 and Will Short (Simley) is second, now with 11.
Baker’s 39 individual state champions coached is third on the list.
Jackson coached 75 state champions and Short is now at 48 (47 boys and one girl).
Coaching ties
A couple of coaches connected to Jackson had wrestlers compete in the state Class 2A tournament.
Todd Card, who coached wrestling at Jackson, HLOL/Jackson and JCC, is the head coach at Hutchinson/Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart. The Tigers had five state qualifiers (including Treyton Card) and two place winners.
The Card Man also coached baseball at Jackson High School and softball at JCC.
Also, Taylor Menke is an assistant coach at Mankato East. The Cougars had one state qualifier.
Martin County wrestling
The Martin County Red Bulls had a great season and had three wrestlers on the awards stand.
At some time, it would be great to have a complete list of place winners, at least in the relatively brief history of the Red Bulls.
Now is not that time, however.
Here though, is a list of state champions from Martin County schools.
Sherburn
1980
138 – Don Studer
1982
132 – Joel Hand
Martin County West
1989
160 – Kevin Lange
1990
152 – Todd Lange
1993
103 – Jon Fitzgerald
1994
103 – Jon Fitzgerald
1995
103 – Jon Fitzgerald
2004
215 – Dusty Faber
Fairmont
1986
HWT – Jeff Balcom
1991
189 – Josh Tietje
Martin County
2018
113 – Jaxson Rohman
2021
126 – Jaxson Rohman
One year ago
How out of whack were things a year ago?
It was still the regular season for wrestling. This popped up this weekend on Facebook after last year’s JCC-Martin County dual in Sherburn that we broadcast on KSUM:
You may have noticed Jeff Balcom’s name on the above list of state champions, having won the heavyweight title while repping Fairmont in 1986.
Balcom (he now goes by the moniker of Powerless Balc) went on to a nice career at the University of Minnesota, qualifying for the NCAA tournament in 1989 and 1990. He was the number five seed in 1990.
In 1990, he wrestled to a draw with Clarion University’s Kurt Angle. You could tie in wresting then in dual meets.
Here’s the match:
Angle was a three-time NCAA finalist, winning two national titles. He also was a world champion and Olympic Gold medalist in Atlanta in 1996.
He went on to a career in professional wrestling, winning several world championships with different wrestling groups.
Orioles at state
Martin County West graduate Blake Crosby, now the head coach at Lennox, had four wrestlers (two boys and two girls) at the South Dakota state tournament.
Three of those wrestlers placed and all four won at least one match.
The Orioles were 19th in the girls team standings and 24th in the boys standings.