State Tournament Weekend
On Friday and Saturday (3/4-5), SIS was represented at the MSHSL State Wrestling Tournament by two wrestlers, Brandon Lee (113) and Matt Arens (126).
In the first round of the tournament, Brandon wrestled Charlie Palm from Minnetonka. Brandon started fast with a takedown in the first 30 seconds of the match which lead to a dominating 11-0 Major Decision. Matt wrestled shortly after where he wrestled the #7 seed, Gavin Hilyar from Elk River. Matt wrestled tough but was unable to get much going and ended up losing 15-2. Hilyar ended up losing his next match the to #2 seed, eliminating Matt from the tournament.
Brandon's quarter-final match was against the #5 seed, Thomas Holmquist from St. Thomas Academy. Again, Brandon got on his offense right away and scored the first takedown of the match in just 35 seconds. With a reversal in the 2nd period and another takedown in the 3rd period, Brandon won the match 6-0, putting himself in the Semi-Finals and guaranteeing himself a medal and onto Saturday!
On Saturday, Brandon's first match was against the #1 seed, Mason Mills from St. Michael-Albertville. After a tough match, Brandon ended up losing 9-5 to the eventual State Champion. In the consolation semi-finals, Brandon wrestled #2 seed Leo Edblad from Cambridge-Isanti. Down 3-1 in the 3rd period, Brandon took extra risk in the final seconds which unfortunately didn't go his way, losing by a final score of 7-1. In the 5th place match, Brandon wrestled #7 seed, Parker Lyden from Forest Lake. Dealing with some injuries, Brandon got taken down early in the 1st period which eventually led to him losing by a fall.
Brandon finished the tournament in 6th place, while not the results that he wanted, he still earned his first MSHSL State Medal. This makes Brandon the 4th Freshman to qualify for the State Tournament in program history (Irondale only prior to the co-op) and the 1st Freshman to make the podium.
