Owatonna sends three individuals to State Tournament
March 24, 2021
The Owatonna Wrestling team has put together a nice season so far, with a record of 20-8 and Big 9 co-champions. The Huskies went into the team section tournament being a two seed in section 1AAA. The one seed was Northfield, the three seed was Faribault and the fourth seed was Albert Lea. The first round was on Wednesday, March 10. at OHS where the Huskies first faced Winona and then Albert Lea. Unfortunately for the Huskies, their season had come to an end after a close loss to Albert Lea, 33-38.
This is not how any team wants to end their season. With four starters and one backup out for COVID-19 protocols, the Huskies, unfortunately, had holes in their lineup on Wednesday. Albert Lea then went to the super section tournament on Saturday where they lost the first round to top-seeded Northfield. Northfield being the 1AAA section champs had to take on the section champs of 2AAA Shakopee Sabers. Northfield lost and Shakopee moved onto the state tournament.
Lucky with the sport of wrestling there are individual sections. Individual sections are Thursday, March 18. The top four individuals will then get put into a bracket with section 2AAA to wrestle in super sections on March 20, where the top two individuals from each weight will advance to the state tournament. Junior captain Landen Johnson said, “With everything going on and all of the changes it definitely makes it harder to get to state, but I am still excited to see how many individuals the team can send to the state tournament and place there.”
At the section qualifying tournament on March 18, Trey Hiatt, Jack Sorenson, Cael Robb, Kanin Hable, Jacob Reinardy, Landen Johnson, Matt Seykora, Andrew Nirk, and Abe Stockwell Qualified for the super section tournament. They moved on to the individual state qualifier on March 20.
After individual qualifying, Robb, Johnson, and Seykora all move on to the state tournament. Johnson wrestling at 160 will be making his fourth individual state appearance. Robb wrestling at 120 will be returning to the individual mat for his second year. Seykora will wrap up his Huskie wrestling career with his first individual trip to the state tournament at 182. Coach Adam Woitalla said, “The big strength is that all three of them worked extremely hard and have passion for the sport. It really paid off this year.” The Minnesota State Individual Wrestling Tournament will be held on March 25 at St. Michael- Albertville.
