Seven Raider boys’ wrestlers will join six females at Xcel Energy Center for this year’s state individual wrestling tournament. The boys first round will start on Friday, February 28 and the girls will join them on Saturday, March 1. The boys individual section tournament took place at Park of Cottage Grove on Saturday, February 22 with five Raiders earning first place and two placing second to earn the trip to the X. Along with the state qualifiers, two Raider coaches were honored as part of the section festivities.

Wrestlers

Five Raiders claimed first place in their weight class.

107 – Beckett Edstrom

121 – Rocco Iallonardo

133 – Trey Beissel

139 – Taylon Little Soldier

145 – Fletcher Peterson

Two Raiders fought hard to join that first-place list, but came up just short, earning second and a trip to state for a chance at redemption.

160 – Mark Svoboda

215 – Elijah Christopher

Additionally, six Raiders performed at the individual meet to round out the thirteen total weight classes and earn a spot on the section podium.

114 – Sullivan McNamara placed fourth

127 – Brock Lundstrom placed fourth

152 – Bennet Brockman placed fourth

172 – Kasen Esterby placed third

189 – Adrian Fuchs placed third

285 – Gabe Dorham placed sixth

Coaches

Each year, the section coaches vote on a variety of awards for the section coaches. For 2025, Hastings brought home two coaches awards, Tim Haneberg earned Section Coach of the Year and Isaac Eichmann earned Section Assistant Coach of the Year.

The state meet takes place at Xcel Energy Center with the team competition taking place on Thursday, February 27 at 9:00 a.m. The bottom three seeds are assigned a random draw and Hastings drew the number one seeded St. Michael / Albertville Knights. STMA is the team that Hastings upset in 2023 for the state team championship, and they are also the reigning champs from 2024, so the road to the championship starts off very tough for the Raiders. A first-round win guarantees a top four finish, and a first-round loss means the best place a team can get is fifth, so that first round win is extremely important.

Individual rounds kick off Friday, February 28 at 9:00 a.m. for the boys. Much like the team portion, the first-round win is extremely important. The wrestler that loses the first round then relies on their first-round opponent to win their second-round match. If the first-round winner also wins the second round, the first-round loser gets to wrestle in the consolation round which is a single elimination. This process is called ‘wrestlebacks’.

Let’s keep it simple and show you four wrestlers for an example.

Bob versus Joe for the first-round match A and Steve versus Mike for the first-round match B.

Bob and Steve both win, they advance to the second round for match C. Bob wins that match which means Joe now joins the consolation side of the bracket and the next match Joe has is against Steve. Mike is eliminated and the consolation side of the bracket becomes a single elimination bracket. The championship bracket is win and move on with the losers moving to the consolation bracket. Wrestlebacks are confusing for newcomers and veterans alike, so, the coaches use it as a bit of motivation telling the kids to just keep winning and they do not have to worry about understanding wrestlebacks.

The three-day state tournament is four very long days for everyone involved. The coaches and wrestlers check in as a team on Wednesday for the team event Thursday. Individuals then check in each day as early as 7:00 a.m. and begin wrestling and the matches often extend late into the evening with sessions lasting until 9:30 p.m. and the state meet is demonstration of controlled chaos.

The long days apply to the media folks as well. This year, the Minnesota State High School League has limited smaller media outlets to only two reporters/photographers for Thursday and then two for the combined Individual days. With 19 wrestlers to cover between Hastings and Cottage Grove, we have sent 3-4 photographers previously to allow each to work a portion of the day with overlapping coverage. Having only two photographers will impact our ability to give live updates during the day via social media. We will do our best to bring you updates, but they may not be as frequent, thank you for understanding.

Tickets

Tickets are only available online at www.mshsl.org/tickets the exception being the “day pass”, that must be purchased at Xcel Energy Center on site. There are two sessions each day and the ticket price for each session is 17 dollars for adults and 11 dollars for students. The day pass covers both sessions for the day for 32 dollars, a two-dollar savings for adults.

Times

For team on Feb. 27. First match 9:00 a.m. For individual Class AAA is the first session of each round. The three classes rotate through being the first, second and third start each year. The first session of the day starts at 9:00 a.m., the second session starts at 4:00 p.m.