Rico Cooper executes a lightning quick leg takedown on his opponent in the 182-weight class. Cooper had another fantastic match, winning 8-3. Photo courtesy of Sarah Wasvick.

By Bruce Karnick

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Hastings had scheduled a quadrangular meet for the final home meet of the quick season on Thursday. Eagan, Park, and Mahtomedi were the scheduled opponents. Eagan dropped out earlier in the day, so the Senior Night matches were rearranged to a triangular. Hastings took on Mahtomedi first, then Mahtomedi faced Park and finally Park faced Hastings to close out the night.

Between each of the matchup changes, the Raiders scheduled entertainment for the intermission. First intermission featured the Hastings Dance Team Club dancing their final time of their inaugural season. The second intermission honored the graduating seniors and their parents.

Hastings defeated Mahtomedi 66-6 with many Raider wrestlers earning wins by fall.

106: Trey Beissel wins by tech fall of 22-4 over Aidan Carlson 113: Blake Beissel receives a forfeit 120: Mark Svoboda wins by fall at 2:00 over Lucas Monteiro 126: Jack Bainbridge receives a forfeit 132: Peyton Erickson receives a forfeit 138: Creed Peterson wins by fall at 1:30 over Alex Lavalle 145: Josh Route wins by major decision 13-4 over Evan McGuire 152: Aiden Erickson receives a forfeit 160: Zander Hallis wins by fall at 4:56 over Hayden Schaefer 170: Ian Pepple wins by fall at 1:50 over Jonathan Harvey 182: Rico Cooper wins by decision 8-3 over Billy Arlandson 195: Dylan Bartz loses by decision 4-10 to Emmet Poppelman 220: Austin Leflay loses by decision 1-6 to JP Johnson 285: Blake Clemons wins by fall at 1:23 over Max Rice Hastings next faced off against section opponent Park of Cottage Grove. A win against Park should earn the Raiders the number one spot in Section 3AAA.

Head coach Tim Haneberg was looking forward to taking on Park. “They are tough kids and well coached, so it’s going to be a battle for ever single one of our kids. I love wrestling teams like that, especially when they have a full lineup, so there should be no forfeits,” he said.

The match of the night kicked off the Raider vs Wolfpack meeting. Trey Beissel on the mat for Hastings against Zack Carr. These two 106 weight class wrestlers put on a show. Carr took the early lead and Beissel had to fight back to trail 4-5 in the third period. The two went back and forth but neither gained full control for points until there was under ten seconds left in the match. Beissel finally took control to score the two-points for the takedown to catapult himself into the lead. Carr fought hard the last few seconds of the match to get the reversal but time expired and Beissel won 6-5 106: Trey Beissel wins by decision 6-5 over Zack Carr 113: Blake Beissel wins by fall at 1:44 over Kyler Jubina 120: Mark Svoboda receives a forfeit 126: Jack Bainbridge wins by fall at 1:04 over Joey Chilton 132: Peyton Erickson wins by fall at 4:17 over LeRoy Olson 138: Creed Peterson loses by decision 0-4 to Gunnar Mullen 145: Josh Route wins by major decision 16-4 over Will Deutsch 152: Aiden Erickson wins by fall at 0:52 over Donovan Early-Pinder 160: Zander Hallis wins by fall at 2:54 over Samuel Lankow 170: Ian Pepple wins by tech fall 16-0 over Dom Atkins 182: Rico Cooper receives a forfeit 195: Dylan Bartz loses by fall at 2:51 to Alex Carr 220: Austin Leflay receives a forfeit 285: Blake Clemons wins by fall at 0:39 over Doug Sabin Hastings won the meet 66-9 over Park. The win moved the Raiders to be ranked fifth in the state for class AAA teams, according to TheGuillotine. com. Individually, Blake Beissel is number one in the 106 weight class, Jack Bainbridge is seventh in 126, Josh Route is ninth at 145, and Aiden Erickson is sixth at 152.

Haneberg was surprised the regular season is coming to an end so quickly. “Well, it’s been an awesome year so far. But it’s really kind of crazy that we’re wrapping things up right now. And we’re already getting into the postseason. It’s pretty wild. I feel like we just started the other day. Our kids are really wrestling really well right now.”

The wrestlers travel to Woodbury for team sections on February 18 where they have the first-round bye. That means they will face the winner of Woodbury and Eagan. The section meet consists of three rounds, so Hastings has a leg up and only needs to win two to make it to state as a team.