The Raider wrestlers had a busy weekend. First, the boys hosted a triangular team meet on Friday night against Bemidji and Shakopee for senior night and the last home meet of the season. The girls took the night off in preparation of their big day Saturday for the Section Tournament. The busy weekend for Hastings was also a very fruitful one.

As a team, the boys took on Bemidji and Shakopee in what was expected to be state tournament level competition and the matches did not disappoint. Trey Beissel took one of his matches to quadruple overtime before he won 5-4. Some matches went the Raiders way, others went the way of the visitors and ultimately, Hasting won both matches.

The first match of the night was Hastings 42, Bemidji 25. Hastings had the middle match off as the two other teams wrestled each other and then in the third match of the night it was Hastings 47, Shakopee 21.

Friday night also saw not one, but two milestone victories for two individual Raider wrestlers: Jack Bainbridge and Josh Route. Bainbridge won his 100th match and Route won his 150th match. Bainbridge won his match by pinning his opponent at 2:48. Route’s match went the entire six minutes, and he won by a major decision 21-9.

We caught up with the pair just before practice on Monday and the first question was, what does it mean to hit that milestone?

“It means a lot because when I look on the board in the room, there's not a lot of people with 150 wins and it just feels good to be there,” said Route.

Bainbridge added, “It just like lets me know all my hard work is paying off and I'm able to keep grinding and try to get higher and higher to try to break some of these records.”

Who has been in their corner, being the biggest supporter? “My dad,” said Bainbridge. “He has always pushed me to keep going on and on and keep trying to break records, Keep going. He kept pushing me through all the hard times.”

“Definitely my parents along with my coaches, especially Luke Vaith and Tim Haneberg,” said Route.

How does their individual success help the team? “It helps the team because, it just makes other people on team better along with myself. It just spreads throughout the team when you wrestle other kids and they get better from wrestling us so makes the team better,” explained Route “It helps by scoring points to get the team score high and it helps encourage other people to try to do the same thing,” added Bainbridge.

With Sections coming up, both Route and Bainbridge are excited to get out there and show any doubters from last year that Hastings is a team to take seriously, they are excited to show what the team can do and hope to earn that coveted Section AA State Team Championship.

Friday night was also senior night for the Raiders who will be graduating 15 total team members. On the boys wrestling side, they graduate nine: Blake Clemons, Rico Cooper, Aiden Erickson, Peyton Erickson, AJ Jaeger, Austin Leflay, Joe Petersen, Ian Pepple, and Josh Route. They also graduate three girls’ wrestlers: Isabel Fritz, Elisa Kurzawski, Isabella Melecio, and three team managers: Emily Erickson, Emma Mclay, Sara Myers.

The next stop for the Raiders is the Section Tournament. Team sections is at Park High School in Cottage Grove, Friday, Feb. 17th. Quarterfinals starts at 4:00 p.m. Semifinals is 5:30 p.m. and the finals are scheduled for 7:00 p.m. the last two times are approximate depending on what happens prior. Saturday, Feb. 2fifth is the individual section tournament at 10:00 a.m. at Two Rivers High School in Mendota Heights, after that, the state tournament at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul starting on March second to fourth.

Girls Sections

Saturday, the Raiders were host to the Girls Section tournament for sections 1-4. The tournament was divided into two brackets, Section 1 and 2 were paired together and Section 3 and 4 were paired together. Each weight class sent two wrestlers from each pairing to the state tournament for a total of four wrestlers per weight class from this tournament and a total of eight wrestlers in each class at state. Of the 11 weights this year, Hastings has four enroute to Xcel Energy Center. Here are the final results of the section tournament for Hastings wrestlers.

100: Ivy Brandenburg-second place (State bound) 107: Trinity Yates-fifth place 114: Allison Weinzettel-third place 120: Gavyn Hanson-third place 126: Annabel Norquist-second place (State bound) 138: Lauren Whitfield-third place 145: Skylar Little Soldier-first place (State bound) 152: Amelia Miller-third place 165: Josie Giangiacomo-fourth place 185: Isabel Fritz-second place (State bound) 235: Maddy Radspinner-fifth place The girls section meet was very well attended for the second straight year with 166 wrestlers from four different sections and even more fans. At noon, the upper lot of the school was packed, and the lower lot was well over half full, which is a lot of vehicles. The energy was high inside the field house and there was non-stop action.

The girls will wrestle at state on Saturday, March 6th at Xcel Energy Center. If you have never taken the time to go to a state wrestling meet, you should, it is another great example of controlled chaos and high energy.

Jack Bainbridge hit the 100th win milestone with his pinfall win at 2:48 over Bemidji’s Ty White on Friday. Photo by Sarah Wasvick

Josh Route earned his 150th victory Friday night against Bemidji’s Ricky Wuori via a major decision winning 21-9. Photo by Sarah Wasvick

Annabelle Norquist took second place in the individual section tournament at 126 pounds. Norquist won her first match 13-5, the second by pinfall at 1:41 and lost the championship match by pinfall. There was no need for a ‘true second’ match because Norquist had already defeated the third-place finisher. Photo by Sarah Wasvick

Lauren Whitfield placed third in the section tournament out of six girls in her weight class. Whitfield won the first match 12-10 then lost the second match to the eventual second place winner. She later earned two more victories by pinfall to earn third place. Photo by Sarah Wasvick