By Bruce Karnick

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The Hastings boys wrestling team dominated the section 3AAA meet on Friday, Feb. 18 at Woodbury High School. As the No. 1 seeded team in the section, Hastings had a firstround bye before they faced the Woodbury Royals.

Woodbury had the most exciting round of the night, the first round against Eagan. It came down to the final match, the heavyweights. Woodbury’s Thomas Moesenthin won by fall in 39 seconds to tie the score at 40. Woodbury snuck by with the tie breaker to face Hastings.

The Raiders jumped all over the Royals early winning the first four matches. Skylar Little Soldier wrestled with the boys team for the first time in months and the rust was definitely there. Little Soldier fought hard but ultimately ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard for Hastings first loss. It did not take long for Hastings to exert their dominance over the Royals, winning the round 56-18.

Individual performances for the round were: 106 – Trey Beissel (Hastings) over Joe Bents (Woodbury) Fall 0:18 113 – Blake Beissel (Hastings) over Nic Lunemann (Woodbury) Tech Fall 17-0 120 – Mark Svoboda (Hastings) over Matt Lunemann (Woodbury) Decision 9-5 126 – Jack Bainbridge (Hastings) over Kaiden Kirby (Woodbury) Fall 3:55 132 – Dino Tokin (Woodbury) over Skylar Little Soldier (Hastings) Decision 12-7 138 – Alex Braun (Woodbury) over Creed Peterson (Hastings) Fall 1:26 145 – Josh Route (Hastings) over Unknown (Unattached) Forfeit 152 – Brad Little (Woodbury) over Fletcher Peterson (Hastings) Fall 1:27 160 – Zander Hallis (Hastings) over Josh Williams (Woodbury) Fall 0:41 170 – Ian Pepple (Hastings) over Iyad Mahfouz (Woodbury) Fall 0:43 182 – Jericho Cooper (Hastings) over Unknown (Unattached) Forfeit 195 – Tyler Miller (Hastings) over Santiago Gjerde (Woodbury) Fall 1:11 220 – Austin Leflay (Hastings) over Oscar Mancera (Woodbury) Fall 1:38 285 – Thomas Moesenthin (Woodbury) over Blake Clemons (Hastings) Decision 9-5 The championship round was a rematch of a recent victory for Hastings, Park of Cottage Grove. Hastings once again had their way with Park, this time winning 59-13.

106 – Trey Beissel (Hastings) over Zack Carr (Park) Dec 7-2 113 – Blake Beissel (Hastings) over Kyler Jubinal (Park) Fall 3:47 120 – Zachary Silvis (Park) over Mark Svoboda (Hastings) Fall 0:31 126 – Jack Bainbridge (Hastings) over Joey Chilton (Park) Fall 0:54 132 – Gunnar Mullen (Park) over Peyton Erickson (Hastings) Major Decision 11-2 138 – Creed Peterson (Hastings) over Leroy Olson (Park) Fall 3:26 145 – Josh Route (Hastings) over Will Deutsch (Park) Tech Fall 15-0 152 – Aiden Erickson (Hastings) over Donovan Early-Pinder (Park) Tech Fall15-0 160 – Zander Hallis (Hastings) over Samuel Lankow (Park) Major Decision 14-5 170 – Ian Pepple (Hastings) over Dominic Atkins (Park) Fall 0:54 182 – Jericho Cooper (Hastings) over Brandan Lee (Park) Fall 2:50 195 – Alex Carr (Park) over Dylan Bartz (Hastings) Decision 6-0 220 – Austin Leflay (Hastings) over Unknown (Unattached) Forfeit 285 – Blake Clemons (Hastings) over Doug Sabin (Park) Fall 1:30 As a team, each wrestler is given a goal for takedowns during competitions over the season. When they reach that goal, they earn a steak dinner. Rico Cooper was 17 takedowns away from that season milestone. His first match was a forfeit, so he had to make up for it in the second match. When asked ‘tell me about your match,” the ever-witty Cooper came out firing.

“My first one or my second one? My first one was easy, I didn’t do anything,” Cooper laughed. “My second one, I just tried to get all my takedowns in and get in the steak dinner club. I’ve got to have about, I think eight more takedowns or so in my next couple of matches, that’s what it’s going to be, takedown, takedown, takedown.”

Fellow Raider Blake Beissel is having a career year for Hastings. Beissel has been the number one ranked class AAA wrestler at 106 for the entire season.

“I can’t get too cocky, I’ve got to stay humble,” said Beissel. “I still have state, so I can’t let it get in my head too much. I look at everybody with the same respect, I just go out there to wrestle a good match and wrestle hard.”

Beissel spoke about the team and the group of guys they have this year that have been prepping for the chance to go to state for the last five years and that they are ready thanks to the great coaching staff led by Tim Haneberg.

“It’s been fun, every single day it’s been fun,” Haneberg said. “We come to practice every day, it’s never a chore. We’re never dragging. It’s never like, ‘ugh I’ve got to go to practice,’ just something that’s looming over you. It’s fun every single day, these kids are a blast to be with. I’ll say the biggest thing too, is we’re really seeing the fruits of the labor that we put in during the summertime, and the relationships that we build and cultivate there. And these kids just love each other as well. So, they come every day, they’re friends with each other, they support each other. It’s just been a really awesome community.”

Hastings has victories against most of the teams in section 3AAA, but they did not look past their section opponents and they put in the work to earn two additional impressive victories.

“I think it’s just something that we focus on every single day, you know, just taking care of the little things and doing the little things the right way, and every single person on the team does their job,” Haneberg explained about keeping his team ready and focused. “If every single kid does his job, I think we’re going to come out ahead.”

Unfortunately, some wrestlers will not be able to be on the roster for the state meet, which has a roster limit of 21. Those wrestlers will still play a vital role in preparing the team for the tournament and they will also have an opportunity to be in the individual tournament.

Haneberg could only revel in the team win for so long before shifting gears to get ready for the individual tournament.

“This is what we focus on every single year, winning a section title. When it actually happens, it’s pretty sweet to see. Then, when you beat a team like this tonight, that’s really special. So, it’s just what we focus on, what we try to preach every single day,” explained Haneberg.

Haneberg kept his words humble but the team’s success over the last decade-plus speaks for itself. Hastings participated in the state preliminary tournament where they were bumped by Stillwater last year. In 2020 they were also a state participant and in 2019 they placed sixth at state. Eight Class AAA teams have made the state tournament at least six times in the last ten years, Hastings is one of those eight. The Raiders even have a consolation championship in that time.

This team has a different feel from teams of the past. The level of fun they have with each other wrapped up with the family feel has this team poised to do something special. First up though is the individual Section 3AAA tournament at Two Rivers on Feb. 26 with team state on Mar. 3 and individual on Mar. 4-5.

The state tournament is held at Xcel and spectators do have some rules to be aware of. No bags are allowed with the exception of medically required or diaper bags. Masks are required at all times as well. For a full list of tournament rules for spectators, visit MSHSL.ORG.