FINAL DAY OF THE 2015 MINNESOTA STATE HIGH SCHOOL LEAGUE WRESTLING TOURNAMENT

Feb. 28 was the final day of the 2015 MSHSL state wrestling tournament. The day started with the consolation semifinals in all classes. Then it was the individual weight class semifinals in all classes.

For my first ever wrestling tournament I did enjoy it. Going into the event I didn’t know what to expect. When I got here on Thursday it took me awhile to get used to what all was going on. 

I was able to figure it out and by Saturday I really got to enjoy the tournament itself.

I saw a lot of good matches while I was down covering the event. I was able to meet new people from around the state.

There are a lot of different wrestling singlet’s the different designs are truly unique for each school.

One of the other interesting things that I noticed was they had kids helping the officials out with the clock. With eight mats going at once each mat had their own scoreboard. There were kids that would help out the officials out by tapping the officials with a foam bat. When the clock ran out the kids would tap one of the officials to let them know that the clock had run out. Each round lasted 2 minutes.

As I stated in an earlier report from the tournament all of the mats were numbered and had a high school logo on it.

The media was set up on both ends of the arena of the Xcel Energy Center. There were slabs of wood with power outlets on both ends of the stadium where reporters like myself could set up to cover the event. Also radio stations from across the state came to cover the tournament.

Stats from each round were distributed throughout the tournament to keep us updated on who won at each level.

Despite the wifi not working throughout the tournament overall I thought the tournament went very well. I plan on being back again to cover this event again.

FRIDAY’S 2015 MSHSL STATE WRESTLING TOURNAMENT

On Friday Feb. 27 was the second day of the MSHSL State Wrestling tournament at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

The energy in the Xcel Energy Center was electric as fans cheered for their teams. It was the individual portion of the tournament.

Once again there was a lot of action on eight mats. There was order on all the mats as each mat followed the same format.

It was a bracket so each wrestled someone in their own weight class and if they won their match they would go on to the next round. If they lost however they would go to the looser bracket and then keep wrestling.

All three classes took part in the contest. Each match was numbered so each participant knew when and where they were wrestling.  

Overall I thought that everything went well over all. It was a good experience to come down and watch and cover an event like this because it is something that I usually don’t cover on a regular basis.

THURSDAY’S ACTION AT THE MSHSL STATE WRESTLING TOURNAMENT

On Feb 26 the Xcel Energy enter was buzzing with wrestlers from across the state as the Minnesota State High School wrestling tournament was held there.

There were six different matches going on at the same time. The Class 3A and 2A team quarterfinals started off the day. On each different mat was represented by a school's logo and color along with a number on it to tell what number it was.

In class AA action Albert Lea Area beat Foley by the final of 42-12, Simley beat Worthington 39-21, Totino-Grace got by Perham by the final of 34-31, and Scott Went beat Milaca/Faith Christian 46-23.

The first day of the match was a challenge for me I enjoyed it though. There was a lot of matches going on. I thought that all of the teams were well represented.

The atmosphere was electric as fans shows up to show their support for each team.

Both teams went through the team quarterfinals and semifinals.

In the Class AA consolation semifinals Farmington beat White Bear Lake 38-23.  

The tournament was split into three different days. On the first day it was the team tournament in all three classes. All of the team tournaments took place on the first day.

Overall I had a good time watching all of the wrestling action. I will be back to watch the individual tournament on Friday.