State wrestling: Day 2 observations

Of all the wrestlers who qualified for the state tournament from The Free Press Coverage area, only two went in with undefeated records. Neither is undefeated any longer.

St. Clair/Loyola's Chase Levos had his state tourney run derailed by Class A's No. 1-ranked Christian Skillings of Minneota in the quarterfinals. Levos had him beat 3-2 with just six seconds left, but Skillings used an aggressive takedown at the edge of the mat in the closing moments to pull out a 4-3 win.

The loss left Levos with a 38-1 record. The senior got back on track in the first round of wrestlebacks, decisioning Jacob Anderson of River Valley 4-3.

The other unbeaten, Brandon Pederson of Waseca, went into the 171-pound bracket of the Class AA tournament with a 37-0 record. After pinning his first-round opponent, Pederson was pushed into overtime by fourth-ranked Justin Bowland of Foley before Bowland eked out a 6-4 win.

Like Levos, the No. 1-ranked Pederson rebounded well. He delivered a 5-0 win over Cesar Yanez of St. Paul Johnson in his first-round wrestleback.

Montgomery-Lonsdale/Le Center junior Zach Friederich has reached the Class AA semifinals at 130 pounds. If he's going to win a state championship, he's probably going to have to go through the top two-ranked kids to do it. No. 2 Jake Short of Simley is Friederich's opponent in today's semifinals and No. 1-rated Garret Garness is in the other semifinal match.

Spencer Johnson of Windom/Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin also has a tough semifinal today. He's matched up with No. 1-ranked Anthony Gullickson of Totino-Grace at 189 in Class AA.

One of the most anticipated semifinals in Class A will come at 145 pounds. That's where top-ranked Jake Long of West Central Area takes on second-rated Alex Cooling of Madelia-Truman/Martin Luther.

Upstart Zack Kuhns of Maple River faces a stiff challenge in the Class A semifinal round today when he meets No. 1-ranked Isaac Novacek of Badger/Greenbush-Middle River at 103 pounds. Novacek has just one loss on the season while Kuhns came into St. Paul as an unknown with six losses.

Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial's one-point loss (31-30) to top-seeded Minneota probably kept Knights' head coach Andre Harnitz up late Thursday night. All he needed was for any of his wrestlers to score one more bonus point or give up one less bonus point to get the win.

If the meet had ended tied, LCWM would have advanced to the semifinals because it had eight wins compared to six for Minneota. LCWM is young and could make it back next year, but Harnitz has been around long enough to know opportunities like the one presented to his Knights on Thursday are rare.