Six Saints and four Braves earn trips to State Wrestling Meet

A week after earning a berth in the “final four” teams of the section wrestling tournament for the first time in 22 years, the Benson wrestling team will send four wrestlers to the State Wrestling Tournament, set for this Thursday through Saturday at the ExCel Energy Center in St. Paul.
Advancing to the state tourney by virtue of placing in the top two of the Section 5A Individual Wrestling Tournament this past Friday and Saturday at Long Prairie-GE High School, were Jared Knutson at 138 pounds, Grant Ascheman at 145, Aaron Zosel at 152, and Mitch Koosmann at 170.
Mitch Koosmann (pictured, top) has been ranked all season and is currently ranked 10th in state at 170 pounds.  Koosmann won the 170-pound section title this year, beating Brandin Dahl of KMS in the finals, 1-0...
KMS meanwhile, will send six wrestlers to the individual state tourney in addition to sending the entire team for the Class A State Team Tourney, set to begin Thursday (tomorrow).
Earning state berths for KMS are Will Magaard at 106 pounds, Dylan Rudningen at 126, Brandin Dahl at 170, Israel Rodriguez at 182, Karter VanHeuveln at 220, and Colton Kinney at 285.  Rudningen, Rodriguez, VanHeuveln and Kinney were all section individual champions for the Saints, while Magaard earned an exciting true-second win and Dahl fell 1-0 to Koosmann in the 170-pound championship match.
Karter VanHeuveln (pictured) had little trouble in winning the 220-pound section title and earn a second-straight trip to state.  VanHeuveln (35-4 record) won all three section matches by pin.
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