Zumbrota-Mazeppa Attempting to Repeat State Title

The Zumbrota-Mazeppa Cougars hope to repeat as Class A State wrestling champions after cruising in quarterfinal and semi-final matches.  The Cougars defeated Ottertail Central in their opener 37-19 and beat Tracy-Milroy-Balaton/Westbrook-Walnut Grove 35-18 in the semi-finals.

Zumbrota-Mazeppa senior Sam Nordquist collected a fall in 1:37 at 152 pounds to give his team a 25-6 lead and a stranglehold on the match with what Tom Weeks likes to call the Cougar hammer just around the corner.

The #1 rated and #1 seed in the Tournament Cougars have #1 rated wrestlers at 182, 195 and 220 pounds and the #2 ranked wrestler at 170.  So you better have a sizable lead heading into 170 or the opponent is in trouble.

That proved to be the case in both matches.

One of our Goodhue County ADA Cougars of the semi-final match was 106 pound sophomore Michael Majerus, rated #2 in Class A winning 3-0 against #3 ranked T-M-B/W-WG eighth grader Ayden Horner.

That set a tone of aggressiveness throughout the match for Zumbrota-Mazeppa.

The other Cougar of the match was 126 pound senior Mike Vath, scoring a major decision over #6 ranked Dereck Ellingson.

Zumbrota-Mazeppa will tangle with the #2 seed and #2 rated Frazee Hornets with coverage on KDHL starting at 6:50 p.m.

Earlier in the day Kenyon-Wanamingo was short four wrestlers from their starting lineup due to a MSHSL rules violation.  We were not given details but it forced the Knights to forfeit some weights and have wrestlers moved up or down in the lineup and led to losses of 63-7 to the Panthers and 54-15 to the Ottertail Central Bulldogs.

Those Kenyon-Wanamingo wrestlers will also not be able to participate in the individual portion of the tournament.

Kasson-Mantorville also wrestles for their third straight state crown tonight.