ST. PAUL — The Caledonia/Houston boys wrestling team had a perfect first day of individual competition at the MSHSL state tournament.
The Warriors advanced four qualifiers to the state competition, and all four of them won Class A first-round matches on Thursday to earn spots in Friday’s quarterfinals.
Eighth-grader Kiplyn Meiners (29-13) started things off for Caledonia/Houston with a pin against Crookston sophomore Mauricio Arriaga. Meiners finished the match in 3:29 and earned a quarterfinal bout against New Richmond/H-E-G freshman Owen Schlaak (34-5).
Quarterfinal matches begin at 9 a.m. Friday.
Senior Aiden Burns (31-9) then recorded a takedown with 17 seconds remaining to beat LaSueur-Henderson eighth-grader LeRoy Haaland (37-1) at 114 to advance to a quarterfinal against Pelican Rapids senior Danny Salazar (20-4) in the quarterfinals.
Haaland had tied the match at 1 with an escape 6 seconds into the third.
Senior Will Allen (40-2) survived near loss of a 10-point lead in the third period to beat Mahnomen-Waubun sophomore Cade Walz (26-14) 16-13 in a 172-pound first-round match.
Allen had a 14-4 lead after a takedown with 1:04 left in the match, but Walz reversed Allen and took him down twice in the final 34 seconds. The second takedown came as time expired and produced the final score.
Allen will face Minneota senior Brock Fier (27-1) in the quarterfinal round.
Sophomore Cooper Allen (30-11) is also a quarterfinal qualifier after winning his first-round match at 215.
Allen had little trouble with LaSueuer-Henderson senior Carter Nelson (16-11) in a 15-0 technical fall that took 5:19.
Allen will face Minneota junior Cael Fier (42-2) in the quarterfinals.
