Meet athletes and teams grappling for goals at the high school wrestling state championships

Nearly 1,000 high school wrestlers are converging on the Xcel Energy Center on Thursday for the annual three-day wrestling state tournament. Here’s a tour of the action ahead:

Family connections are common in high school wrestling. Scores of fathers, sons, daughters, uncles and brothers have competed over the years. It’s happened so frequently that records are kept listing the most successful brother combinations in state tournament history.

A number of brother duos, and even a trio, are participating in the state championships this year. A few that stand out:

* Trey and Blake Beissel, Hastings: Each is a defending individual state champ, Trey, a junior, at 106, Blake, a senior, at 113. Blake also won at 106 two years ago. Each is top-ranked in his weight classes this season, Blake at 121 and Trey at 127.

* Brett, Brady and Ethan Swenson, Mounds View: Vital cogs in the Mustangs’ undefeated machine. They are sons of revered coach Jeff Swenson, now an assistant at Mounds View. Brett, a junior, is No. 2 at 114 in Class 3A; Brady, a senior, is No. 10 at 145; and Ethan, a junior, is No. 3 at 172.

* Landon and Lincoln Robideau, St. Michael-Albertville: The Robideau brothers are six guaranteed team points, often more when you factor in bonus points. Landon, committed to the Gophers, is an undefeated junior and two-time state champion who is No. 1 at 152 in Class 3A. Lincoln, a freshman, is No. 4 at 114.

* Titan and Joel Friederichs, Watertown-Mayer: Twins who are dominant in their weight classes in 2A; Joe is No. 2 at 114, Titan sits atop the pack at 121.

* Cole and Blake Han-Lindemyer, Farmington: Stanford-bound Cole is the 2023 champ at 182 pounds.

* Grant and Brody Bergeron, St. Michael-Albertville: Twin younger brothers of Class 2A gymnastics all-around champion Jackie Bergeron.

* Bennett and Landen Kujawa, Becker: Bennett, a 114-pound freshman, and Landen, a 145-pound junior, have a combined record of 71-5.

* Totino-Grace’s three pairs: Logan and Jackson Refsnider, Austin and Payton Herbst, Joe and Cy Kruse.

Individual weight classes that are exceptionally strong:

Girls

142 pounds: While most girls weights classes are deep, 142 pounds stands out. With top-ranked Audrey Rogotzke of Stillwater, a 2022 state champ, topping a field that includes 2023 120-pound champ Annabelle Petsinger of New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva, Kylie Donat of Bemidji and Allie Altringer of Anoka.

Class 1A

127: Defending champs on opposite ends of the bracket — top-seeded and undefeated Donovan Schmid of Mille Lacs, 2023 winner at 120, and Devin Carter of Tracy-Milroy-Balaton, champ at 126 — make this worth watching. Schmid has not lost a match since 2022.

Class 2A

114: Competitive balance at the top makes this weight compelling. Top-ranked Austin Grzywinski of Simley, second at 106 a year ago, has a boatload of challengers to get past to take that next step, including Joel Friederichs of Watertown-Mayer and Bennett Kujawa of Becker.

Class 3A

152: Three weight classes have multiple past state champions, 145, 189 and heavyweight, but give the Weight of Doom nod to 152. It has St. Michael-Albertville’s Landon Robideau, two-time state champion headed to the Gophers, Mounds View’s Apollo Ashby and Woodbury’s Brad Little.

Adding girls tournament brackets to the state championships, which began in 2021-22, has been a boon to girls wrestling, which has proliferated across the state.

But not all girls strictly want to wrestle their own gender.

Northfield sophomore Caley Gruber, the defending girls champion at 100 pounds, and Anoka junior Gigi Bragg both qualified for the boys Class 3A 107-pound bracket. Gruber won the Section 1 title with a 4-2 victory over Owatonna junior Kaden Lindquist. and Bragg won the Section 7 championship 1-0 over Austin Charmoli of St. Francis.

Rochester Mayo senior 145-pounder Calder Sheehan missed significant portions of the season while fighting off a viral infection that threatened his heart. He’s back and at full strength after pulling out a 3-1 victory over Nick Korman of Albert Lea in the Section 1, Class 3A finals.

0: Previous state tournament appearances by Class 1A entrant Le Sueur-Henderson.

4: Mound Westonka senior 139-pounder Jack Nelson and Jackson County Central senior 145-pounder Nolan Ambrose are going for their fourth state titles.

5: Consecutive state championships for Class 2A Simley.

30: Returning state champions.

39: State tournament appearances by Apple Valley, which qualified for No. 39 with a fall and a decision in the final two matches against New Prague in the Class 3A Section 2 team finals.

44: Pins this season by Totino-Grace senior 215-pounder Cy Kruse. The single-season record is 45, set by Stillwater’s Ryder Rogotzke in 2023. Kruse, a Cornell recruit, said he hopes to get the record in the Class 2A team tournament Thursday.

58-1: The record of Class 3A favorite Mounds View over the past two seasons. Mounds View finally got past Stillwater in the Section 4, 3A finals and advanced to the state tournament for the first time since 2007and just the third time in program history.

919: Career victories for Staples-Motley head coach Jim Jackson. Jackson, who has coached at Apple Valley and Shakopee, is in his first year as head coach at Staples-Motley and has an overall record of 919-61-4

53,299: Total attendance in 2023.