Anoka’s Gigi Bragg, standing alone as a girl wrestling boys at state championships, opens with a loss

Anoka senior Gigi Bragg, the only girl competing in the boys individual tournament at the high school wrestling state championships, lost in her opening match Friday, falling to Eli Schultz of St. Michael-Albertville 17-4 in the Class 3A 114-pound bracket at Xcel Energy Center.

It wasn’t a surprise to Bragg, who has wrestled for the boys team all season. Schultz is ranked No. 2 in the state at 114 pounds and was fresh off the Knights' Class 3A team championship effort the night before.

Bragg said she would have preferred a victory, but that was never her primary objective. She doesn’t wrestle boys because she has something to prove. She has loftier goals. Bragg sees both a world championship and an Olympic berth in her future.

“I don’t just wrestle [boys] for the trophy, I wrestle for the best competition and to better myself for my future goals,” Bragg said. “Those are way higher than just being a state champion.”

When the season began, her coach, Todd Springer, approached Bragg and asked if she was going to be the girls state champion from Anoka.

“She told me no, that I will have to find someone else,” Springer said. “I had to show her she has alternatives. She could be a two- or three-time state champion if she wrestled girls. But she’s on a different journey, and I’m fine with that.”

After the loss, Bragg spent much of her time Friday waiting to find out if Schultz won his next match. He did, pinning Joe Dauffenbach of Stillwater in the second round. That meant she still gets to wrestle, through the wrestlebacks.

“I just hope to place,” she said.

After the tournament, Bragg is off to Iowa for the Girls Folkstyle Nationals, where she has had immense success.

“If I win that, it will be my fourth time. That’s kind of cool,” Bragg said. “Then I head into my freestyle season after that.”

There’s someone missing from Trey Beissel’s Hastings crew this year.

The junior 133-pounder is making his fourth appearance in the Class 3A individual tournament. But for the first time, he’s the only Beissel representing Hastings.

Older brother Blake, a two-time state champion, graduated last year and now wrestles for the Gophers.

Trey admitted it’s a change not having Blake nearby. “It’s different. I’ve had a little change in partners, a little change in intensity, stuff like that,” Trey said. “But I’ve still got amazing partners at Hastings, and I still get good work in there.”

Beissel has committed to join his brother at Minnesota when he graduates. Until then, his goal is to match, or beat, his brother’s state meet output. Trey won one Class 3A title, at 106 in 2023, but an inflamed bursa sac in his right knee daggered his sophomore season and he finished sixth at 127 pounds.

“That gives me motivation,” he said.

He beat Spencer Lee of Eastview 16-6 to advance to Saturday’s semifinals.

Charles Vanier and Evan McGuire will both wrestle for the Gophers next year, but that’s not the only thing they have in common — they both have state championship losses to avenge this year, and they’re both successfully through to the semifinals en route to that goal.

“Any time I want to push extra or do an extra workout, I just remind myself of the second-place finish I got last year,” said Mahtomedi senior McGuire, who lost in the 189-pound title match last year. He’s wrestling at 215 pounds this time around.

“I know I can dominate and tech everyone I wrestle,” he said, and that confidence isn’t misplaced; he wrapped up his quarterfinal match in just 27 seconds with a fall.

Vanier, an Eden Prairie senior wrestling at 145 pounds this year, has the same mindset as his future teammate. He was the 139-pound runner-up last year.

“It gives me a lot of motivation,” he said. “I lost last year and that was really tough. It’s been a big grind this year.”

The duo will join a strong incoming Gophers class next year, hoping to make a mark on the current sixth-ranked program in the country. But before any of that, they’re putting it all out on the mat at Xcel Energy Center — the final tournament of their decorated high school careers.

In the words of McGuire: “It’s my last year, last chance to do it. I’m all in.”

Simley was the perennial team champion of Class 2A, on a six-year title streak before sputtering to fourth place Thursday. Now the Spartans are trying to turn their luck around in individual competition.

Four Simley wrestlers are semifinalists — Adrian Mincey (107), Jacob Kranz (114), Jake Kos (133) and Amilio Salas (152). It’s one semifinalist more than Simley had last year.

The start of individual competition Friday was a fast turnaround for the Spartans, whose tough losses were still fresh.

“We’ve just got to fix our minds,” Kranz said about resetting. “And most of us have done that.”

Is there now an extra chip on his shoulder?

“Absolutely,” Kranz said.

“We lost our six-win streak. It’s a tough loss, but next year we plan to come back even stronger.”

Trey Gunderson can’t wait until Saturday.

Ranked as the state’s No. 1 Class 1A wrestler at 139 pounds by the Guillotine, he cruised through his quarterfinal match Friday afternoon. His semifinal ticket had just been punched, and was already itching to take the mat again.

“I wish it was here today,” Gunderson said. “I’m ready for it.”

The final rounds of the state tournament are nothing new for the Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg junior.

If he were to win the 139-pound title, Gunderson would become a three-time state champion and finish his second consecutive undefeated season. He has previously won at 133 and 106 and has lost only two matches in the past three seasons.

To the hopeful three-peater, it’s all in a day’s work.

“It’s just another season,” he said of the possibility of remaining undefeated. “It’s just the cherry on top.”

Shakopee heavyweight Max Coles is one of the best football players in the state. He was an All-Minnesota selection as a defensive lineman last fall and is signed to play at South Dakota in college.

Three years ago, Coles was a basketball player.

“I was struggling,” Coles said.

An assistant coach on the football team told him he pictured a state tournament wrestler when he looked at Coles.

The rest is easy to figure out. With Coles, now standing 6-4 and weighing 245 pounds, as the heavyweight anchor, Shakopee advanced to the Class 3A team finals before losing to St. Michael-Albertville 47-18.

He also qualified for the state individual meet for the first time and, after a pair of close victories Friday, is on pace to earn a medal Saturday.

Coles said that if someone had told him three years ago he would have a chance to earn a medal at the state tournament when he was a senior, he would not have believed them.

“I would have said they were lying. One-hundred percent,” he said. “It hasn’t been easy.”

A reporter asked Grand Rapids junior 139-pounder Christian Jelle a question he’d have preferred not to answer.

But in the aftermath of a 17-2 tech fall over Levi Thompson of Princeton, lifting his record to 47-0, the engaging Jelle, an undefeated defending state champion, gave it a shot.

“Are you the fastest at shooting the legs in Minnesota?” was the query.

Jelle, who makes rapid-fire attacks his style, paused. A smile crept over his face.

“I think I’m one of the fastest,” he said.

Class 3A: Landon Robideau, St. Michael-Albertville, 160, 42-0; Bo Bokman, Lakeville South, 172, 32-0; John Murphy, St. Michael-Albertville, 189, 45-0.

Class 2A: Joel Friederichs, Watertown-Mayer, 121, 42-0; Titan Friederichs, Watertown-Mayer, 127, 42-0; Christian Jelle, Grand Rapids, 139, 47-0; Bryce Burkett, Watertown-Mayer, 172, 43-0; Owen Angell, Becker, 172, 33-0; Carson Gellerman, Big Lake, 189, 41-0; Evan McGuire, Mahtomedi, 215, 49-0; Nathan Klatt, Annandale-Maple Lake, 215, 36-0.

Class 1A: Miklo Hernandez, Pipestone, 121, 40-0; Zach Remer, Mille Lacs, 133, 48-0; Trey Gunderson, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg, 139, 41-0; Masyn Patrick, Holdingford, 145, 44-0; Carson Gilbert, Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa, 215, 37-0.

Class 3A: Liam Collins, Prior Lake, 114; Brett Swensen, Mounds View, 127; Davis Parrow, Farmington, 145; Landon Robideau, St. Michael-Albertville, 160; John Murphy, 189.

Class 2A: Titan Friederichs, Watertown-Mayer, 127; Christian Jelle, Grand Rapids, 139; Kaden Nicolas, Becker, 152; Cooper Rowe, Mound-Westonka, 160; Bruce Burkett, Watertown-Mayer, 172; Logan Bender, Chisago Lakes, heavyweight.

Class 1A: Gabe Bjerga, Staples-Motley, 121; Mikloe Hernandez, Pipestone, 121; Zach Remer, Mille Lacs, 133; Trey Gunderson, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg, 139; Carson Rowland, Chatfield, 152; Keegan Kubal, Waterville-Elysian-Morristown/JWP, heavyweight.