The Hampton-Dumont-CAL boys wrestling team concluded a strong season with several placewinners at the state tournament. Throughout the season, the team experienced several key moments.
Head Coach Patrick Hansen says winning the district title at Independence proved to be significant.
“Three teams out of that district finished in the top 10 in the state tournament,” Hansen says. “You look back on moments where it’s not what we expected to do, but man, you look back at that a little bit and it really becomes a major, major district championship.”
The Bulldogs had two champions and three second place finishers while edging the hosts for the title with 183.5 team points.
Hansen says a regional dual loss to New Hampton-Turkey Valley provided extra motivation for the postseason.
“New Hampton was one of those down points of the year. I think some of our kids needed that though. I think we needed some losses that we got at the end of the year to be able to rebound and then go wrestle in the state tournament. It’s funny to listen to our kids. They’re like, ‘Man, kids are talking about how sick of wrestling they are and how long the season is and I’d do it next weekend again if I could.’ And that’s the difference there, them knowing like ‘Hey, I’m here to win.’ So hopefully we can do that every year from here on out.”
The team had four state placewinners. Jayson Stevens placed sixth at 113, Taylor Mahler placed third at 157, Cael Burmester placed sixth at 190 and Carter Heilskov placed fourth at 285.
