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The 42nd annual Bi State Classic is officially in the books. A two day tournament filled with 70 teams, 165 ranked wrestles, 21 #1’s on the boys side and 42 ranked wrestlers on the girls side this tournament had everything! I think it’s time we recap the Bi State Classic and discuss the biggest storylines and takeaways from the weekend.

This year’s Team Champs was Chatfield. Meaning, once again the crown belongs to a Minnesota team…We will discuss more on that later. This was my first year ever attending the Bi State and let me be the first to say WOW. It is an incredibly large and tough tournament as we all know, but for its size and prestige it is also extremely well run! From a logistical standpoint it feels like they have it all down to an exact science and have thought of every detail organizationally. In addition the semis, grand march and finals are fantastic. They know how to put on a show and it’s exactly what they do. I can’t wait to be back.

Now, let’s get into the meat and potatoes of why we are here. The biggest stories and takeaways from this fantastic weekend.

Eli Leonard WOW!

The 175 pound bracket was loaded with talent. The top 3 seeds were a State Champ, Junior Fargo All American and UWW cadet trials finalist and a state finalist. Then at the 4 seed was Mount Horeb’s own Eli Leonard. Leonard ran the gauntlet taking out 1 seed from Mineral Point, State Champ Kade Rule in the semis 7-3 and then in the finals he defeated 2 seed from Marshfield Caleb Dennee 8-6. Before his semis and finals he had 3 pins and a tech fall. Leonard not only had two big time wins this weekend he was dominant against the others. I knew this young man was good, but I’ll be honest did I expect this…no. That will be the last time I make that mistake. Moving forward this also adds some chaos to the 175 pound D1 boys state bracket. Liam Crook is the returning State Champion of the bunch and a force to be rekon with, but with this win by Leonard and how both Dennee and Guerreo have looked in the offseason.. I think this weight is certainly up for grabs by any of them and will be one of the most exciting brackets at state this year!

Girls 132lb Bracket.

Carley Ceshker once again reminds us that she is the cream of the crop for women’s wrestling in our state and the country. There are only a few in our state who I would say are at the same level she is. However, with that being said, others are coming. She won her finals in dominant fashion by fall, but it was her semifinal match against Fargo All American Frankey Groom that tested her. Ceshker jumped out to an early lead with a takedown and backpoints, but it was Groom who seemed to push the pace. The final score was 10-3 with Ceshker not surrendering a takedown, but Groom continued to get to Ceshker legs and make the talented junior work for the win. Groom defeated Chesney Bartoszek in a wild 16-13 quarter final. The two wrestled again for 3rd place where Groom won 7-6 with a controversial takedown. This bracket was great and Ceshker once again got the job done, but it was also a reminder that girls wrestling in this state is evolving at a rapid rate.

215 Crowns a King!

Blake Thiry of Prairie Du Chien wins the Bi State Classic and in doing so he also claims the title as the P4P best 215 pounder in our state. The 6’3 maybe 6’4 (hard to tell I can’t see that high) 215 pound wrestler is more built than many college wrestlers and has the talent and athleticism to excel at the next level! However our newly crowned 215lb king is also a very talented football player committed to play in the Big Ten at Indiana next fall. Thiry defeated D3 #1 ranked Tyson Martin in his semifinal match by score 11-2. A result I will say I did not expect. Thiry scored with both good defense and his own offense. Wrestling a complete match against a very talented Martin. He then went onto the finals where he defeated D1 #1 Kawczynski 4-2. Martin and Kawczynski were both cadet Fargo All Americans in the past. All three of these wrestlers were and remain my pick to win their brackets at state this year. Thiry has been close in the past placing 4th and 6th, but this year he looks poised to finish the job.

Is MN Better Than WI?

This next one hurts and it pains me to say it. Especially knowing you Minnesotans reading this are likely grinning ear to ear but after this past weekend’s results with 1A Chatfield winning Bi State and a few weeks ago at the Husky invite where 3A STMA ran away with the title; it brings me great discomfort to say it appears that Minnesota is better than Wisconsin at wrestling currently. Last year would I say this, hell no we owned you despite the in season tournament results. But this year defeating Kaukauna and then multiple highly ranked teams D1 #3 Holemen, #5 Marshfield, D2 #2 Evansville, #4 PDC and D3 #2 Mineral Point, #3 Aquinas, #4 IGH I think it is safe to say your best are better than our best. Now would it be different in dual format? Maybe but that’s hypothetical. What’s not hypothetical is these freaking frozen icicles hanging from their noses, almost Canada, think they have a lot of lakes. Minnesotans just threw snowballs at us and those snowballs hit a square in the face. Wisconsin is incredibly talented and may have better depth than MN, but like a team taking a tough loss this is a nice wake up call to us Wisconsin folk that hey we are pretty good, but we got more to do. Maybe someone needs to set up a border battle or a high school dual tournament between the elite from each state. Or maybe someone will continue to be a keyboard warrior. Finally I’ll leave it at this; Minnesota takes pride in saying they are the land of 10,000 lakes (11,842 to be exact) but just so you know Wisconsin has 15,074 lakes. Suck it.

Finals Are Too Long.

Now I raved in the beginning of this article about how awesome this tournament is. How well it is run, how cool the facility is and how tough the tournament is and I stand by all of that firmly. With that being said though, the finals are too damn long! 4 hours for the finals is ridiculous. It is an awesome atmosphere and the stage is freaking sweet but something needs to be done about how long it takes. The average mat can do 11-12 matches an hour. There were 26 finals matches and they were held each time between them. I don’t know what the change has to be, but I stand in the corner that something has to give. It pains me to say it, but maybe the stage goes away and the boys and girls wrestle side by side on the floor with finals. Maybe you roll from one match to the next and not wait for all mats to finish before moving on. Ironally on “Nate’s Overreactions” this week I said that nobody except the state finals should be holding matches during the finals. Overreactions were made before I attended Bi State this weekend for the first time and saw that they hold matches. I loved Bi State and the Holemen crew does an excellent job. It’s first class all around, but for me it felt like by the end, the finals had lost some lust because of how long they took.

Weiler/Neitzel

Both Colton Weiler (150) and Liam Neitzel (132) won Bi State title this weekend. Weiler won every match in a very controlled fashion. Even in his finals match in which he won 4-0 he appeared to dictate the entirety of the match. He is an impressive wrestler to watch. We all know he has some serious greco skills making a cadet world team this summer, but his folkstyle prowess is something I feel is slightly under the radar for some and I am here to tell you it should not be. Weiler does a great job always staying in position. For as hard as he is for anyone to score points on it’s actually his offense I find to be even better. For a guy to be known to be good at greco he has some excellent leg attacks and does a great job using his upper body skills to attack the legs. Paired with strong top wrestling on the mat he makes a heck of a folkstyle wrestler. The other man Liam Neitzel is always fun to watch. He seems to always show up in big matches and he never stops. Neitzel can wrestle a full 6 minutes and then some. He has both good defense, excellent scrambling capabilities and can always seem to find his way to a leg. Not to mention he has a knack for finding cradles and when his hands are locked he is deadly. Neitzel is committed to D1 at SDSU next fall while Weiler has not yet made his decision. I know Weiler is considering the greco route, but I have to say I hope he doesn’t. At least not yet. I will stand in the corner that strongly believes both of these individuals will have a lot of success in college. Both of them have the tools in their toolbox to be NCAA qualifiers and All Americans and I hope to see them achieve that in the future.

Evansville

Something is brewing in Evansville and it smells good. They may be currently the 2nd ranked team in D2 right now, but that still does not take away from the fact that I was impressed by their performance this weekend. Finishing as the Bi State runner up you might say that is something you would expect from the 2nd ranked team and it is. It goes deeper though. When I watched their kids wrestle this weekend I was still impressed even given what I knew and expected. Several guys out performed their seeds and a couple may have not done as well as expected which I think says a lot. Those expected to perform a certain way have earned that for a reason and those that out performed are the evidence of why I think this team is building. They finished in 2nd place with only 11 wrestlers entered out of the 14 weight classes and only 1 senior (Heiser). They are young and ultra talented. On top of that they also have some very solid young bucks in their middle school/youth program. They will not only be one of the favorites to win D2 team state this year, but for years to come, mark my words.