Class 1A state wrestling championships AND BASKETBALL NEWS!

Another jam-packed day is upon us!

Here's the first-round pairings for today's state wrestling championships:
At 120 pounds, Ryan Jensen starts out with Zach Brown (34-3) of Crookston

At 126 pounds, Walker Bents is the No. 2 seed in his bracket, and he starts out with Boden Simon (29-7) of Maple River.

At 138 pounds, Tyler Jensen starts out with Maddox O'Reilly (22-4) of Goodhue.

At 145 pounds, Blaine Fischer is the No. 1 seed in his bracket, and he starts out with Beau Jurrens (16-11) of Zumbrota-Mazzeppa.

More to come.

**State wrestling action starts at 2 p.m. today at St. Michael-Albertville high school!

UPDATE: and there's no update, as of 11 a.m., I still don't see updated brackets with state tournament pairings. I expect that to happen soon, though!

The Belgrade Commercial Club hosted a wildly successful Easter Egg hunt for area children. It was magnificent! There was a light drizzle of rain, but that didn't hamper anyone's spirits. The kids had fun!

BIG UPDATE: the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team will face upstart West Central Area in the Class 1A state tournament quarterfinals! The Jaguars are the No. 1 seed in the north half of the state brackets. WCA is seeded No. 4, and they are going to be a load. They knocked out No. 6-ranked and previously-undefeated Hancock in the subsection finals and then No. 2-ranked and heavy-favorite Henning in the section title game just two nights later.

Now the only "guess" left for me is the site of the game, which is likely the Alexandria Area high school. There will be a brief waiting game now while the MSHSL negotiates the state tournament sites. They have to have all sites lined up before they are posted, so it may be this afternoon before we know. In past years, the negotiating involved a school/site trying to ensure they have enough staff and volunteers to operate concessions, ticket taking, etc...in the current times, the wonder and concern is not about staffing concessions, but instead about being able to enact and follow state COVID protocols. 

*Official Class 1A state tournament North seedings:

1. B-B-E

2. Mountain Iron-Buhl

3. Cass Lake-Bena

4. West Central Area

*Official Class 1A state tournament South seedings:
1. Minneota
2. Mayer Lutheran
3. Sleepy Eye St. Mary's
4. Houston

Here's video from prior to the start of Thursday's section finals at Minnewaska:

Crazy stats to ponder: in their Sub-Section 6A-South semifinal contest on March 19, the West Central Area Knights were boosted by a 47-point output by their bench players. The No. 3-seeded Knights defeated No. 2-seeded Parkers Prairie 67-51 at the home of the Panthers. WCA had two eighth-graders, Macy Grosz and Mya Foslien, erupt from long range with seven three-pointers. The win avenged a 69-65 loss to Parkers Prairie at WCA high school in Barrett on February 16.

I am working on a new blog post with WCA scouting material. There's only about 108 things to do today. We are officially in the fast lane, and I predict that we won't be out of it for a couple more weeks!!!!

*UPDATE: as of 12:15 p.m., we don't have a site yet for the state quarterfinal basketball game.

I think that's enough for this blog post! Time to post a new one and dig into my afternoon to-do list.