VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – In this time of COVID, the State Wrestling Tournament is set up a bit differently than in years past in Class A. Since there were no regional tournaments in Class A, the seeding process was a bit different.

The East and West Region were seeded separately with the top eight wrestlers in each weight class. Then at the state tournament, they would cross bracket. I.E. , the west #1 would wrestle the east #8, East #1 wrestler West #8 etc. The other 16 wrestlers would be a random draw.

32 wrestlers were allowed for each weight class, but none of the weights have that many. The number of wrestlers range from 19, at 195 to 26 at 152.

The six #1 East Region seed for Valley City are; Koye Grebel at 106, Logan Novara at 113, Ethan Miller at 126, Broden Muske at 170, Jonathan Redfearn at 182 and Jonah Schuldheisz at 195.

Each team is allowed to bring up to 17 wrestlers to the state tournament and here are the 17 Hi-Liners that will be heading to the Fargodome.

Koltyn and Koye Grebel at 106. Koltyn, an 8th grader, is 21-2 and received a bye in the first round. Koye Grebel, a sophomore,  is 23-0 and has a bye in the first round. Logan Novara, a senior, is 20-0 at 113 and received a bye in the first round. Tucker Johnson, a sophomore, is 15-8 at 120 and got a bye in the first round and will wrestle Joey Enzminger of Bismarck Legacy in the second round. Johnson beat Enzminger 5-1 when the two wrestled on February 4th. Ethan Miller, a freshman, is 18-5 at 126 and he received a bye in the first round.

Alex Rogelstad, a sophomore, is 4-1 and will wrestle Stephen Leonard from Turtle Mountain in the first round at 132. Sophomore Isaiah Schuldheisz will take an 11-12 record into his first round match with Anthony Porter of Mandanat 138. Espen Kunze, a sophomore, is 8-14 and received a bye in the first round and will wrestle Ben Weigum from Bismarck Century in the second round.

Senior Ezra Hanse and junior Evan Mielke both will be at 152. Hanse is 16-7 and will face Myles Hinkley in the first round. Mielke, 8-14, will wrestle Mike Erickson in round one. Tyson Hovland, a sophomore will wrestler Tanner Nein of West Fargo. Kael Grebel is at 170. The senior will take a 1-4 record versus Brock Fettig of Bismarack in the first round. Fettig took second last year at 152. Broden Muske, #1 at 170 in the east, has a bye in the first round. He is 21-2 on the year.

Jonathan Redfearn received a bye at 182. The senior is 17-5 on the year. Jonah Schuldheisz received a bye in the first round at 195. The junior will take a 17-3 record in to state. Carson McGough will get a bye in the first round at 220. The senior is 18-5 on the year. Devvyn Thornton, a junior, is at heavyweight. He received a bye in the first round and will take a 5-12 mark into round two.

The individual tournament begins at 3:30 on Thursday with the round of 32. They will be running 12 mats for he round of 32, the first round of consolation, the round of 16 and the 2nd and 3rd round wrestle backs. They will drop down to eight mats for the quarterfinals.

Friday’s wrestling begins with the semi-finals at 3:30. The wrestle backs rounds 4-6 will be at 4:15. Placing rounds at 6:30 and the championship at 7:30.

Saturday, the dual tournament will begin at 10:00am with the quarterfinals. Follow all of the Hi-Liners wrestlers on 1490AM/96.3 FM KOVC all three days.

In other news concerning the Hi-Liner wrestlers. 14 of the high school wrestlers earned academic all-state honors. Requirements are to qualify for the state tournament and have a cumulative GPA o 3.4 or higher. Team GPA 3.77!