Junior Brody Ullyott was unseeded at 138 pounds in Class AA and made an impressive run to the championship match to take on last year’s state runner-up and the No. 1 seed Cael Berg of Simley. Berg captured the title in a 9-1 major decision at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul Saturday, Feb 29.

“He’s a really good wrestler,” said Brody. “I went into the match knowing I was the underdog. I was just going to give him a run for his money and make him work for what he had to earn. That was my mentality going into it.”

Berg scored a quick takedown seconds into the match en route to a 6-1 lead after the first period. Ullyott was very close to scoring two points on a reversal in between a second Berg takedown and a nearfall but was not awarded the points by either of the referees.

Head coach Rob Ullyott wanted Brody to try to keep the score low for a best chance at the upset.

“You have to tip your hat to the Simley kid,” said Coach Ullyott. “He opened up and took his corners. You know how he’s going to come at you. He’s really quick and uses good direction changes. We talked about maybe tying up the hands and things.”

Coach Ullyott got to wear two big hats as head coach and dad during the match.

“I think it all kind of blends together,” he said, “It’s all the same, your team, your kids. It’s very fun, but any of our kids that make it into the medal round, I’m pretty proud of them and I was proud of all these guys down here. Both he and Cade will bring home a medal and anytime you come down here and bring home a medal I think you had a good tournament, especially considering both those guys were unseeded. They had a little rougher road than some. I thought they did a great job.”

Cade Jackson placed fourth at 126 pounds earlier in the day.

For Brody Ullyott, making the state tournament was planned. Getting to the championship final was a little extra.

“That kind of came as a surprise,” he said. ‘I went into the first match hoping to just win at least my first one and then just go from there, but I took a couple more steps than I thought I would. It feels good and it will be nice looking back later in life how our team placed for the first time and how I placed for my first time.

Detroit Lakes finished in third place Thursday, the best team mark at state in school history. Both tournaments present wrestlers with different styles of matches and competition.

“On Thursday, you’re wrestling for your team so you’re wrestling a different match trying to get bonus points and trying not to give up bonus points,” said Brody. “This is all or nothing, you don’t have anything to lose so matches go just a little bit different. It’s super fun being in both tournaments.”

Frazee senior Luke Tweeton and Perham’s Dawson Kellogg competed on the end mats at the same time in their respective 195-pound championship matches.

Westfield’s Colton Krell outscored Tweeton in each period trading takedowns for escapes and a 4-2 lead after two periods of a final 7-3 decision in favor of Krell.

Kellogg was leading Kolin Baier of Mankato East 3-2 in the third period and appeared in control when Baier flipped Kellogg onto his back and the match for a state Class AA championship fall at 5:24.

Detroit Lakes’ Cade Jackson finished his freshman season with a fourth place finish at 126 pounds after being defeated in the third place match by technical fall at 5:12 with the score 27-9. Jackson’s opponent, No. 2 Jaxson Rohman, a Fairmont/Martin County West junior, handed Cade both of his losses of the individual tournament.

Frazee senior Brett Graham wrapped up his Hornet career with a fourth place finish also after a top five 182-pound match with Mason Smid, a senior from Blackduck/Cass Lake-Bena.

Smid opened a 7-3 lead by the end of the second period. Graham was able to close to a 7-6 deficit with 35 seconds remaining in the match but Smid held off and escaped his way to third place by a score of 8-6.

Tournament recap:

Ullyott, Tweeton to wrestle for state titles

Ullyott advanced to the Class AA 138-pound championship match in an attempt to become only the second Laker wrestler in program history to win an individual state championship Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center.

Ullyott has targeted wrestling his way to Saturday night in St. Paul since the beginning of the season.

“At week one, I have on my goal sheet that one of my goals was to make state,” he said. “That was my main goal after last season barely not making it.”

No. 5 Ullyott advanced to the semifinals defeating Hibbing's David Platt 9-5 taking control of the match with a reversal and back points while outscoring Platt 8-1 in the second period after a scoreless first Friday night.

Saturday morning’s semifinal against Connor Simmonds of Fairmont-Martin County West finished in similar fashion.

After both wrestlers completed the first period with no scoring, Ullyott took a 4-3 lead in the second period with a reversal and two-point nearfall. In the third, Ullyott clinched the match with an early escape and another reversal, nearfall combination to win the period 5-3 and the match 9-6.

Ullyott (43-5) already wrestled his championship opponent, top-seeded Cael Berg (47-4) of Simley. Berg won by decision 8-3 in the state team semifinal match between the Lakers and Spartans on Thursday.

In Class A, Tweeton (46-2) advanced to the 195-pound championship breaking a 2-2 early second period tie and controlled the rest of the match defeating Wabasso-Red Rock Central’s Derek Werner by major decision 11-3.

Tweeton dominated all three of his state matches advancing out of the first two rounds with pins. His quarterfinal match against Norwood Young America’s Sean Weckman lasted all of 37 seconds.

Jackson, Graham aim for third place

Graham (182) and Jackson (126) advanced through wrestlebacks to the third place match.

Jackson’s journey through the bracket included a win by fall, a sudden victory and an injury default by Princeton’s Landen Parent.

After reaching the championship semifinals, Graham, had a rematch of his Section 8A 182-pound championship match with Crookston freshman Ethan Boll to stay in the tournament.

Graham won the 8A final in a sudden victory and picked up another close win by decision 4-3 to advance to Saturday afternoon at state.

Tough first round for Lakers

Ullyott was the lone Laker of the six qualifiers to advance to the Class AA state wrestling quarterfinals after the first session.

Ullyott led the entirety of a 4-2 victory over Brandt Bombard of North Branch to face Hibbing’s David Platt for a semifinal berth.

The rest of the Lakers needed to wait on quarterfinal results for a shot at wrestlebacks or tourney elimination.

Jackson lost his 126 pound match to Rohman (49-0) by major decision 18-8 but rallied to earn third place taking the long road through wrestlebacks defeating Mound-Westonka’s Noah Lietzau by fall (4:44) and Becker’s Ethan Anderson 5-3 in a sudden victory.

DL 220-pounder Jordan Skadsem got a tough draw squaring off with Class AA state champion Simley’s Bennett Tabor (47-0), the two seed. The Simley junior defeated DL’s senior by major decision 13-5. In wrestlebacks, Skadsem was eliminated by Hutchinson’s Cody Kurth 5-0.

Cade Okeson lost his 120-pound match 4-3 by ultimate tiebreaker to Lake City’s Johnathan Harvey. The match was tied 2-2 after one and 3-3 after the third period. Both wrestlers were scoreless in the opening one-minute overtime session and the first 30-second period. Okeson was on top for the next 30-seconds and Harvey escaped, literally, with the win in the final five seconds.

Okeson was denied a shot at wrestlebacks when Harvey lost his quarterfinal match 3-2.

At 170, Blaine Henderson trailed 3-0 heading to the third period but rallied to tie the match only to fall 4-3 to South St. Paul’s Quinn Christoffersen in a struggle for both wrestlers.

Christoffersen was defeated by major decision in his next match 13-2 eliminating Henderson.

Laker heavyweight and hero from Thursday night’s third place match Andreas Barnett found himself in a unique rematch with Foley’s Elijah Novak to start individuals.

Barnett pinned Novak to seal a 26-25 victory for third place in team wrestling Thursday, but Novak got the better of Barnett Friday controlling a 3-0 decision to advance. Barnett’s tournament ended when Novak lost in the quarters 5-0.

Area wrestlers

Frazee sent six individuals to state and half advanced to the Class A quarterfinals.

Graham advanced handily in a first period pin over Austin Mundt of Deer River. Graham battled Gideon Ervasti of Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale/Parkers Prairie for a spot in the semifinals winning 5-3.

Tweeton, seeded two at 195, pinned New York Mills Elliot Mann late in the third period.

Lukas Volstad advanced over Luke Krier of Zumbrota-Mazeppa in a 15-10 decision at 126 pounds. Volstad faced Gavin Winter of Kimball Area in the quarters losing by fall at 1:47.

At 120, Christian Carlson lost a 3-1 decision to Ayden Horner of Tracy-Milroy-Balaton and was eliminated from contention.

At 132, Seth Isola was defeated 10-4 by Kade Lozinski of Minneota and did not get to wrestlebacks.

Kaden Hiemenz lost his 138-pound opener to Anthony Sykora of West Central Area/Ashby/Brandon-Evansville 4-2 and was eliminated on a Sykora loss next round.

United Clay Becker’s Wyatt Dunham was pinned in 23 seconds by Becker 220-pounder Brayden Weber in Class AA. Dunham was eliminated in his next match by fall at 3:12 to Marshall senior Jaiden Bahr.

Mahnomen-Waubun’s Garret Eiynck lost a major decision 13-1 in Class A 126 pounds and was eliminated by Tucker Ginther of Caledonia/Houston by fall (2:25).

Pelican Rapids lone entrant Matthew Ziebell was forced to retire by injury default in the second period of his 152-pound opener.

Tournament notes: Detroit Lakes head coach Rob Ullyott was named the Section 8AA coach of the year. The Laker wrestlers were awarded a gold academic award for achieving a team cumulative grade point average above 3.50.