Glazier Beats King Again; Staska, Johnson Place at State Wrestling Meet

Albert Lea's Zach Glazier beat Cade King of Owatonna High School 1-0 for the 182-pound Class AAA state wrestling championship Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center. It was Glazier's fifth win of the season over King, who won the weight class last season to cap an unbeaten season. Glazier won the title last winter at 170 pounds.

Each match between the two has been a struggle of offense vs defense. King is an aggressive wrestler who frequently scores many points in his matches. Glazier is a strong defensive wrestler and rode out King for the entire third period for the title after getting his only point on a second-period escape. The first period was spent entirely neutral.

Glazier did not shoot at King during the match. That's not to say the Tigers' senior has no offense. He scored technical fall wins in his first two matches at state and registered a rare semifinals pin over Ben Schmalz (50-3) of Mounds View. No. 1 ranked Glazier ended the season 47-0.

King (43-5) dominated the other bouts at state. He opened with a 17-2 tech fall over Zach Young of Rosemount, pinned Jacob Meissner of Osseo in 1:04 and crushed Josh Piechowski of Stillwater Area 13-2 in the semifinals.

Glazier also beat King 1-0 in the Section 1AAA finals on February 23. The two also met during the regular season dual and two tournaments. Both are seniors. Glazier is going to wrestle at Iowa and King will attend South Dakota State and wrestle for the Jackrabbits. King placed four times at state and made it to the finals three times, winning the title in 2018.

Owatonna senior Nick Staska ended his high school career on the podium stand with a fifth-place finish at 220 pounds after just missing the medals last year. Staska's electrifying run through the tournament began with a pin at 5:19 in Friday's opening round over Lafayette Bade of Elk River. The two squared off on the football field as well where Staska was a linebacker for the Huskies and Bade played offensive line for the Elks. Staska won that match-up as well in the Huskies' semifinal victory on their way to a state championship.

A loss to the No. 2 seed Cole Fibranz of Sartell-St. Stephen in the quarterfinals put him into the consolation round. Staska, who was ranked at 195 pounds earlier this season, beat the No. 7 ranked 220-pounder Charles Dressel of Mounds View and No. 9 rated Jagger Schack with a 3-1 come-from-behind, overtime victory to make the medal-round.

No. 3 ranked Andrew Reigstad of Willmar beat Staska 5-0 in the consolation semifinals. Staska ended the tournament with a 2-0 win in the fifth-place match over Tommy Johnson of state-team-champion Shakopee.

Huskies' freshman Landen Johnson had an exciting time in downtown St. Paul. Rated No. 6 in state, he opened with a 12-1 victory over Ryan Luthi from Moorhead then lost to No. 4 ranked Hunter Lyden of East Ridge 10-4.

Johnson demolished Gabe Schumacher of Minnetonka 17-1 in the consolation round and scored a third-period pin over No. 10 Kyle Patnode from Brainerd. Johnson lost to No. 2 ranked Trey Kruse from Stillwater Area by fall and dropped the fifth-place match to No. 7 Gavin Peterson from Maple Grove 4-2 in overtime, finishing sixth. Johnson also competed at state as a seventh-grader but missed the tournament last season.

Owatonna freshman Kanin Hable earned some valuable state tournament experience. In his debut he drew a tough part of the bracket. He lost to No. 6 Jared Spohn from Sauk Rapids-Rice on a third-period pin. Spohn then lost to the top-seed Derrick Cardinal of Forest Lake, leaving Hable in the one-and-done category and out of the consolation round. Wrestlers who lose in the first round need their opponent to win his next match in order to continue in the tournament.