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State Wrestling Tournament

Three teams, 20 individuals return to defend titles;
New weight classes to debut

All three of the 2011 team champions return to defend their respective titles: the Jackson County Central Huskies in Class A; the Simley Spartans in Class AA; and the Apple Valley Eagles in Class AAA. Jackson County Central, which tied Frazee for top honors in 2011, is looking for its third consecutive title. Simley of Inver Grove Heights is looking for its fifth consecutive title and Apple Valley is seeking its seventh consecutive title.
Two teams are making their first tournament appearances this year: Barnesville in Class A and Champlin Park in Class AAA. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Eagles of Apple Valley return for their 30th consecutive and 31st overall appearance.
In the individual competition, 20 champions return for more gold medals five in Class AAA, 10 in Class AA, and five in Class A.
This will also be the first year that new weight classes are in effect. The National Federation of State High School Associations which writes rules for wrestling adopted the current 14 weight structure following an exhaustive study by the National Wrestling Coaches Association. Actual weigh-in information of 195,000 wrestlers was analyzed and the current structure was developed to include approximately 7.14 percent of all wrestlers per weight with the intent of providing an equal distribution of all wrestlers across all weights. The new structure also includes a new weight in the low 180-pound range.
Here are the current (and former) weight classes for comparison: 106 (103), 113 (112), 120 (119), 126 (125), 132 (130), 138 (135), 145 (140), 152 (145), 160 (152), 170 (160), 182 (171), 195 (189), 220 (215), 285 (285)

The 2012 State Wrestling Tournament opens Thursday, March 1, and runs through Saturday, March 3, at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. The three-day format features all of the team dual competition on Thursday, followed by exclusive individual competition Friday and Saturday.

This is the fourth year that the teams have been seeded. The 24 coaches of the section champions logged onto a special page of the League Web site and each coach ranked the other teams one through seven. The highest and lowest rankings for each team were discarded, leaving five rankings for each team. From those rankings, the top four seeds were selected. In conference calls with all eight head coaches of each class, League Associate Director and Tournament Director Craig Perry announced the top four seeds and then conducted a blind draw of the four remaining teams to establish the opponent for the seeded teams.

The Schedule and Ticket Information
This year's schedule features the team tournament running all day on Thursday, March 1. The action starts with the Class A and Class AAA quarterfinals at 9 a.m. They will be followed by the Class AA team quarterfinals at 11 a.m., which will be run simultaneously with the Class A and Class AAA consolation semifinals.
At 1 p.m. on Thursday, all three classes will wrestle in the team championship semifinals and Class AAA will also have its consolation semifinals. The consolation and third-place team matches for all three classes will begin at 5 p.m. Thursday evening, followed by the team championship matches for all three classes at 7 p.m.
On Friday, March 2, the Class AAA individual first round begins at 9 a.m. The Class A individual first round starts at 11 a.m., followed by the Class AA individual first round at 1 p.m. On Friday evening, the Class AAA individual quarterfinals begin at 5 p.m. The Class A and Class AA individual championship quarterfinals will follow at 6 and 7 p.m., respectively. The evening session will conclude with all wrestlebacks at 8 p.m.
On Saturday there will be five rounds of competition. The first starts at 10 a.m. and will consist of all individual consolation quarterfinals. The second round will start approximately at 11:15 a.m. and will entail all individual championship semifinals. Round Three begins approximately at 1:15 p.m. and will encompass all individual consolation semifinals. At approximately 5 p.m., all individual fifth- and third-place matches will begin, followed by awards. The day will end with all individual championships beginning at approximately 7:30 p.m. Awards will also follow the final round.
Other than the first matches of each session, all subsequent rounds will start immediately following the conclusion of the previous competition in that session. Thus, most of the start times are approximate. Fans should bear that schedule in mind in planning their arrival at Xcel Energy Center.
Ticket prices are $14 per adult and $9 per student for each session. Daily passes are available for $26 for adults and $17 for students. Season passes, good for the entire tournament, are available to adults for $78 and to students for $51.

Live Web Streaming
The championship semifinals and championship matches of the team and individual competition for all classes will be streamed live by Prep45.com on the Web and are available at no charge.

Full News Release

State Boys Swimming and Diving Meet

Fergus Falls, Minnetonka, seven individuals to defend titles

Fergus Falls (Class A) and Minnetonka (Class AA) are both looking for their second consecutive team titles this year.
Fergus Falls won two individual events last year, defeating the runners-up from St. Thomas Academy of Mendota Heights by one point. This year the Otters have qualifiers in every event except the 200-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle.
The Minnetonka Skippers are returning competitors to every event except the 50-yard freestyle. The Skippers did not win a single event last year, but when their points were tallied they outscored Eden Prairie by five and a half points.
In Class A, five individual champions and all three relay champions return from the 2011 meet. There are two individual returning champions in Class AA, and all three relay teams are also defending their respective titles.

Schedule and Ticket Information
This year's state meet will start on Thursday, March 1, and run through Saturday, March 3. All events will take place at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.
The Class A one-meter diving preliminaries, the first five of eight dives for the state meet, will begin at noon on Thursday, followed by the Class AA diving preliminaries at 6:00 p.m. The Class A swimming preliminaries begin at noon on Friday, followed by the Class AA swimming preliminaries at 6 p.m. The Class A championship finals of all events begin at noon on Saturday, followed by the Class AA finals at 6 p.m.
Tickets will be available at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center. Prices are $5.00 for both students and adults for the div