Grand Forks places fourth at North Dakota state dual tournament to earn program’s best finish

FARGO, N.D. — Grand Forks girls wrestling head coach Matt Berglund had a message for his team ahead of Saturday’s North Dakota state dual tournament at the Fargodome.

“When you get to that last day of the state tournament, everybody’s going to be sore,” Berglund said. “Everybody’s going to be tired. So this is just a test of both our mental and physical will right now to get through these last three duels.”

The KnightRiders, missing a four-time state placer in Shayla DeBlaere, aced that test.

Third-seeded Grand Forks upset second-seeded Minot United with a 42-33 win in the quarterfinals en route to its fourth-place finish at the tournament.

It was the best finish in program history.

“It’s just another stepping stone with our program,” Berglund said. “We’ve qualified for the state tournament three of the four years it’s been in existence, but we’ve never finished higher than sixth. So we made that a goal this year, to keep moving up the podium. And the girls came ready to wrestle in that first match.”

The KnightRiders suffered a 50-23 loss to Lisbon in the semifinals and a 46-29 defeat to Bismarck Legacy in the third-place match.

Junior Kaylee Kurz marked personal milestones in her last match of the tournament. She bested Morgan Schneider of Bismarck Legacy by fall in 2 minutes, 39 seconds to pick up her 100th career pin and 150th career win.

“We really wanted to get that today,” Berglund said. “Otherwise, you’re waiting nine months.”

To pull off the upset against Minot United, Grand Forks needed to win some key tossups.

Maddie Look got the KnightRiders started in the 130-pound weight class. She bested Minot’s Aaliyah Laboy by fall in 4 minutes, 46 seconds.

“Maddie Look just had a great weekend, both on the dual squad and the individual,” Berglund said. “She was really a fire starter for us. Then we had a good run of middleweights pick up some wins too in those toss-up matches.”

Kurz, Sara Novak, Aulani Long and Lexi Ray each provided wins by fall to push Grand Forks past Minot United.

“We are excited about our future as girls wrestling continues to grow,” Berglund said. “It’s getting more and more difficult each year to place, so we’ve just got to make sure we’re providing opportunities in the offseason for the girls to get better. Whether that’s our weight lifting program, our club season. But more than anything else, we want them to be in multiple sports. I love multi-sport athletes, so as long as they’re doing something year round to get better, that’s what we try to push the most.”

Grand Forks Central placed sixth in the boys’ Class A dual tournament. The second-seeded Knights suffered a 58-3 loss to third-seeded Williston in the quarterfinals but rebounded with a 47-25 victory over Devils Lake in the consolation semifinals.

Bismarck Century defeated Central 39-22 in the fifth-place match.

Pembina County North placed eighth in the Class B quarterfinals. First-seeded Velva beat the Grizzlies 58-12 in the quarterfinals.

Pembina County North suffered a 44-29 loss to Hettinger/Scranton/Bison in the consolation semifinals. In the seventh-place contest, the Grizzlies lost to Williams County by a score of 52-21

Staff reports and local scoreboards from the Grand Forks Herald Sports desk.