Gunnar is going to be a fan favorite at Augustana.”

Augustana head coach Jason Reitmeier

It was just another day in the office for Park High’s all-time wrestling win leader. A final day, at least in the Cottage Grove office.

Park senior Gunnar Mullen blazed through the field in the Section 3AA individual wrestling meet Saturday while hardly breaking a sweat, winning the title with three technical falls. He finishes his tenure as one of Park’s very best.

Mullen scored technical fall victories in each of his matches to easily win the 172-pound championship and earn another trip to state. Mullen never needed a second period to finish off his opponents Saturday, winning 17-2, 17-2 and 18-0.

Mullen qualified for the state wrestling tournament each of his four years at Park, placing fourth last season. He’ll be back in action along with three Park teammates this weekend as the Minnesota individual state wrestling tournament gets underway Friday and Saturday at Xcel Energy Center.

Mullen began wrestling for the Wolfpack as a slight but strong seventh grader but still went 20-12 at 106 pounds that first season. That’s when the Park coaches knew he was something special.

“By the time he was in the ninth grade he was pretty polished, and he’s been progressively getting better each year,” said Park wrestling head coach Jim LaBrosse. “Stronger. Mentally stronger as well … and his work ethic is unstoppable.”

Mullen has worked his way up the weigh charts ever since. He went 39-11 as a freshman at 132 pounds, 45-7 as a sophomore at 145 and 50-7 as a junior at 152 pounds. This season Mullen is 40-4 at 172 heading into the 2025 state meet.

Mullen’s total of 230 wins in his career is by far Park’s most wins ever. And he’s obviously not done quite yet.

Mullen’s career win total elevates him over recent past Park wrestling greats such as Collin LaBrosse (172 wins, 2016 grad), Zach Silvis (159 wins, 2022 grad) and Solomon Lankow (133 victories, 2020 grad).

“He doesn’t have a lot of weaknesses,” said LaBrosse. “His strength is his conditioning and his will to compete. His motor doesn’t stop. And he’s a student of the game. He listens to his coaches, and he gets better every day. So, I think that’s his big attributes. He just wants to continue to do well. He leads by example. He’s a great captain and does whatever is asked of him and he’s our leader obviously and he’s kind of running this team.”

Mullen has significant wins of Minnesota’s best this season, including two technical falls over seventh-ranked Cullen Christenson of Forest Lake, two wins of fifth-ranked Lindson Turner of Stillwater and a win over Woodbury’s Brad Little, top ranked at 152 pounds. He’s finished first in four tournaments this season.

Last season at state, Mullen won a 6-0 decision in the opening round and then an 11-6 decision in the quarterfinals before losing to Woodbury’s Brad Little by a fall in the championship semifinals. In the consolation semifinals Mullen pinned Prior Lake’s John Graham in 46 seconds. Mullen then lost a 9-3 decision to Eden Prairie’s Patrick Kubisa in the third-place match. He earned All-State honors as a junior.

Mullen signed to wrestle at Augustana University next season and the Augustana coaches seem eager to get him in the wrestling room.

“I can’t wait to get this guy on campus,”: said Augustana head coach Jason Reitmeier. “He has a grinding straight forward wrestling style that I love. Gunnar is a tough kid who just enjoys competing. Gunnar has had some success, but I feel he has a lot left in the tank and I am looking forward to seeing it come out. Gunnar is going to be a fan favorite at Augustana.”

He plans to major in physical and health education with a minor in coaching while at Augustana.

Mullen began wrestling at a very early age, in preschool or kindergarten, mostly to compete against his older brother Christian. “I saw him doing it, thought it was really fun and I wanted to be like him, so I wanted to wrestler too,” Millen said.

His wrestling prowess started slowly, but by the time he was in fifth grade he was taking the sport more seriously, started placing in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling tournaments.

“I kind of turned on a switch in my sixth and seventh grade years,” Mullen recalled. “Because me and my dad were talking about if I wanted to wrestle with my brother in high school I could do it in seventh grade, but I have to turn it up and I did. I was able to wrestle in seventh grade with my brother and my sister was also on the team, she was a manger, so it was pretty cool to have us three on the team.”

Mullen also started to change his style from defense-oriented to a more attacking style and that obviously has paid dividends.

Asked when they knew Mullen was going to be something special, Park coach LaBrosse laughed when he answered, “In seventh grade, that’s why we brought him up. We just saw he was physically strong enough and knew he could compete at that age and he was basically one of the first ones to come through at Park. Physically he was there. Mentally he’s had a lot of matches. He did a lot of freestyle and folkstyle before that. So it was a good fit and it’s worked out pretty good for him.”

Mullen has been in plenty of tough matches in his career but losing his father Aaron to cancer last January during his junior year last season was a very heavy blow.

“He’s been through some really tough matches, and adversity with his dad last year and coming through that he’s just done a great job,” said LaBrosse.

“It was very difficult, but he handled it really well,” LaBrosse continued. “The way it all went down, how fast Aaron went down and passed away, was obviously very difficult for everybody but more for him and his family.”

Asked for his biggest strength as a wrestler, Mullen said, “Biggest strength is when I have an open mind, I can be a very dangerous wrestler. Like when I just let thing fly, I can be really dangerous.” As for his biggest weakness, it was “Let’s say I get in my own head it can really affect my wrestling. If I don’t have my mental right, it can really mess things up for me.”

Mullen feels he’s definitely ready for the state tournament. He’s had some big wins this season over top competition, and some significant losses. All of which have prepared him to make a strong run this week.

“I want to be on top of that podium at the end of the year,” Mullen said. “I need to get my mental right and then I just need to push myself, honestly. It’s the last chance I get to do it.”