Third-ranked Hastings showed why the Raiders are one of the best teams in the state, taking down Park in the Section 3AAA wrestling finals Friday evening at Cottage Grove, winning 50-20.

Second-seeded Park pinned third-seeded St. Thomas Academy 44-27 in the semifinals, while Hastings easily dispatched Woodbury 62-18 to advance.

St. Thomas Academy got by Two Rivers 49-24 and Woodbury edged Eagan 4233 in the two quarterfinals.

“Obviously just making the championship again, and beating St. Thomas, they’re a good team,” said Park head coach Jim LaBrosse when asked what he was happiest about after Friday’s finals. “They’re in the top 20 in the state so coming after them the way the guys went after it was really impressive.

“They were ready for it,” LaBrosse added. “We knew we had them in the semis right away. We were prepared. We saw them twice last year and kind of had a good idea of what they were going to do. But it was more of us just coming out and being aggressive and wrestling the way they did. It was pretty impressive.”

With seven wrestlers ranked in the top 10, Hastings had too much firepower for the Wolfpack in the finals. The Raiders won 10 of 14 matches, with Park’s only breakthroughs coming at 120 with ninth-ranked ninth grader Zack Carr, 126 with sophomore Kyler Jubinal, 145 with sixth-ranked sophomore Gunnar Mullen and 195 with sixth-ranked senior Alex Carr.

Park was in it early, trailing just 19-15 after 145, but Hastings scored four straight technical fall decisions to take control of the match. None of the Park-Hastings matches featured bouts between top-ranked wrestlers.

“They’re ranked third for a reason,” LaBrosse said. “And they’re very good. But I think we did well against them. It’s the best we’ve done against them, in a while. We could have had a couple of matches go the other way, but they’re just a solid team and they’ll represent our section well as they do every year.”

The Wolfpack roared out of the gate against St. Thomas, winning nine of the first 11 matches and building an insurmountable 44-9 lead. Park’s Landen Brooks, Jubinal, Mullen, Dylan Richardson and Samuel Lankow all had falls for Park against STA.

Park’s Jubinal had a strong section showing at 126 pounds, earnings pins in 1:13 against St. Thomas Academy’s Redi Barberot and dropping Peyton Erickson of Hastings in 2:45.

Mullen also had two falls, pinning STA’s Brooks Borman in 3:16 and taking down Fletcher Peterson of Hastings in 3:31.

Alex Carr of the Wolfpack had a dramatic meet, scoring a 5-4 decision over STA’s Jake Borman at 182m then gaining a disqualification win against Allen Haeger of Hastings in his second match.

Park wrestlers scored five falls and a technical fall in their team win over St. Thomas Academy. Earnings pins were Landen Brooks at 113, Jubinal at 126, Joey Chilton at 138, Mullen at 145 and Dylan Richardson at 160. Layne Frandrup had a 15-0 technical fall victory at 132.

“Our good guys continue to get better and some of our younger kids really showed some grit tonight too,” said LaBrosse.

Park’s wrestlers compete Saturday for a chance to go to state in the individual section matches at Two Rivers High School in Mendota Heights, starting at 10 a.m.

Park 44 St. Thomas Academy 27 106 – Grayson Eggum (STA) won by forfeit.

113 – Landen Brooks (Park) over Jaxon Kraft (STA) Fall 5:02 120 – Zack Carr (Park) over Thomas Holmquist (STA) Dec 8-3 126 – Kyler Jubinal (Park) over Reid Barberot (STA) Fall 1:13 132 – Layne Frandrup (Park) over Liam Connor (STA) technical fall, 15-0 138 – Joey Chilton (Park) over Josiah Solliday (STA) overtime, 9-7 145 – Gunnar Mullen (Park) over Brooks Borman (STA) Fall 3:16 152 – Jack Springer (STA) over Will Deutsch (Park) Dec 5-4 160 – Dylan Richardson (Park) over Caden Holtz (STA) Fall 2:49 170 – Samuel Lankow (Park) over Sorin Engstrom (STA) Fall 4:59 182 – Alex Carr (Park) over Jake Borman (STA) Dec 5-4 195 – Jackson Cercioglu (STA) over Fiyin Taiwo (Park) Fall 1:46 220 – Vincent Mueller (STA) over Taryn Blasy (Park) Fall 0:17 285 –Avaugn Dorvil (STA) over Doug Sabin (Park) Fall 5:46 Section championship Hastings 50, Park 20 106 – Trey Beissel (Hastings) won by forfeit.

113 – Blake Beissel (Hastings) over Landen Brooks (Park) major decision, 14-0 120 – Zack Carr (Park) over Taylon Little Soldier (Hastings) Dec 7-6 126 – Kyler Jubinal (Park) over Peyton Erickson (Hastings) Fall 2:45 132 – Donavin Ward (Hastings) over Layne Frandrup (Park) Dec 7-4 138 – Jack Bainbridge (Hastings) over Joey Chilton (Park) technical fall, 15-0 145 – Gunnar Mullen (Park) over Fletcher Peterson (Hastings) Fall 3:31 152 – Josh Route (Hastings) over Donovan Early Pinder (Park) technical fall 16-0 160 – Creed Peterson (Hastings) over Will Deutsch (Park) technical fall, 15-0 170 – Aiden Erickson (Hastings) over Dylan Richardson (Park) technical fall, 17-0 182 – Jericho Cooper (Hastings) over Samuel Lankow (Park) technical fall, 18-3 195 – Alex Carr (Park) over Allen Jaeger (Hastings) disqualification.

220 – Austin Leflay (Hastings) won by forfeit.

285 – Blake Clemons (Hastings) over Doug Sabin (Park) Fall 1:06 Park’s team score was adjusted by -1.0 for Unsportsmanlike conduct.

Park’s Zack Carr jumps toward Hastings wrestler Taylon Little Soldier in a 7-6 win Friday in the section finals. Photo by John Molene

Both wrestlers react as Alex Carr of Park took a narrow 5-4 win at 182 pounds over Jake Borman of St. Thomas Academy.Photo by John Molene

Dylan Richardson of Park control’s STA’s Caden Holtz on way to a pin in 2:49. Photo by John Molene

Park High’s wrestlers repeated as the Section 3AA team runner up. Photo by John Molene