Apple Valley

Gross to wrestle for Bronze

Former Apple Valley wrestler Seth Gross, making his Senior World Championships debut, came out on fire today with three wins before being stopped in the semifinals. He teched Ukraine’s Andrii Dzhelep of Ukraine in his first match and scored seven unanswered points against Poland’s two-time European bronze winner Eduard Grigorev in his next match. In the quarterfinals, Gross notched a 10-4 win over 2019 World silver and 2018 World bronze medalist Suleyman Atli of Turkey. In the semifinals, Gross lost 14-7 to 2016 Olympic silver medalist Rei Higuchi of Japan.

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The Guillotine – April 14, 2022

The April 14, 2022 issue of The Guillotine has arrived! Content in this issue includes: Deciding To Be Great - Cole Konrad | Lace 'Em Up | Camps-Clinics-Training | MWCA Report | Doing It On Their Own - Dennis Whitman and Medford Wrestling | The Guillotine High School Pound-For-Pound Class Rankings | View From The Matbird Seat | Officially Speaking | First-Time Wrestler, First-Time Champion - Apple Valley’s Grace Alagbo | Where Have They Gone? Brad Huckle | Ask The Doc | Performance Nutrition - What Do You Have With Your Eggs? | Minnesota Wrestling Coaches Association Awards.

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First-Time Wrestler, First-Time Champion

Apple Valley’s Grace Alagbo

By Brian Jerzak

Many first-time champions were crowned at this year's Minnesota State Wrestling Tournament. Years of wrestling practice was undoubtedly the route nearly all the wrestlers who stood on the top of the podium – or even lost in the first round – took to the Xcel Energy Center. One notable exception was girls 145-pound champion Grace Alagbo. After her first season ever, the Apple Valley sophomore ended with a gold medal hanging around her neck.

"I had never watched a wrestling match before," Alagbo admitted. "I didn't know anything about it. I didn't learn the scoring until later in the season. Once we got to some bigger tournaments, coaches would yell 'TWO,' so that is what I went with."

While she was not familiar with wrestling, she was not unfamiliar with competing in a predominantly male sport.

"I have two brothers and no sisters. I am naturally an aggressive person," said Alagbo. "I like physical contact sports. I started playing football when I was little, and I started really playing football in middle school. I wasn't going to play my freshman year, but it would be a high school experience that I wanted. I decided to join the team."

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The Guillotine – January 20, 2022

The January 20, 2022 issue of The Guillotine has arrived! Content in this issue includes: A New Direction - Apple Valley | Donny and Nick - Writing a Legacy | Lace 'Em Up | Camps, Clinics, and Training | MWCA Report | High School | Performance Nutrition - Got Milk? | View From The Matbird Seat | Where Have They Gone? - Jay Tolleson | Officially Speaking | Ask The Doc.

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A New Direction – Apple Valley Wrestling

By Brian Jerzak

When Dalen Wasmund decided to step away from the head coaching position at Apple Valley High School, he was not only leaving a program that was coming off a state title. He was leaving a program that set the standard for high school wrestling – not just in Minnesota but also in the nation. Following Wasmund and former Eagles' coach, Jim Jackson would take someone willing to step into a program with an impossibly high standard, and it would take someone willing to take the program in a new direction.

"Expectations were definitely high, but I felt like if you were afraid to go after things because you only worried about the potential negative outcomes, you are going to miss out on a lot of great opportunities and experiences, you can't live your life with that type of mindset," Apple Valley head coach Josh Barlage said. "You wouldn't enjoy the process if you were just worried about those things. Those things ran through my head before I took the job. Some good advice that Coach Wasmund gave me was not to get too caught up in the winning and losing – that stuck with me. Obviously, we are striving to win every day, but winning will never be the sole gauge of whether we are successful or not."

Success for Barlage and the Eagles' program comes from winning in a different way than they did in the program's heyday.

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Olympian Gable Steveson returns to jubilant Apple Valley High for a golden hometown celebration

Gophers wrestler has yet to say whether he’s returning to the U or explore other opportunities.

Olympic wrestling gold medalist Gable Steveson returned for a celebration Thursday to the Apple Valley High School gym where just three years ago he would have been sitting among the school’s 1,600 students.

Steveson, 21, spent the last two years wrestling for the University of Minnesota before becoming a bona fide global sports star in August with a come-from-behind victory in the final second of the gold medal match in Tokyo.

“Life’s been crazy for me,” the 2018 Apple Valley High graduate said in brief remarks at a 15-minute welcome home rally. “Never give up on your dreams. Your life can change in a second just like mine did. … Happy Gable Steveson Day!”

Since winning the gold, Steveson gets recognized and stopped everywhere he goes. He’s been weighing numerous lucrative opportunities, ranging from the NFL and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) to staying at the U and wrestling for the Gophers, where he can now profit from his own name, image and likeness under recent NCAA rule changes.

In an interview, Steveson said he’s “90 percent” decided on his next step and will make an announcement in a week or two. But Thursday was all about soaking up the hometown love in his old gym among people who knew him before the rest of the world did. Continue reading at startribune.com →