By Brian Jerzak
I was focused on the AA mat when I settled into my seat at the Xcel Energy Center, ready to watch the 132 championship matches. In my mind, it was the marquee matchup of the 2022 state wrestling tournament. As the whistle blew to start the match, I thought, "I bet I am doing a story next year on whoever wins this match." Here we are, months later, and I am writing about three-time state champion Tyler Wells.
Wells' journey to join the exclusive "three-time state champions" club and his continued journey to the even more exclusive "four-timers" club has followed a different path than most multi-champion wrestlers I have talked to walk. If you look at their TrackWrestling profiles, most guys have results from multiple tournaments each year. Not so for Wells. For the three-time champion, less is more.
"I was in first or second grade when I started wrestling," Wells said. "My mom got me into wrestling because she was looking for a way to have me burn off energy—what would be better than wrestling?"
Wells' "less is more" philosophy started right away.