Wrestling 2025: Watertown-Mayer wins first team state championship in Class AA

The familiar "I believe that we will win" chant broke out in the southeast corner of Xcel Energy Center Thursday night among a group of blue-clad fans.

Seconds earlier, 189-pound Bryce Burkett had all but officially stamped the first Wrestling State Tournament team championship in Watertown-Mayer history with a 49-second fall that gave the No. 1 seed Royals a 30-17 lead with two bouts remaining.

Believe it: Watertown-Mayer (22-1) is the Class AA Wrestling team state champion after a 33-20 win over No. 2 seed Kasson-Mantorville (22-6).

"It's even deeper than my school. It's my whole community," Burkett said. "Watertown is a wrestling town. We have so many die-hard wrestling fans. It means so much to those guys. The crowds are packed and there's just so many people that have poured in so much and don't even get acknowledged. It just means so much."

Two previous appearances in the Class AA bracket resulted in a fourth-place finish for the program in 2022 and sixth last season.

"We've been speaking it over our team all year since last year," Burkett said. "I always believed it could happen but I'm still struck."

The Royals began their 2025 state tournament with a 55-14 triumph against Totino-Grace. The semifinal round was more dramatic. Burkett posted a pin to halt a run of three Becker wins and 14 points that had the fourth-seeded Bulldogs within 22-17.

Pins from Joel Friederichs (121) and Titan Friederichs (127) helped Watertown-Mayer build that early lead and the Royals triumphed by a 32-26 final.

Kasson-Mantorville won the first two bouts of the championship to go up 8-0 before Joel Friedrichs' technical fall. Titan Friedrichs added a pin in a run of 18 straight Watertown-Mayer points.

Burkett was set up for the exclamation point.

"It was a lot more than just getting a win for myself," he said. "The excitement came from the boys getting it done. The excitement was done before. I was excited walking out there, knowing the opportunity that I got. It was just wonderful."

Kasson-Mantorville advanced with a 38-15 win over Perham in the quarterfinals and a 31-27 semifinal victory over No. 3 seed Simley.

Third place: Boston Kuschel recorded a pin at 121 pounds and Brayden Boots (145) and Kaden Nicolas (160) had technical falls to propel Becker to bronze for the fourth year in a row with a 28-26 verdict against Simley. Kuschel also had a fall in the quarterfinal round, when the Bulldogs beat Marshall, 38-25. Simley had defeated Becker in the semifinals the last two seasons, part of its six-year run of state titles.

Fifth place: Destan Skelly's technical fall at 172 pounds was followed by a Jaxon Thompson pin at 189 to help give Grand Rapids the edge in a 30-25 win over No. 5 seed Marshall.