Local Wrestlers Place at State; Bemidji’s Kylie Donat Takes Home 1st

At the Xcel Energy Center on Saturday, the individual state wrestling tournament wrapped up with quite a few area wrestlers in the mix trying to take some hardware. Local boys’ wrestlers who finished in the top three at the state tournament are:

• Gage Bjerga – Staples-Motley (107 lbs., 1st in Class A)
• Charles Ikola – Deer River (107 lbs., 2nd in Class A)
• Colbe Tappe – Staples-Motley (152 lbs., 2nd in Class A)
• David Revering – BHVPP (160 lbs., 2nd in Class A)
• Christian Jelle – Grand Rapids (127 lbs., 1st in Class AA)
• Ivan Petrich – Little Falls (215 lbs., 2nd in Class AA)

And here are the area girls’ wrestlers who finished in the top three:

• Ella Henning – W-H-A (100 lbs., 1st)
• Olivia Browen – LPGE/Browerville (106 lbs., 3rd)
• Alivia Szydel – Blackduck/CLB (118 lbs., 3rd)
• Kylie Donat – Bemidji (142 lbs., 1st)
• Abby Ervasti – BHVPP (170 lbs., 2nd)
• Maya Schmidt – Bemidji (190 lbs., 2nd)

Bemidji’s Kylie Donat beat the number one girl in the state in her semifinal match to make it to the finals and won by decision 5-2. She’s Bemidji High School’s first girls’ wrestling state champion, and her win is first state title for BHS since 2017, which awarded for 4×800 boys’ track. In wrestling, it’s the school’s first individual state title since 1999 for Joe Mayberry.

“It was super cool seeing my family there smiling, my coaches smiling, you know, all the people there supporting me,” said Donat on her experience. “There was so much joy. I couldn’t even I can’t even describe the emotions I was feeling. I’ve been wanting this for the last three years. And the fact that it happened, it just made me so happy. It made me so happy.”

“Just excited for her. Proud for her, proud of all of our girls in our program,” said girls’ wrestling coach Rance Bahr. “They’ve all worked really, really hard. And that was something that they had all hoped for and I know they were all 100% behind Kylie. It was just a, just a great match, great opportunity for our program and her to make history and be a part of Bemidji Wrestling for forever.”

In case you missed it, you can watch our story on Donat’s recovery after an injury she suffered last year and her return to state here.