Submitted photo New Ulm Area’s Cole Ranweiler (left), Parker Kamm (center) and Jaden Drill (right) all competed in the final day of 2021 Class AA State Individual Wrestling Tournament Friday.

ST. MICHAEL — New Ulm Area freshman Parker Kamm was unranked all season and overlooked by many coming into the 2021 State Individual Wrestling Tournament a weekend ago.

But after the final day of the Class AA individual tournament concluded on Friday at St. Michael-Albertville High School, Kamm went home with a fourth-place medal at 106 pounds.

Kamm advanced to this weekend’s championships with teammates Cole Ranweiler and Jaden Drill after last Saturday’s preliminaries.

After a loss on Friday dropped Kamm to a third-place match with Brandon Morvari of Simley, Morvari got an early takedown before Kamm earned a point back right after on an escape.

Morvari and Kamm repeated a takedown for an escape before Morvari got a third takedown to lead 6-2. Kamm then got another escape and turned it into a late takedown of his own to trail 6-5. Morvari got another takedown, followed by a 2-point near fall to lead 10-5 entering the third.

Kamm chose to start the third in the top position and worked to get Morvari onto his back for quick points or a pin, but Morvari got a late escape and picked up an 11-5 decision, giving Kamm a fourth-place finish.

“It was nice to be there, see the environment and experience it,” Kamm said of his first state appearance.

Kamm started his day with a quick victory over Mason Mcgrane of Alexandria Area. After getting a takedown 15 seconds in, Kamm cradled Mcgrane shortly after for the pin in 41 seconds. That win moved Kamm on to a meeting with the unbeaten Jack Nelson of Mound-Westonka.

Kamm had a hard time with Nelson and fell by an 11-2 major decision, which dropped him to the third-place match. Nelson ended up taking first at the tournament.

Kamm said not being ranked all season bothered him a little bit, but he mainly used it as motivation. He also said that next year he believes more wrestlers will know his name and be looking to beat him.

“Next year I’ll have a target on my back,” Kamm said. “I’ll be up in the rankings hopefully.”

Ranweiler, ranked No. 6 in the state at 182, also finished with a medal at state in his final chance. Ranweiler ended his senior season with a 34-2 record and a fifth-place medal Friday.

After Ranweiler came up empty-handed in two prior trips to state, he entered his final prep wrestling season with his sights set on finishing this year’s state tournament with a medal hanging from his neck.

After being pinned in 3:06 in his first match to Byron’s Austin Freerksen, a true back-and-forth battle that saw Ranweiler ahead 7-6 before being pinned, Ranweiler dropped to the consolation bracket to take on Brody Rud of Tri-City United.

Rud, ranked No. 4 in the state, and Ranweiler circled each other and hand fought for most of the first period before tying up late. Ranweiler then dropped for a single-leg takedown and got it for a 2-0 lead with 9 seconds left in the first period.

Ranweiler got an early escape to lead 3-0 in the second period and entered the third period up by that score. He then fended off multiple single-leg takedown attempts by Rud in the third and won by a 3-0 decision.

Ranweiler then moved on and met Perham’s Brian Ramos in a fifth-place match. Ranweiler took a 4-3 lead over Ramos into the third period after a takedown in each of the first two periods.

Ranweiler chose to start the third in a down position and was quick to his feet for an escape and a 5-3 lead. Ramos then missed a shot and Ranweiler turned it into a takedown for a 7-3 lead. Ramos got back up late to trail 7-4, but Ranweiler hung on for the 7-4 decision and fifth-place finish.

Also wrestling for NUA on Friday was heavyweight Jaden Drill. Drill had a tough draw right away as he took on the undefeated Bennett Tabor of Simley. Simley won the first-place state medal at 220 pounds a year ago.

Tabor got an early takedown on Drill 11 seconds in and worked for a pin, which he got in 38 seconds to drop Drill into the consolation bracket.

Drill then took on Nick McKenzie of New London-Spicer.

McKenzie took down Drill late in the first period for a 2-0 lead after one and then led 5-0 after an escape and takedown. Not long after the takedown, McKenzie pinned Drill in 3:05 to end Drill’s junior campaign with a 31-7 record.

Class A state action concludes this year’s tournament on Saturday.