In February of this year (2026) the Roosevelt Wrestling program had 6 State Entries, which is the most in school history! On February 26th, 27th and 28th Roosevelt was competing in the Minnesota State Wrestling Tournament at the Grand Casino Arena in Downtown StPaul.
Sam Weyandt(10th), Elliott Karol(10th), Kaleb Gau(11th), James Olvera(12th), Elliott Weyandt(12th) and Sam Hinman(12th) all competed. In the past 3 years the Roosevelt Wrestling program has qualified 11 wrestlers to the Individual State Tournament. Which is out of 14 total in the past 25 years. This year the team also came in second place to Totino Grace during Team Sections, getting so close to a chance at Team State.
In the 25-26 season the Teddies also were Minneapolis Conference Champions, Twin City Champions, Section 5aa Team Runner-up and were named 3x Academic State Champions with a cumulative GPA of 3.951.
The wrestling program has worked very hard this year and it has visibly paid off. The process of getting to state is not easy, senior Elliott Weyandt shares “Qualifying for the state tournament requires physical sacrifices such as wrestling seven days a week, maintaining weight, and working-out extra outside of scheduled practice times. Mentally wrestling is a very draining sport because it requires you to live like a wrestler constantly.” Elliott is a two time state qualifier and placed overall top 8 in his bracket this year beating the number one kid in the state/number one seed in his bracket.
The environment at the state tournament is like no other, it is an arena full of the best wrestlers in the state coming together to compete one last time in their season. Each wrestler has had their own individual challenges and obstacles on their journey, but they all ended up in the same arena. When reflecting on his experiences and journey at state Elliott Weyandt says “Having qualified for the state tournament in my senior season is a reflection of the time, dedication, and constant physical and mental efforts given to the sport.” He shares that his favorite part of state is “being able to showcase my wrestling against the states best competition and on a stage so large.” along with “Getting to spend a mini vacation with my teammates, coaches, friends and family downtown. So many memories created between the hotel, arena, and all travels to get to those points.”
Sam Hinman who is one of the team’s senior captains placed in 5th this year at state! She was the first girl to go to state in Roosevelt history and the first wrestler to place in 26 years! Sam has been a great leader for the girls program over the past four years and has made history here at Roosevelt. Coach Joe Morgan shares that his biggest hope for the program “is to be able to grow the participation from the girls side of our program. The few girls that we’ve had come out the last 4 years, have had pretty great success. The girls side of our sport has grown enormously state wide and I hope we can see that expand on our team.”
The wrestlers are expected to stay active and fit in the off season. Many of them put in work in the off season doing club wrestling and enrolling in other extracurriculars and sports. Looking forward to the 26-27 season Head Coach Drew Gau says “I feel like we are getting better every year. Next year our goals will not change. I fully expect our team to compete for the Section title and our individuals to compete to be All State wrestlers.” This year Drew Gau won Section Coach of the year which is voted on by the Minnesota Wrestling Coaches Association.
The program is losing 7 seniors, 3 of which are captains. The wrestling team is known to be one big family rostering around 50 wrestlers. Looking back on his past four years with the wrestling program Elliott W shares “My favorite part of the RHS wrestling program are the people from the top-down. The wrestlers, coaches, managers, families and anyone else who has involved themself in the progam is what has made me so excited for the return to wrestling season each year.¨ Elliott is known as one of the great leaders on this team having set many records and leaving a legacy throughout the wrestling community, but also the Roosevelt athletics community.
“So many of these people I never would have had the chance to interact with and I am so grateful for RHS wrestling for bringing us together. The wrestlers who came together this year to achieve our common goals, the coaches who supported us in our progress of achieving those same goals, and the managers and parents who worked behind the scenes to further enable our success.¨”
The wrestling program is not done setting records and accomplishing goals, best of luck to all the wrestlers in their off season. We can’t wait to watch and support you in the upcoming winter!
