By Pat Ruff
pruff@postbulletin.com
Jacob Vaith has been taught many things, including not to get ahead of himself.
So when the Lake City sophomore and son of Tigers coach Doug Vaith saw 160-pound No. 1 seed Dan Schulte lose his opening-round match Friday, he wasn't ready to start making state tournament plans. Not quite yet.
Jacob was the No. 3 seed at 160. He knew there was still plenty of work to do to get to state, no matter that La Crescent's Schulte had lost. So he did the work, winning all four of his tournament matches. That included an overtime win in the quarterfinals and a 2-0 win over No. 2 seed Josh Meyer of Caledonia/Houston/Spring Grove in the semifinals. Then, finally, came the capper, as he stormed to a 5-0 win over Kasson-Mantorville's Mitch Klebel in the championship.
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He followed that by storming into his father's arms for a huge celebration. "I knew if I was going to win this tournament, I couldn't take one second off of any match," said Jacob, who takes a 32-6 record into his first state tournament. "I am so happy for my dad, because he has been in wrestling all his life, he works so much with me, and because I'm his only son. He is the best coach a guy could ever have."
PEM'S BIG DAY: The most dominating performance by a Class AA wrestler in the Section 1AA tournament came from Plainvew/Elgin-Millville's Jesse Kahn.
Kahn, who entered the event unbeaten, stayed that way. But it was the style that he did it that was so impressive. The senior 275-pounder won all three of his matches, all by pin. That included sticking Kasson-Mantorville's Kyle Bailey in 4:43 in the championship.
Kahn, now 37-0, wasn't the only PEM wrestler with a satisfying tournament. PEM finished with three champions, Durand Kahn winning at 130 and Tyler Johnson winning at 171.
Johnson was seeded No. 1 going into the tournament, while Durand Kahn (he and Jesse Kahn are cousins) was seeded third. Still, PEM coach Bill McDonald thought Durand was on the verge of something special.
"His confidence wavered midway through the season, but in the last week in practice he had really been wrestling well," McDonald said.
• Stewartville's; Dennis Kuisle was named Section 1AA coach of the year.
Post-Bulletin sports writer Neil Tardy contributed to this report.
