Austin senior Mike Hirsch in the title match.

Hirsch beat Matt Hechsel of Apple Valley with a 10-6 decision at the Class ‘AAA’ state wrestling semifinals at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul Friday.

“It’s always exciting to get someone into the finals,” Austin head coach Bill Kinney said. “Mike has been on the cusp of making it to the finals for a couple years now. He’s been as good as anybody in the state at 189. It feels pretty good for him to finally get that. I’m extremely proud and I’m really happy for him that he finally made it.”

Hirsch was able to keep his emotions in check in the win over Hechsel.

“I thought I would be over excited maybe screw up but it all worked out. This is one of the first times I’ve been able to do that (keep his excitement in check). Usually I’ve been really excited, overexcited,” Hirsch said.

Hirsch (36-2 overall), a 189-pounder, will get a rematch against Owatonna’s Dalton Henderson (26-2 overall) in the title match on Saturday.

Henderson handed Hirsch his only loss at 189 pounds this season last Saturday at the Section 1AAA meet when he pinned Hirsch late in the match.

“We made some mistakes last week and we’ll work on those,” Kinney said. “We’ll talk about those. We pressed a little bit last week. We kind of forced in a little too much and he kind of fed off of our aggression.”

‘AA’

Grand Meadow/LeRoy/Ostrander Kingsland’s Carter Brandt beat Jake Schmidt of New Ulm with an 8-2 decision in the wrestlebacks.

‘A’

Southland’s Grant Hegge will wrestle for fifth place at the state meet on Saturday.

“It’s nice (to have a place guaranteed),” Hegge said. “After I lost that first one I was just hoping to get back and place again.”

Hegge (25-8 overall) pinned Cole Tensen after trailing 1-0.

“The first period I was getting in deep on shots, I just wasn’t finishing them,” Hegge said. “I was pretty confident I could take him down. That was a big match for me.”

Hegge lost to Cole Kravitz on a 3-2 decision to put him in the fifth place match.

Hegge will take on Alex Cooling (34-8 overall) in the fifth place match.