The Fillmore Central senior enters the MSHSL individual state tournament as the No. 1 ranked Class 1A wrestler at 189 pounds. The tournament opens February 26 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
The Section 1 individual wrestling championships were held Saturday morning at Mayo Civic Center in Rochester. Kane Larson, the reigning Minnesota Class 1A state wrestling champion from Fillmore Central/Lanesboro/Mabel-Canton, walked in as the top seed at 189 pounds with a 34-1 record and one objective: reach the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul one more time.
The MSHSL individual state tournament opens in five days. Larson, a senior from Harmony, Minnesota, is the only wrestler in his section bracket who arrived as a defending state champion.
He’s been ranked No. 1 in Class 1A at 189 pounds by The Guillotine, Minnesota’s primary high school wrestling publication, since the opening week of the season. That number hasn’t moved.
Table of Contents
Four Years to Get Here
Larson’s path through Minnesota high school wrestling with the FCLMC co-op program has gone one direction the entire time:
- Freshman year (2022-23): Wrestled at 132 pounds, went 31-11, placed third at sections, did not qualify for state
- Sophomore year (2023-24): Reached the state tournament for the first time at 160 pounds, finished 5th place, beat Cameron Halverson of Barnesville by fall in the fifth-place match
- Junior year (2024-25): Won the Class 1A state championship at 172 pounds, finished 46-4
- Senior year (2025-26): Moved up to 189 pounds, ranked No. 1 in Class 1A all season, entered sections at 34-1
His only senior-year loss came in the Century Invitational final against Eli Leonard, a Wisconsin state champion committed to the University of Wisconsin. That is the complete list of wrestlers who have beaten Larson since last spring’s state title.
How He Won the 2025 State Title
The 2024-25 season did not start the way Larson wanted it to end.
At the Section 1-1A final on February 22, 2025, at Mayo Civic Center, Chatfield’s Ben Carrier beat Larson in double overtime, 3-1. Larson qualified for the MSHSL individual state tournament as the section runner-up and arrived at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul as the No. 4 seed at 172 pounds.
He won two matches by technical fall and two by decision to reach the Class 1A title match. In the state quarterfinals, he ran into Carrier — the same wrestler who had beaten him twice during the season. He won that match.
In the 172-pound final on March 1, 2025, he faced Halverson of Barnesville — the same Halverson he had pinned for fifth place the previous year, now standing across from him for a state championship. Larson took control after a second-period takedown and won 7-2.
He became FCLMC’s first individual state wrestling champion since Niko Anderson in 2014, and only the third in program history.
“I worked hard to get here,” Larson said after the match. “After coming off that loss at sections, I worked even harder. I just knew I had to hit my best stuff.”
The Football Season in Between
Before returning to the wrestling mat as a senior, Larson had a football season to get through first. It went well.
Playing fullback and linebacker as a team captain for Fillmore Central, he ran for 1,337 yards and 23 touchdowns in the 2025 fall season, a single-season program record for the Falcons.
His biggest individual performance came October 31 in the Section 1-1A championship game against Lewiston-Altura: 37 carries, 233 rushing yards, and three touchdowns in a 34-21 Fillmore Central win. It was the program’s third section title in four years.
Head coach Chris Mensink told the Post Bulletin in September 2025: “There is no ‘give up’ in that kid. He is physical and plays through pain. He spends a lot of time watching football film. It’s like having another coach on the field.”
Fillmore Central went 10-0 entering the Class 1A state playoffs before falling 26-29 to Murray County Central in the quarterfinals on November 7, finishing the season 10-1.
Larson has said the sports feed into each other.
“Wrestling helps you hold yourself accountable and realize it’s on you,” he told KTTC last fall. “Holding yourself accountable on the football field makes it easier for the other ten guys to do their job.”
The Senior Season and the Road to St. Paul
Back at 189 pounds this winter, Larson won the FCLMC Holiday Tournament, the PEM Invitational, and the Pine Island Invitational. At the FCLMC Holiday Tournament, he beat his toughest section competition by technical fall in the final.
In January 2026, he committed to wrestle at Division II Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. His close friend and Plainview-Elgin-Millville senior Aiden Graner committed to the same program, with both announcements coming one day apart after the two drove to Aberdeen together for a recruiting visit. They’ll join Calder Sheehan, a Guerrilla Wrestling Club teammate and former Mayo standout who is already a freshman at Northern State.
Larson carries a 3.8 GPA and plans to major in accounting or engineering.
The MSHSL individual state wrestling tournament runs February 26 through March 1 at the Xcel Energy Center. Larson goes in as a senior and a defending champion at a new weight class, with the top ranking in Class 1A at 189 pounds.
He spent 3rd through 6th grade as a Fillmore Central team manager, watching the older players he admired from the sideline. He broke the program’s all-time single-season touchdown record last fall. He won a state wrestling title last spring.
St. Paul is next.
