Here are three excellent articles about two of our elite recruits, 2023 Max McEnelly and 2022 Hunter Lyden!!!
Both of these guys are major studs and they are going to have wonderful careers at the U the next 5-6 years!! They will be A BIG PART OF OUR CLIMB TOWARDS THE TOP (FINALLY!!)!!!
We're still not there yet, but it's coming soon!!! Yay!!!!!!!
Here are the articles from the Guillotine, CBS, and the Star-Tribune:
Max McEnelly of Waconia wrestled Jadon Hellerud of Shakopee in the section final at 195 pounds. Photos by ANTHONY SOUFFLE, Star Tribune
Jim Paulson
Star Tribune
3/02/22
Max McEnelly still wasn’t quite sure what he was getting into when he ventured to Fargo last summer.
The idea of wrestling on the national stage appealed to McEnelly, who had completed an undefeated high school season for Waconia as a sophomore en route to his second consecutive state championship.
He was good, no doubt. But he was about to compete in the USA 16U Nationals in North Dakota in July, a high level of competition with a style of wrestling, freestyle, that he hadn’t tried much to that point. “I’d only been wrestling freestyle for two or three months,” McEnelly said.
He swept through the 195-pound weight class, beating highly regarded Pennsylvanian Sonny Sasso 11-8 in the finals.
Perhaps the result surprised McEnelly himself. Elsewhere in the wrestling community, it only reinforced what had been said for the better part of a year.
Pound for pound, Max McEnelly is the best wrestler in Minnesota.
Next for McEnelly: the high school wrestling state tournament and his pursuit of a third consecutive individual state championship. Team competition begins Thursday, and the push for individual titles begins Friday and concludes Saturday.
The evolution of a wrestler
McEnelly came away from that Fargo tournament willing to accept what humility had stopped him from acknowledging. “That’s when I knew that I was pretty good,” he said.
“That was a huge deal for him,” said Waconia assistant coach Derek Sikora, who is also McEnelly’s training partner and mentor. “He wasn’t 100 percent sold on going there. He was kind of like, ‘Yeah, I’ll go and wrestle,’ but he didn’t know what to expect. In the meantime, he was still training for football.”
Football never went away; the physicality and team component resonate with McEnelly, who was a second-team All-Metro running back in the fall. But his success on the mat was getting too big to ignore. When the Gophers, his home state and dream school, came calling with a scholarship offer last fall, McEnelly was swayed. He swapped out his lifelong dream of playing college football for a Gophers wrestling singlet.
“When I took my visit there, the coaches and the guys on the team made it feel like home,” McEnelly said. “I wanted to stay in Minnesota so my family and people who’ve supported me can come and see me. It was a pretty easy decision.”
Showing his stuff
Eyes tend to turn toward McEnelly when he takes the mat. Blessed with the trinity of athletic gifts — power, speed and agility — augmented by a strong work ethic, he brings out the type of awe in wrestling fans that generally has been the domain of Minnesota’s greatest.
Names tossed out in comparison are those of legends. Mark Hall, Minnesota’s only six-time state champion. Gable Steveson, who needs no introduction.
“Sometimes in wrestling there are guys like that, who are so much better than everyone else,” said Shakopee’s Jadon Hellerud, who lost to McEnelly by technical fall (22-7) in the Class 3A, Section 6 195-pound final. “You know what the outcome is going to be, but you go out there and battle and do your best. Max is so fast and has such great anticipation. You know you’re going to lose, but there’s nothing you can do.”
The margin of McEnelly’s section victory is telling; Hellerud is ranked No. 2 at 195 in Class 3A. “Hellerud is a tough competitor. He’s athletic,” McEnelly said. “I’ll probably see him again in the state finals.”
It’s been two years since McEnelly lost a high school match, and he remembers it well. In his freshman year, he lost to Kasson-Mantorville’s Bennett Berge, whose family is wrestling royalty in Minnesota. “I couldn’t get to his legs,” McEnelly said. “It was a good learning experience.”
Since then, only victories. McEnelly, 80-0 over the past two high school seasons and 43-0 this season, said his goal is not to win but to overwhelm. Only two of his matches this season went the full six minutes; all others were won by pin or technical fall. Pins are always desired, but those tech falls suit McEnelly best, he said, because “I love to dominate.”
“A pin can come at any time,” he said. “Someone makes a mistake and you get stuck. When I wrestle, I like to score points. A tech fall, you just keep scoring points and there’s nothing they can do. You dominate them.”
2022 Hunter Lyden wins his 3rd state title at 170#s with an 11-3 maj. decision.
2023 Gavin Nelson gets a fall at 1:59 for the 220 AA state championship (his 3rd!!)
The Guillotine
February 3, 2022
By Brian Jerzak
The sports world is littered with stories of athletes who focus so much on their sport that everything else takes a back seat. The media loves to champion how focused elite athletes like Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ quarterback Tom Brady is. Waconia two-time state champion Max McEnelly is one of those rare athletes who is an elite athlete who strives not to be laser-focused on one thing but who strives for balance in his life.
“I have to have a balanced life. Wrestling can’t be the only thing I think about,” McEnelly said. “I try to have fun outside of wrestling, so it is not the thing I am thinking of all the time.
When it is time to do my work, I do my work, but when it is time to hang out, relax and be a teenager, I can do that too. I think you should have a balanced life with wrestling.”
Make no mistake, McEnelly strives for balance in his life but is also focused on results.
“The goal is to be a four-time state champion,” McEnelly said. “No one has ever done it at my school. It would mean a lot for my hometown and my family. I go out there with the mentality that I am going to win every match, but I have to stay humble.”
McEnelly’s wrestling career started humbly.
“My neighbors were wrestlers. I used to hang around them a lot. They used to bring home a lot of trophies from tournaments, and I thought that was cool. I did whatever my brother did. When he signed up for wrestling, I did it too.” So, when I was a kindergartner, my parents signed me up because of my neighbors and brother.”
Those trophies were McEnelly’s primary motivation as a kid.
“The first few years, I just did it for fun and for the trophies. I didn’t care if I came in first or fourth. I would say I was average; I was athletic, but I didn’t know wrestling back then. It took me a while to get used to things, but I finally started to figure it out in fifth or sixth grade – when I won a youth state title.”
Two-time state champion Max McEnelly of Waconia has a goal of becoming a four-time state champion.
Before he started to figure out wrestling, McEnelly almost took another road. His dad played football in college and football and hockey in high school. Max was playing youth hockey and wrestling. The future state champion picked the mat over the ice.
“We were on the fence between hockey and wrestling. My brother decided to go with wrestling, so I just followed what he did. Thanks to him, I stuck with wrestling.”
Soon, McEnelly wasn’t wrestling just for any old trophy. He started wrestling for the top trophies.
“Once I started working hard at practice, I started to see more success. I started to get more interested in the sport and pay better attention in practice. I wanted to learn more about wrestling. When I really started to take off was my freshman year. Before that, I was just learning moves and was interested in learning the basics of wrestling. Once I got good at the basic stuff, I kept evolving and adding stuff.”
He was adding stuff, but he and his parents made sure things never got out of balance.
“We would try to go to open tournaments every weekend, and I would do all the youth team stuff. We didn’t overload me. We didn’t want me stressed out about having to wrestle too much. When you are younger, it should be about having fun with wrestling. Wrestling can be long and physical, so when you are young, you want to just have fun with it.”
Winning and winning a lot was fun too.
“Once I started to see results, I wanted to see how good I could be,” McEnelly explained. “I had come so far; I might as well stick with it. I wanted to see how far I could take it.”
Those results – then and now – mainly come from one aspect of wrestling.
“I was the same way I am now. I am a takedown guy. I love taking people down. I have never been much of a rider. From youth until now, it has been the same way; I am still a double leg guy. I still hit knee post singles, single legs, high crotches, and all those basic moves. I don’t need to be flashy; I just do what works for me.”
McEnelly broke into the varsity lineup in 7th grade but found a technique that would make him nearly unstoppable a couple of years later.
“My knee post single to my opponent’s left leg – I will act like I am going to a high crotch but then switch off to a single leg. That has been my bread and butter shot since freshman year.”
“The first ranked kid I ever beat – Carl Leuer at the St. Michael-Albertville Open my freshman year – that was the takedown that I hit on him in the third period to with the match. Ever since that match, it has stuck with me. It has flowed, and I have gotten better at it – hand fighting to get to that shot. My coaches have done a good job showing me better ways to set the shot up.”
Before that season started, McEnelly realized he had a chance to do special things on the mat.
“Our team goes to a camp at Luther College in Iowa in the summer,” the Wildcat junior said. “Brock Rinehart was there. I was going into my freshman year, and he had just taken second at state. I was 132 my 8th-grade year, and then I jumped to 170 my freshman year. Our team dualed them at this summer camp, and I beat him, and that made me think I can wrestle with the top guys in the state.”
“Once we got into the high school season,” McEnelly continued, “I started beating guys in the top five – that is when it flipped in my mind, and I realized I could do something here. I could win state.”
The fifty-pound weight jump in a year made McEnelly a better wrestler.
“I made it to state my seventh-grade year – at 120 – then in eighth grade, I got third at sections at 132. I was cutting a lot of weight to get to 132. Our team made it to state that year, and after I weighed in at state – the next day – I think I weighed 155. I was hitting a growth spurt. Once the season ended, I started lifting and eating more. I naturally got bigger. I feel better when I don’t cut weight. I wrestle better, and I have never cut weight since then – even now.”
Before his freshman year, wrestlers across Minnesota were about to be put on notice.
“I was the underdog that year, “McEnelly told The Guillotine. “I came into the season ranked sixth or seventh. I had a hit list of kids ranked ahead of me. I had a chip on my shoulder that year – wanting to prove I could beat those top guys. Once it was time for the state tournament, I went all out. I made it to the finals. It was a surreal experience being down there after not making it my eighth-grade year and then coming in my freshman year and being in the state finals. It was an awesome experience.”
Like most seasons, McEnelly was ready to step away from wrestling for a few months.
“Usually, I try to take a break from wrestling. I don’t normally wrestle all year round. I try to give myself the summer to relax. I am still working out – lifting and running – but I think it is good for wrestlers to take a break from wrestling to get the drive and passion back.”
McEnelly likes to balance athletics with – among other things – going to the lake to hang out with friends.
Balancing wrestling with real-life is something McEnelly has tried to pass on.
“Every young kid I talk to, I tell them to go out and have fun. Don’t worry about cutting weight or anything like that. Success will come by working hard. Work hard and have fun with it.”
Part of his break includes being one of the best multi-sport athletes in Minnesota.
“Football was my first love. I thought I would play football in college until the end of my freshman year. Football has always clicked for me. I am athletic enough. I have quick feet. I can run the ball and have good vision.”
McEnelly is a running back and linebacker, “I am a downhill runner. I don’t think anyone wants to tackle me. I think I hit harder, and I wear people down. Once we wear on them for four quarters, it starts to pay off. That showed in games where we were down and came back because the defense didn’t want to tackle anymore. (On defense) I am a good tackler. Wrestling and football translate to each other – tackling is straight-up double legs.”
Back on the mat, McEnelly has had many coaches, but one coach has worked with him more than others.
“All of my coaches are awesome, but the coach who works with me the most is Derek Sikora. He was a national champion wrestler from UW-Eau Claire and played football. I started working with him in ninth grade. We built a relationship, and he has been there for me my whole career. He is not only a wrestling coach; he is a mentor too. He talks me through things and keeps me calm and focused. I give a lot of credit to him. I am not where I am today without him.”
Without Sikora, McEnelly would not have taken the national scene by storm.
“I didn’t start wrestling on the national scene until this year,” McEnelly continued. “Fargo was my third ever freestyle tournament. I wrestled the freestyle state tournament in Minnesota. Then I went to Northern Plains and won those two tournaments.”
Fargo would make it three-for-three for McEnelly on the freestyle scene.
Max McEnelly won a 16U Freestyle National Championship in Fargo this past summer.
“I didn’t have many freestyle practices,” McEnelly said. “(Coach Sikora) would go over basic gut defense. We weren’t planning on having me turn anybody on top. We were just planning not to get taken down and hopefully not get turned. We were going to take people down the whole time. I got taken down four times, but I didn’t get turned.”
Many schools – Michigan, Oklahoma State, Stanford, Wisconsin, Oregon State, Wyoming, and others – tried to turn him toward their school. It didn’t work.
“Recruiting for me was pretty simple,” McEnelly said. “I knew I wanted to stay in Minnesota, but I didn’t know if I wanted to play football or wrestle. Once I talked to (Gophers’ coaches) Brandon Eggum, Trevor Brandvold, Luke Becker, and Zach Sanders – how could I say no? Wrestling for Minnesota was a dream of mine as a kid. I am a hometown kid. I wanted to stay close to home, so my family could come and watch my sporting events. When a school from far out would call, I would say, ‘I am a hometown kid, and I have always wanted to be a Gopher. I talked to other coaches to see what they had to offer, but Minnesota always seemed like the place. In the end, it was a pretty simple decision.”
It was a simple decision for the Gophers too.
“They liked my style and my ‘don’t quit’ mentality,” McEnelly said. “I go out and score points. I am not looking to keep matches close and waste time.”
McEnelly had opportunities to play football in college. Northern Iowa, North Dakota, North Dakota State, and South Dakota State reached out to him, but his official visit to Minnesota sealed the deal.
“All the guys on the team are super close, and it was fun being around those guys. Once I went on my official visit and hung around them, it was hard to say no. Tim Stapleton – one of my former high school teammates – wrestles for them. He was always in my ear.”
Once he decided to commit to Minnesota, McEnelly’s focus turned to the high school season.
“At the beginning of the season, I sat down with my coach, and we said, ‘we know I can beat these guys. My goal has been to go out and dominate this year – even the top-ranked kids – and wrestle how I know how to wrestle. All my matches have been at least major decisions.”
That includes the Christmas Tournament – where McEnelly found out first-hand what being coached by Coach Eggum might be like.
“In my semifinal match, I gave up a takedown,” McEnelly – who is wrestling at 195 this year and will drop to 184 in college – said. “It was the only takedown I have given up all year. I went to talk to Coach Eggum about it, and he pulled me aside and showed me what to do in that situation. It was pretty cool. My defense needs to get a little better, but they will work with me on that. My bottom wrestling will have to improve because that is not somewhere I have been a lot in my high school career. I know I need to start riding guys. Those are the things I am working on now.”
He will be working on wrestling more this year than he ever has. This year, making wrestling a more significant part of his offseason has a big potential payoff behind it.
“During the high school season, I basically do the high school training,” McEnelly said. “Once the season is over, I am going to be training for the World Team Trials. If I win that, I get to go to Rome.”
With a chance to compete on the World Team, becoming a three or four-time state champion, and competing for an NCAA title, all reasons even Max McEnelly might allow for a little less balance in his life – at least this offseason.
CBS / WCCO
By Ren Clayton
February 28, 2022
STILLWATER, Minn. - Stillwater wrestling has gotten very close the past few years but they’re still looking for the program’s first ever team state title.
“If they can crack through and do it, they’ll be the first and only ever to do it first. So I think they’re excited about it,” said Stillwater head coach Timothy Hartung.
The Ponies’ leader on the mat is fun-loving Hunter Lyden.
“We will occasionally say, ‘Hey let’s get a little bit more serious,'” said Hartung. “But the fun side that he brings to the sport, and keeping things pretty loose does effect the kids around him in a positive way, especially in these environments.”
Lyden is Minnesota’s top ranked wrestler at 170 pounds. At this weekend’s state tournament he’ll be going for his third straight crown.
“Back in 6th, 7th, 8th grade, you’re just like ‘I wanna be a senior so bad,'” Lyden said. “Now I’m here, and it’s like ‘holy…’ now I wanna go back. It’s crazy.
His last state meet could be his healthiest. He was recovering from arm and rib injuries in 2020 and 2021, respectively, and still took the titles. He’s undefeated this year.
“Last year was a struggle, but this year is great. I’ve been doing all the right things, making sure everything is perfect, and I’m healthy and ready to go,” Lyden said.
He may be the wrestling room’s class clown, but when it’s time to compete, he’s as confident as they come.
His answer when asked about his odds at state:
“Pretty high. Pretty high. I wouldn’t bet against me.”
Lyden will wrestle for the University of Minnesota next year.
Both of these guys are major studs and they are going to have wonderful careers at the U the next 5-6 years!! They will be A BIG PART OF OUR CLIMB TOWARDS THE TOP (FINALLY!!)!!!
We're still not there yet, but it's coming soon!!! Yay!!!!!!!
Here are the articles from the Guillotine, CBS, and the Star-Tribune:
A two-time state champ going for three, Max McEnelly keeps it simple: ‘I love to dominate’
The Waconia junior heads into the state meet having not lost a match in more than two years.
Max McEnelly of Waconia wrestled Jadon Hellerud of Shakopee in the section final at 195 pounds. Photos by ANTHONY SOUFFLE, Star Tribune
Jim Paulson
Star Tribune
3/02/22
Max McEnelly still wasn’t quite sure what he was getting into when he ventured to Fargo last summer.
The idea of wrestling on the national stage appealed to McEnelly, who had completed an undefeated high school season for Waconia as a sophomore en route to his second consecutive state championship.
He was good, no doubt. But he was about to compete in the USA 16U Nationals in North Dakota in July, a high level of competition with a style of wrestling, freestyle, that he hadn’t tried much to that point. “I’d only been wrestling freestyle for two or three months,” McEnelly said.
He swept through the 195-pound weight class, beating highly regarded Pennsylvanian Sonny Sasso 11-8 in the finals.
Perhaps the result surprised McEnelly himself. Elsewhere in the wrestling community, it only reinforced what had been said for the better part of a year.
Pound for pound, Max McEnelly is the best wrestler in Minnesota.
Next for McEnelly: the high school wrestling state tournament and his pursuit of a third consecutive individual state championship. Team competition begins Thursday, and the push for individual titles begins Friday and concludes Saturday.
The evolution of a wrestler
McEnelly came away from that Fargo tournament willing to accept what humility had stopped him from acknowledging. “That’s when I knew that I was pretty good,” he said.
“That was a huge deal for him,” said Waconia assistant coach Derek Sikora, who is also McEnelly’s training partner and mentor. “He wasn’t 100 percent sold on going there. He was kind of like, ‘Yeah, I’ll go and wrestle,’ but he didn’t know what to expect. In the meantime, he was still training for football.”
Football never went away; the physicality and team component resonate with McEnelly, who was a second-team All-Metro running back in the fall. But his success on the mat was getting too big to ignore. When the Gophers, his home state and dream school, came calling with a scholarship offer last fall, McEnelly was swayed. He swapped out his lifelong dream of playing college football for a Gophers wrestling singlet.
“When I took my visit there, the coaches and the guys on the team made it feel like home,” McEnelly said. “I wanted to stay in Minnesota so my family and people who’ve supported me can come and see me. It was a pretty easy decision.”
Showing his stuff
Eyes tend to turn toward McEnelly when he takes the mat. Blessed with the trinity of athletic gifts — power, speed and agility — augmented by a strong work ethic, he brings out the type of awe in wrestling fans that generally has been the domain of Minnesota’s greatest.
Names tossed out in comparison are those of legends. Mark Hall, Minnesota’s only six-time state champion. Gable Steveson, who needs no introduction.
“Sometimes in wrestling there are guys like that, who are so much better than everyone else,” said Shakopee’s Jadon Hellerud, who lost to McEnelly by technical fall (22-7) in the Class 3A, Section 6 195-pound final. “You know what the outcome is going to be, but you go out there and battle and do your best. Max is so fast and has such great anticipation. You know you’re going to lose, but there’s nothing you can do.”
The margin of McEnelly’s section victory is telling; Hellerud is ranked No. 2 at 195 in Class 3A. “Hellerud is a tough competitor. He’s athletic,” McEnelly said. “I’ll probably see him again in the state finals.”
It’s been two years since McEnelly lost a high school match, and he remembers it well. In his freshman year, he lost to Kasson-Mantorville’s Bennett Berge, whose family is wrestling royalty in Minnesota. “I couldn’t get to his legs,” McEnelly said. “It was a good learning experience.”
Since then, only victories. McEnelly, 80-0 over the past two high school seasons and 43-0 this season, said his goal is not to win but to overwhelm. Only two of his matches this season went the full six minutes; all others were won by pin or technical fall. Pins are always desired, but those tech falls suit McEnelly best, he said, because “I love to dominate.”
“A pin can come at any time,” he said. “Someone makes a mistake and you get stuck. When I wrestle, I like to score points. A tech fall, you just keep scoring points and there’s nothing they can do. You dominate them.”
2022 MN State Championship Results:
2023 Max McEnelly gets a tech fall in 2:55 for the 195 pound state championship (his 3rd!!)2022 Hunter Lyden wins his 3rd state title at 170#s with an 11-3 maj. decision.
2023 Gavin Nelson gets a fall at 1:59 for the 220 AA state championship (his 3rd!!)
Finding Balance – Max McEnelly
The Guillotine
February 3, 2022
By Brian Jerzak
The sports world is littered with stories of athletes who focus so much on their sport that everything else takes a back seat. The media loves to champion how focused elite athletes like Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ quarterback Tom Brady is. Waconia two-time state champion Max McEnelly is one of those rare athletes who is an elite athlete who strives not to be laser-focused on one thing but who strives for balance in his life.
“I have to have a balanced life. Wrestling can’t be the only thing I think about,” McEnelly said. “I try to have fun outside of wrestling, so it is not the thing I am thinking of all the time.
When it is time to do my work, I do my work, but when it is time to hang out, relax and be a teenager, I can do that too. I think you should have a balanced life with wrestling.”
Make no mistake, McEnelly strives for balance in his life but is also focused on results.
“The goal is to be a four-time state champion,” McEnelly said. “No one has ever done it at my school. It would mean a lot for my hometown and my family. I go out there with the mentality that I am going to win every match, but I have to stay humble.”
McEnelly’s wrestling career started humbly.
“My neighbors were wrestlers. I used to hang around them a lot. They used to bring home a lot of trophies from tournaments, and I thought that was cool. I did whatever my brother did. When he signed up for wrestling, I did it too.” So, when I was a kindergartner, my parents signed me up because of my neighbors and brother.”
Those trophies were McEnelly’s primary motivation as a kid.
“The first few years, I just did it for fun and for the trophies. I didn’t care if I came in first or fourth. I would say I was average; I was athletic, but I didn’t know wrestling back then. It took me a while to get used to things, but I finally started to figure it out in fifth or sixth grade – when I won a youth state title.”
Two-time state champion Max McEnelly of Waconia has a goal of becoming a four-time state champion.
Before he started to figure out wrestling, McEnelly almost took another road. His dad played football in college and football and hockey in high school. Max was playing youth hockey and wrestling. The future state champion picked the mat over the ice.
“We were on the fence between hockey and wrestling. My brother decided to go with wrestling, so I just followed what he did. Thanks to him, I stuck with wrestling.”
Soon, McEnelly wasn’t wrestling just for any old trophy. He started wrestling for the top trophies.
“Once I started working hard at practice, I started to see more success. I started to get more interested in the sport and pay better attention in practice. I wanted to learn more about wrestling. When I really started to take off was my freshman year. Before that, I was just learning moves and was interested in learning the basics of wrestling. Once I got good at the basic stuff, I kept evolving and adding stuff.”
He was adding stuff, but he and his parents made sure things never got out of balance.
“We would try to go to open tournaments every weekend, and I would do all the youth team stuff. We didn’t overload me. We didn’t want me stressed out about having to wrestle too much. When you are younger, it should be about having fun with wrestling. Wrestling can be long and physical, so when you are young, you want to just have fun with it.”
Winning and winning a lot was fun too.
“Once I started to see results, I wanted to see how good I could be,” McEnelly explained. “I had come so far; I might as well stick with it. I wanted to see how far I could take it.”
Those results – then and now – mainly come from one aspect of wrestling.
“I was the same way I am now. I am a takedown guy. I love taking people down. I have never been much of a rider. From youth until now, it has been the same way; I am still a double leg guy. I still hit knee post singles, single legs, high crotches, and all those basic moves. I don’t need to be flashy; I just do what works for me.”
McEnelly broke into the varsity lineup in 7th grade but found a technique that would make him nearly unstoppable a couple of years later.
“My knee post single to my opponent’s left leg – I will act like I am going to a high crotch but then switch off to a single leg. That has been my bread and butter shot since freshman year.”
“The first ranked kid I ever beat – Carl Leuer at the St. Michael-Albertville Open my freshman year – that was the takedown that I hit on him in the third period to with the match. Ever since that match, it has stuck with me. It has flowed, and I have gotten better at it – hand fighting to get to that shot. My coaches have done a good job showing me better ways to set the shot up.”
Before that season started, McEnelly realized he had a chance to do special things on the mat.
“Our team goes to a camp at Luther College in Iowa in the summer,” the Wildcat junior said. “Brock Rinehart was there. I was going into my freshman year, and he had just taken second at state. I was 132 my 8th-grade year, and then I jumped to 170 my freshman year. Our team dualed them at this summer camp, and I beat him, and that made me think I can wrestle with the top guys in the state.”
“Once we got into the high school season,” McEnelly continued, “I started beating guys in the top five – that is when it flipped in my mind, and I realized I could do something here. I could win state.”
The fifty-pound weight jump in a year made McEnelly a better wrestler.
“I made it to state my seventh-grade year – at 120 – then in eighth grade, I got third at sections at 132. I was cutting a lot of weight to get to 132. Our team made it to state that year, and after I weighed in at state – the next day – I think I weighed 155. I was hitting a growth spurt. Once the season ended, I started lifting and eating more. I naturally got bigger. I feel better when I don’t cut weight. I wrestle better, and I have never cut weight since then – even now.”
Before his freshman year, wrestlers across Minnesota were about to be put on notice.
“I was the underdog that year, “McEnelly told The Guillotine. “I came into the season ranked sixth or seventh. I had a hit list of kids ranked ahead of me. I had a chip on my shoulder that year – wanting to prove I could beat those top guys. Once it was time for the state tournament, I went all out. I made it to the finals. It was a surreal experience being down there after not making it my eighth-grade year and then coming in my freshman year and being in the state finals. It was an awesome experience.”
Like most seasons, McEnelly was ready to step away from wrestling for a few months.
“Usually, I try to take a break from wrestling. I don’t normally wrestle all year round. I try to give myself the summer to relax. I am still working out – lifting and running – but I think it is good for wrestlers to take a break from wrestling to get the drive and passion back.”
McEnelly likes to balance athletics with – among other things – going to the lake to hang out with friends.
Balancing wrestling with real-life is something McEnelly has tried to pass on.
“Every young kid I talk to, I tell them to go out and have fun. Don’t worry about cutting weight or anything like that. Success will come by working hard. Work hard and have fun with it.”
Part of his break includes being one of the best multi-sport athletes in Minnesota.
“Football was my first love. I thought I would play football in college until the end of my freshman year. Football has always clicked for me. I am athletic enough. I have quick feet. I can run the ball and have good vision.”
McEnelly is a running back and linebacker, “I am a downhill runner. I don’t think anyone wants to tackle me. I think I hit harder, and I wear people down. Once we wear on them for four quarters, it starts to pay off. That showed in games where we were down and came back because the defense didn’t want to tackle anymore. (On defense) I am a good tackler. Wrestling and football translate to each other – tackling is straight-up double legs.”
Back on the mat, McEnelly has had many coaches, but one coach has worked with him more than others.
“All of my coaches are awesome, but the coach who works with me the most is Derek Sikora. He was a national champion wrestler from UW-Eau Claire and played football. I started working with him in ninth grade. We built a relationship, and he has been there for me my whole career. He is not only a wrestling coach; he is a mentor too. He talks me through things and keeps me calm and focused. I give a lot of credit to him. I am not where I am today without him.”
Without Sikora, McEnelly would not have taken the national scene by storm.
“Coach Sikora – got me into freestyle. He works with USA Wrestling and is a volunteer coach at Waconia. He told me freestyle fits well with my style. I don’t like to roll around – I like to take people down, and that is what freestyle wrestling is. He said to come in and try this. My goals are big. I want to be nationally ranked. I want to be a national champion. The only way I can do that was to go win Fargo.”
“I didn’t start wrestling on the national scene until this year,” McEnelly continued. “Fargo was my third ever freestyle tournament. I wrestled the freestyle state tournament in Minnesota. Then I went to Northern Plains and won those two tournaments.”
Fargo would make it three-for-three for McEnelly on the freestyle scene.
Max McEnelly won a 16U Freestyle National Championship in Fargo this past summer.
“I didn’t have many freestyle practices,” McEnelly said. “(Coach Sikora) would go over basic gut defense. We weren’t planning on having me turn anybody on top. We were just planning not to get taken down and hopefully not get turned. We were going to take people down the whole time. I got taken down four times, but I didn’t get turned.”
Many schools – Michigan, Oklahoma State, Stanford, Wisconsin, Oregon State, Wyoming, and others – tried to turn him toward their school. It didn’t work.
“Recruiting for me was pretty simple,” McEnelly said. “I knew I wanted to stay in Minnesota, but I didn’t know if I wanted to play football or wrestle. Once I talked to (Gophers’ coaches) Brandon Eggum, Trevor Brandvold, Luke Becker, and Zach Sanders – how could I say no? Wrestling for Minnesota was a dream of mine as a kid. I am a hometown kid. I wanted to stay close to home, so my family could come and watch my sporting events. When a school from far out would call, I would say, ‘I am a hometown kid, and I have always wanted to be a Gopher. I talked to other coaches to see what they had to offer, but Minnesota always seemed like the place. In the end, it was a pretty simple decision.”
It was a simple decision for the Gophers too.
“They liked my style and my ‘don’t quit’ mentality,” McEnelly said. “I go out and score points. I am not looking to keep matches close and waste time.”
McEnelly had opportunities to play football in college. Northern Iowa, North Dakota, North Dakota State, and South Dakota State reached out to him, but his official visit to Minnesota sealed the deal.
“All the guys on the team are super close, and it was fun being around those guys. Once I went on my official visit and hung around them, it was hard to say no. Tim Stapleton – one of my former high school teammates – wrestles for them. He was always in my ear.”
Once he decided to commit to Minnesota, McEnelly’s focus turned to the high school season.
“At the beginning of the season, I sat down with my coach, and we said, ‘we know I can beat these guys. My goal has been to go out and dominate this year – even the top-ranked kids – and wrestle how I know how to wrestle. All my matches have been at least major decisions.”
That includes the Christmas Tournament – where McEnelly found out first-hand what being coached by Coach Eggum might be like.
“In my semifinal match, I gave up a takedown,” McEnelly – who is wrestling at 195 this year and will drop to 184 in college – said. “It was the only takedown I have given up all year. I went to talk to Coach Eggum about it, and he pulled me aside and showed me what to do in that situation. It was pretty cool. My defense needs to get a little better, but they will work with me on that. My bottom wrestling will have to improve because that is not somewhere I have been a lot in my high school career. I know I need to start riding guys. Those are the things I am working on now.”
He will be working on wrestling more this year than he ever has. This year, making wrestling a more significant part of his offseason has a big potential payoff behind it.
“During the high school season, I basically do the high school training,” McEnelly said. “Once the season is over, I am going to be training for the World Team Trials. If I win that, I get to go to Rome.”
With a chance to compete on the World Team, becoming a three or four-time state champion, and competing for an NCAA title, all reasons even Max McEnelly might allow for a little less balance in his life – at least this offseason.
Fun-Loving Hunter Lyden Isn’t Joking About Earning Stillwater A Team Wrestling Title
CBS / WCCO
By Ren Clayton
February 28, 2022
STILLWATER, Minn. - Stillwater wrestling has gotten very close the past few years but they’re still looking for the program’s first ever team state title.
“If they can crack through and do it, they’ll be the first and only ever to do it first. So I think they’re excited about it,” said Stillwater head coach Timothy Hartung.
The Ponies’ leader on the mat is fun-loving Hunter Lyden.
“We will occasionally say, ‘Hey let’s get a little bit more serious,'” said Hartung. “But the fun side that he brings to the sport, and keeping things pretty loose does effect the kids around him in a positive way, especially in these environments.”
Lyden is Minnesota’s top ranked wrestler at 170 pounds. At this weekend’s state tournament he’ll be going for his third straight crown.
“Back in 6th, 7th, 8th grade, you’re just like ‘I wanna be a senior so bad,'” Lyden said. “Now I’m here, and it’s like ‘holy…’ now I wanna go back. It’s crazy.
His last state meet could be his healthiest. He was recovering from arm and rib injuries in 2020 and 2021, respectively, and still took the titles. He’s undefeated this year.
“Last year was a struggle, but this year is great. I’ve been doing all the right things, making sure everything is perfect, and I’m healthy and ready to go,” Lyden said.
He may be the wrestling room’s class clown, but when it’s time to compete, he’s as confident as they come.
His answer when asked about his odds at state:
“Pretty high. Pretty high. I wouldn’t bet against me.”
Lyden will wrestle for the University of Minnesota next year.
