Austin senior Mike Hirsch had to settle for second.

Owatonna’s Dalton Henderson beat Hirsch for the second time in a week’s span when he won with an 8-2 decision at the Class ‘AAA’ state wrestling 189-pound final at the Excel Energy Center in St. Paul Saturday.

While Hirsch beat Henderson last season in a regular season match, he said he has always been a little bit haunted by his presence.

“I first met him in seventh grade when he was at Blooming Prairie. He pinned me in like 10 seconds. So he was pretty much the bogeyman,” Hirsch said. “It was kind of a big thing for me (to beat him last year). He’s a good wrestler. He’s gotten better from last year.”

One thing Hirsch did on Saturday was have a conversation with Henderson —something he had never done before.

He was surprised by what he found.

“I thought he was going to be a mean guy because he has that mean look to him but he’s a really nice guy,” he said.

Hirsch finishes the season with a 36-3 record and Henderson finished with a 27-2 record.

Hirsch gave Henderson his closest match at state as Henderson racked up a 17-2 tech. fall and two pins (at 1:26 and 2:23) on his way to the finals.

In Class ‘A’ action, Southland junior Grant Hegge finished sixth at 145 pounds.

Alex Cooling of Madelia/Truman/Martin Luther beat Hegge (25-9 overall) with a 5-4 decision in the fifth place match.

In Class ‘AA’ action, Grand Meadow/LeRoy/Ostrander Kingsland junior Carter Brandt took fourth place after dropping a 7-4 decision to Jeff Nielsen (35-2 overall) of Zimmerman.

Brandt (38-8 overall) beat Tony Frank of Caledonia/Houston 5-2 to get to the third place match.