Athlete of the Week - Bennett Berge, Kasson-Mantorville Wrestling

KASSON, Minn. (KTTC) – Bennett Berge is at the top of his game.

“I mean I know where I’m at, I know I’m a top kid in the country that’s the confidence I have when I wrestle,” Berge said.

He showed that confidence leaving this year’s Christmas tournament with another Santa Hat.

“I had one of the toughest brackets I’ve ever been in in my entire life in Rochester. So it was a really fun tournament, I think I put together a pretty decent match in the finals, but there’s always things to improve on to.”

He hopes to improve not just for himself, but for his team.

“Right now my main motivation is the team. That’s kind of been my goal since the beginning of this year is team title at the end of the year and that’s the goal and what motivates me every day,” Berge said.

“You put an emphasis on that as an individual it escalates you, yourself and everybody in the program and he’s a guy that he’s had brothers here that have wrestled here, his dad’s coached here, the families from here. They’re very very strong roots in the Kasson-Mantorville community,” Jamie Heidt, Kasson-Mantorville Head Wrestling Coach said.

“I know that a team championship would mean a lot to Bennett and his family.”

It’s Berge’s family that showed him what a team title really means..

“Don’t get me wrong, people remember the individual titles that we all had, but when you get those team ones, its a community, a legacy and a program that we’ve built and keep building. I think that’s something that gets remembered,” Broc Berge, Bennett’s brother said.

Its why he doesn’t think much about a fifth individual state title.

“I think maybe in 20 years its something that’s kind of cool to look back on, ‘Oh I was the seventh guy to win five state titles’. Its cool, but a team state title right now would be a lot cooler for the community I feel,” Berge said.

So that’s why his career, his time as a Komet can only end one way.

“Everyone in this room, everyone on the team knows that that’s the goal. Coach has talked to us about it, we know, its on our goal sheets. Everyone’s got the same plan, we’re going to do it.”

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