Feb. 17—GRAND FORKS — Rhys Safratowich and Gabriel Flores III entered seventh grade with hundreds of youth wrestling matches under their belts.
The Grand Forks Central coaching staff quickly realized they were ready for varsity competition.
It proved to be the right call. Safratowich and Flores have qualified for the state tournament in each year since.
The pair of sophomores will return to the North Dakota Class A individual tournament as two of the Knights' five returning state placers this week.
"I'm actually very pumped," Flores said. "Always grateful for the opportunity to go to state. It's always fun to watch everyone else wrestle, too. ... I've been there many times, I'm used to it by now."
Flores wrestled at the 121-pound weight class in last year's individual tournament, while Safratowich competed at 127. They both placed sixth.
Head coach Garrett Litzinger described them as "basically veterans" at this point.
"They're lead-by-example kind of guys, they're not big rah-rah guys," assistant coach Bryan Safratowich added. "But it's fun to watch their interaction, and to have watched them grow from little kids to two of the toughest dudes around."
Safratowich has been wrestling since he was four years old. He competed alongside Flores in youth wrestling from first to fourth grade.
Flores took a brief break in fifth and sixth grade, but returned in seventh.
"All that youth experience — I mean, Reese especially — these guys have hundreds upon hundreds of matches of experience before they even touched seventh grade, before they touched the high school mat," Bryan Safratowich said. "They're both great ad-lib wrestlers. Just the amount of experience contributes to a lot of feel on the mat. They're both such naturals with their body movement and their moves and ability to scramble and get to their offense. It's kind of amazing to watch."
The two were long-term practice partners in their first few seasons with Central, though Safratowich's move up to the 152-pound weight class this season has made the pairing less frequent.
They've grown together into two of the Knights' top competitors.
"In my mind, it's kind of hard to talk about Gabe without talking about Rhys, and it's a little hard to talk about Rhys without talking about Gabe," Litzinger said. "They've been together since they were little kids, and they've been practice partners for a really long time. ... Those guys have done a whole lot together and I think that they motivate each other, because they're both competitors."
Safratowich won the 127-pound East Region Championship in 2025. Flores secured the same title at the 2026 Eastern Dakota Conference tournament last week.
Safratowich will enter Thursday's opening round as the fourth seed at 152 after placing second at last week's East Region tournament. Flores is the fifth seed at 127.
"Neither one of them really succumbs to pressure and big moments," Litzinger said. "I think the big moments are what both of them live for, and they almost wrestle worse when it's a smaller moment. They always rise to the occasion. Where other people would get nervous and break under pressure, they rise to the occasion, and they live for the excitement."
The Knights have 10 wrestlers seeded in the top eight of the individual tournament. Sixteen individuals qualified, but an injury to another qualifier opened up a spot and brought Central's total up to 17.
Eli Fischer, Cesar Cruz Jr. and Landon Petron join Safratowich and Flores as the Knights' returning placers.
The individual tournament will begin Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Fargodome. It will wrap up on Friday, with the finals scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
Central will enter Saturday's Class A team dual state tournament as the No. 2 seed out of the East Region.
The Knights will open against third-seeded Williston at 11:30 a.m.
Central has 17 dual wins this season. The program's single-season win record is 18 wins, which means the Knights
could tie or break that mark at the tournament.
Red River had three wrestlers qualify for the individual state tournament. Fifth-seeded Brody Ray will compete in the 145-pound weight class.
Sixth-seeded Kamdyn Goulet will wrestle at 107 and ninth-seeded Liam Wadlow at 127.
The first round kicks off at 10 a.m. on Thursday.