Photo by Photoworks The 2022-23 Marshall varsity wrestling team included Lincoln Christenson, Sam Deutz, Dawson DeCamp, Landon Marthaler, Brayden Chandler, Dylan Louwagie, Drew Chandler, Brandon Simpson, Tate Condezo, Aidan Mattison, Lukas Stelter, Tucker Fiene, Brayden Appel, Gavin Schaefer and Andrew Cowden. The team was coached by Justin Bouwman with assistant coaches Ethan Hoppe, David Wingert and Travis Christenson.

MARSHALL — Belief was the name of the game for the 2022-23 Marshall wrestling team. Belief in themselves as individuals, in their teammates, in their coaches and in the process.

“We all just bought into the idea that we could do it. The coaches said all season that if we believe, we can get to the section finals and win it,” Marshall’s 170-pound state-qualifier Tucker Fiene said. “They were saying, ‘we believe in you guys and you guys have the talent to do it.’ After a few big wins, like the Willmar win earlier in this season, we started to believe them.”

The team’s confidence was certainly justified. The team steamrolled its way through the season to a 19-4 record, a Section 3AA runner-up finish and four state tournament qualifiers. In part, the success the Tigers had came from the fact that the players weren’t just teammates.

“They all wanted in and they were all together,” Marshall head coach Justin Bouwman said. “When you’re committed to somebody more than just as a teammate, committed as a friend, it makes things tighter, and the group was tight. They were all together all the time. They love doing things together and… just that team camaraderie that we had.”

That camaraderie pushed the athletes to work harder all year round. They’d workout together through the summer in gyms and camps and all the way through the end of the season.

“In the season, we’re always with each other and then out of season, we’ve gone back so many years,” said Dylan Louwagie, Marshall’s 132AA runner-up. “We’ve always been on the same youth teams and we’re just really close in that way.”

The Tigers’ team success earned them the top seed in the section tournament. Marshall defeated Windom Lake 66-12 in the quarterfinals and eeked past Hutchinson/Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart in the semifinals. Dawson-Boyd/Lac qui Parle-Montevideo United defeated Marshall 37-22 in the section championship match, but with all of Marshall’s starters returning next year, the loss isn’t the end of the road for this varsity team.

“[I have] all the confidence in the world,” Tate Condezo, Marshall’s 160-pound 5th-place medalist at the state tournament, said of the team’s outlook for the future. “I think our team is going to do great things next year and everyone’s believing in us, so hopefully we’ll get it done.”

Condezo isn’t alone in the sentiment. With Condezo, Louwagie and Fiene, as well as Marshall’s first-ever female state qualifier and state medalist in eighth-grader Esther Say, there’s a lot to be excited about for the team’s future.

“It gives those younger guys an example of, ‘this is what I’ve done, this is how I did it, this is how I got there. This is what we do,” Bouwman said. “Those guys, their leadership most of the time is just by example. They’re not real vocal leaders, but they’re example leaders and they’re there to pick each other up. That next guy up and, if something goes wrong, the next guy’s ready to go. It’s that mentality, kind of learning from each other and just taking and continuing that same success.”

Louwagie was a force to be reckoned with all year. He dominated his opponents to finish the season with a 47-3 record and surpassed the 200 career wins mark. While he wasn’t able to take home first prize at the state tournament, going home with his second state medal on top of his sophomore year third-place finish makes for an impressive resume. Still, with another year to build on it, Louwagie isn’t taking his foot off the gas.

“I like to put my head down and keep working. I’m just looking forward to next season,” Louwagie said. “I think I might be one of the top competitors again, so I’m excited for that and the challenge of just new guys coming into the weight class and facing that at state.”

Condezo, Louwagie’s long-time practice partner, also will enter his senior year as a two-time state medalist after a third-place finish his sophomore year in the 152-pound class.

Fiene rounds out Marshall’s state trio. While he hasn’t medaled at state yet, he’s won a section tournament and has qualified for state twice. He won the tournament in Buffalo this year to help the Tigers to a team victory and is hungry to get back on top of the podium.

“It just feels great to stand on top of the podium and think, hey, I just beat everyone here,” Fiene said, adding that his practice partners, Condezo and Aiden Mattison, helped him improve consistently and get to that point.

With Condezo, Louwagie and Fiene leading a team loaded with talent from top to bottom, there’s no shortage of reasons to keep an eye on Marshall next winter.

“It’s going to be a really exciting season,” Bouwman said. “They’ve done some of those big things. They’ve been in a section final. They’ve been through… putting everything on the line to try to get to state and know that feeling of not making it and some making it. It’s all that motivation for the next year. The group is feeding off it already.”