Photos courtesy of Marshall Area Wrestling Association Marshall wrestler Dylan Louwagie compete at the second day of the Class A state individual wrestling tournament at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. Louwagie finished as runner-up in in the Class AA 133 wrestling tournament, earning his fifth state medal.

ST. PAUL — The Marshall Tigers wrestling team set a new school record this weekend with six medalists at the Class AA individual state wrestling tournament. Lincoln Christenson and Dylan Louwagie finished as runners-up in their respective weight classes and Landon Marthaler placed fourth in his. Tate Condezo placed fifth while Brayden Chandler and Hannah Ratajczak both placed sixth.

Aidan Mattison just missed placing as he went 2-2 and fell in the consolation quarterfinals. Gavin Schaefer went 0-2 in the tournament. The Tigers’ efforts placed them in a tie for fourth in the state for class AA for overall team points.

Louwagie’s runner-up finish marked his fifth state tournament medal. He entered the tournament as the top-seeded wrestler.

In his opening matches on Friday, Louwagie defeated both of his opponents, Aidan Graner of PEM and Chandler Mickelson of Perham, by major decision.

On Saturday, Louwagie squared off against fellow senior Alex Lehman from Grand Rapids. In the match, Louwagie quickly applied nonstop pressure and scored off a mix of takedowns, escapes and stall calls against Lehman to win the match 13-0.

In his final match, Louwagie faced Justus Heeg from Simley for the state championship. The two wrestlers spent the first period feeling each other out, circling in the center of the mat, utilizing fakes and movement to try to create an opening.

In the second period, Heeg got on the scoreboard first with an escape. Following the escape, the two continued to attempt to create angles and attacking positions.

In the third period, Louwagie tied the match up with an escape of his own. With the score knotted at 1, Heeg scored first with a quick single-leg takedown.

Louwagie bounced back up and got an escape of his own. Trailing 3-2, the pressure was now on Louwagie to find an opening from which to score. Instead, Heeg got the next takedown as he utilized Louwagie’s pressure to get another takedown. Louwagie again bounced up for an escape to make the score 5-3. Unfortunately for Louwagie, time ran out before he could find an opening to score a takedown to tie the match and force an overtime period.

Louwagie finished the season 51-1 and was also the Big South and Section 3AA champion. Louwagie finishes his career as a Tiger with multiple school records, including a program-best 256 career wins. He also is a five-time state place winner with three runner-up finishes, a third-place finish and a fifth-place finish.

“I gave it my all this season. Even though I came up short in the end, I’m proud of what I have accomplished during my high school career,” Louwagie said. “If you reach all your goals, you didn’t set them high enough. I’m also extremely proud of this team, how hard they worked and how much success they had.”

At 107 pounds, Lincoln Christenson entered the tournament as the No. 4-seeded wrestler. Christenson began his path to the finals with an opening round pin over Tucker Gould from Rush City/Braham. In his quarterfinal match, Christenson met a familiar foe in Becker’s Boston Kuschel, who beat Christenson earlier in the season. This time it was Christenson who would leave the match with his arm raised as he emerged victorious with a 4-3 decision.

“I felt like I was on a roll. I just wanted to stay on that roll and keep the momentum going,” Christenson said.

For the semifinals, Christenson had to square off against the top-seeded Logan Refsnider of Totino-Grace. Christenson struck first with an opening-period takedown. After fighting through some precarious positions, Christenson remained on top and kept his lead at 2-0 at the end of the first period. In the second period, Refsnider chose down to begin the period.

It didn’t take long before Christenson would make him regret that decision as Christenson drove him to his back for a 3-point near fall following another scramble. In the third period, holding on to a 5-0 lead, Christenson chose neutral and successfully fended off Refsnider’s attacks throughout the period and punched his ticket to the finals with the 5-0 victory.

In the finals, Christenson faced off against Turner Ross from Simley, who’s currently ranked 17th in the nation. Ross struck first with a takedown in the first period. After a scoreless second period, Ross chose down in the third and got a quick escape to extend his lead to 3-0. Ross then further extended his lead with a takedown. Following the takedown, Ross would ride out Christenson for the 5-0 win. Christenson finished the season with a 42-6 record and was the Big South Conference Champion, Section 3AA Champion and state runner-up.

“It was fun being on that ride with the seniors (Louwagie and Condezo). It was a fun experience even though I came one win short of my goal,” Christenson said.

Also wrestling and medaling in his first state tournament was Marthaler, who placed fourth at 121 pounds. The state medal is Marthaler’s second state medal of the school year as he was also one of the top runners on the cross-country team that placed third in the Class AA state meet.

Entering the tournament as the sixth seed, Marthaler’s path to the podium began with an opening round 6-2 victory over Vicente Lopez-Marsh from Minneapolis Edison. In the quarterfinals, Marthaler took down the returning state runner-up at 114 pounds Raydon Graham who was seeded third in the tournament. In the quarterfinal match, Marthaler used three takedowns to earn the victory, a spot in the semifinals and a guaranteed state medal.

In the semifinals, Marthaler scored the first takedown and held a 4-3 lead late in the match when his opponent second-seeded Jackson Refsnider from Totino Grace scored a takedown to take the lead and win the match. Marthaler bounced back from the loss and defeated Cayden Neisen from Little Falls by a score of 10-3 in the consolation semifinals. In his third-place match, Marthaler fell to Cyler Ruhoff from Foley 8-2.

Marthaler finished the season 44-8. In addition to his fourth-place finish at state, Marthaler was also the Big South Conference Champion and the Section 3AA Champion.

“I was very excited because I knew all the hard work paid off,” Marthaler said. “The environment was cool, but not as overwhelming as I thought it would be. It just seemed like another tournament once we started wrestling. Now I know I can compete at the highest levels.”

Hannah Ratajczak was Marshall’s lone qualifier for the girl’s side of the tournament. After losing her opening-round match against Ally Altringer of Anoka, the Marshall junior won by injury default in her first wrestle-back match. In her final match, Ratajczak had a rematch with her section finals opponent, Aliah Fischer. Ratajczak battled hard but fell again to Fischer to finish in 6th place.

“It was a lot of energy up there,” Ratajczak, just in her second year as a wrestler, said. “There was a lot of action. This experience makes me more excited for next year. I hope we can get more of the girls there next year.”

At 152 pounds, freshman Brayden Chandler placed sixth in his first tournament appearance.

“I was pretty nervous, but you have to take it one match at a time and wrestle to the best of your ability,” Chandler said.

Chandler began his tournament by defeating Payton Herbst from Totino Grace 10-3. After losing to top-seeded Cash Raymond from Simley in the quarterfinals, Chandler regrouped and advanced to Saturday’s consolation quarterfinals with a 6-3 decision over Destan Skelly from Grand Rapids.

On Saturday morning, Chandler met up with senior Michael Amos from Chisago Lakes in the consolation quarterfinals — also known as the blood round. Chandler held off some takedown attempts by Amos in the first period and then scored off of a clasp call and escape in the second period.

In the third period, Chandler scored a takedown to increase his lead to 4-0. A last-second escape by Amos would make the score 4-1 in the end. After the win, which guaranteed Chandler a spot on the podium he said “I felt like a million dollars”.

Chandler lost his next two matches to University of Iowa recruit Joesph Kennedy from Kasson-Mantorville and to Drew May from Becker to finish sixth place.

Marshall’s other senior state qualifier was Tate Condezo, who was seeded fourth at 160 pounds. Condezo, who qualified and placed third and fifth the previous two years, also came in with high goals for himself.

“It didn’t feel different than previous years. I felt comfortable,” Condezo said.

After dispatching Judah Heeg from Simley in the first round, Condezo was defeated by Cael Olson from Delano in the quarterfinals 6-2. Following the match, Condezo had to quickly regroup and wrestle a consolation match. Condezo was able to overcome his disappointment and quickly pin August Adamsson from BCCA in 36 seconds.

“I was just trying to get the next best thing,” Condezo said of his bounce-back performance.

On Saturday, Condezo faced off against Nate Berchtold from South Saint Paul in the consolation quarterfinals. The two seniors battled each other as one would expect with so much on the line. The winner would earn a trip to the podium, the loser would have their high school career ended. It took more than six minutes of regulation and more than an extra minute of overtime to decide the match with the two remaining tied at 1.

In the second overtime, Condezo scored an escape in the first part of the overtime and then rode out Berchtold in the second part to win the match 2-1 and secure his spot on the podium.

In the consolation semifinals, Condezo fell to third-seeded Kaleb Lochner from Zumbrota-Mazeppa, 5-2.

In his final match, Condezo faced off against another senior sixth-seeded Alex Jennissen from Foley. Trailing 4-3 with just seconds remaining Condezo willed his way to a last-second takedown to win the match 5-4. “I knew I was losing by a point and I had nothing to lose, so I just went for it,” Condezo said.

Condezo finished the season 48-4 and was the Big South Conference Champion as well as the 3AA Champion. He finishes his career with 198 wins.

At 189 pounds Aidan Mattison fell just short of joining his teammates on the podium as he went 2-2 and fell in the consolation quarterfinals.

Mattison opened his tournament by knocking off fifth-seeded Tristan Zingler from Cannon Falls 5-3. After falling to Dylan Thomas from Scott West in the quarterfinals, Mattison advanced to the blood round with a pin over Payton Scott from PLPR. The match between the two was the third meeting this season between the two. Each had won once in their previous matches.

On Saturday, Mattison lost a heartbreaker to Danny Martin from Simley. With a 2-0 lead, it appeared that Mattison would be able to turn Martin to his back. Unfortunately for Mattison, the hold was stopped as potentially dangerous. In the third period with Mattison leading, Martin chose neutral to start the period and was able to throw Mattison to his back for the pin. “It was a good experience being in there with all those wrestlers. It was scary at first, but I got used to it and had fun,” Mattison said. “It’s going to make me work harder to achieve my goals for next year”

Gavin Schaefer was Marshall’s other qualifier for the boys’ tournament. Schaefer fell to the third-seeded Jacob Duitsmann from Kasson Mantorville in the first round. In the wrestle-back, Schaefer then fell to Bryce Haubenschild from Princeton.

“It’s a lot different wrestling up there,” Schaefer said. “It’s important to stay calm and wrestle like you do all year. I didn’t get the outcome I wanted, but that is just motivation for next year.”

The Marshall Tigers Head Coach Ethan Hoppe said that he was proud of the team and that the team was aggressive and confident.

Lincoln Christenson, 107AA runner up