Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall's Lincoln Christenson (right) sizes up an opponent during a Class AA team wrestling quarterfinal match against Becker on Thursday at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

ST. PAUL — In its second-ever team Class AA state tournament appearance and first with the current iteration of players, the Marshall wrestling team had some early struggles on Thursday at the Xcel Energy Center. The fifth-seeded Tigers fell 38-25 to No. 4 Becker in the Class A quarterfinals, but bounced back with a decisive 52-18 win over Totino-Grace. From there, however, Grand Rapids was too much for the Tigers to handle as they lost 30-25 in the fifth-place game.

It all came down to the last match for the fifth-place trophy. Marshall trailed by 2 points heading into the heavyweight match, but Grand Rapids’ Clayton Danielson sealed the victory with a 5-0 decision.

Grand Rapids gave a good fight to No. 3 Simley, the six-time reigning state champions, in the quarterfinals. Yet, after getting a heavyweight win to tie the dual at 33-33, Grand Rapids lost 34-33 on criteria tiebreaker.

Thursday’s result marks the end of the road for one Tiger senior, Josh Kraft, who will now turn his attention to baseball season. Marshall has other seniors among its group of individuals competing at the state tournament today and Saturday, though.

Landon Marthaler, Aidan Mattison and Gavin Schaefer will each be wrestling their final matches as a Tiger in the boys individual tournament while Hannah Ratajczak will be doing the same in the girls tournament. Other Marshall individuals competing include Keynan Coequyt, Lincoln Christenson, Brayden Chandler and Braeden VanMeveren.

QUARTERFINALS

The heart of the quarterfinal dual between fourth-seeded Becker and fifth-seeded Marshall decided the match on Thursday night. With the dual tied at 9 points apiece, Becker rattled off six consecutive wins for 29 unanswered points and a 38-9 lead. Marshall never recovered and the Bulldogs won 38-25.

The matchup marked the second time this academic year that Marshall and Becker have met in a state tournament matchup. The Tigers and Bulldogs also faced off in the Class AAAA state quarterfinals in November, with Becker ending the Tigers’ season 28-7.

With the score tied 9-9 in Thursday’s wrestling dual, Tyler Hall first gave Becker the lead with a pin of Marshall’s Emmett Frazee in 1:02 in 133. Bennett Kujawa then overcame a 3-1 first-period deficit for a 7-4 decision over Dawson DeCamp in 139 and Landon Kujawa pinned Noah Frazee in 2:58 in 145.

Tyson Louwagie looked poised to end the Bulldog run in 152. After a scoreless first period, Louwagie earned an escape to take a 1-0 lead into the third and solidified his advantage with a takedown. Yet, Brayden Boots came up clutch for Becker with a reverse and a takedown at the buzzer to eke out a 5-4 decision and increase Becker’s lead to 27-9.

Kaden Nicolas continued to add on to Becker’s lead with a 21-5 technical fall over Brayden Chandler and Owen Angell capped off the run by pinning Josh Kraft in 1:33 in 189.

Reigning individual state runner-up Lincoln Christenson gave Marshall its first points and first lead of the day in 114, taking down Rylan Kujawa by 20-3 technical fall after Keynan Coequyt had fallen via 8-2 decision in 107. Christenson built up an early 6-2 lead and dominated the match throughout; despite several near-falls, he finished just shy of getting Kujawa’s shoulders to the mat for the pin.

Boston Kuschel put the Bulldogs back on top by pinning Levi Kraft in 1:39, but Landon Marthaler tied the dual back up by jumping out to a 7-1 first-period lead before claiming a 16-3 major decision over Nolan Jurek in 127.

Marshall saved face at the end by winning each of the three final weight classes. In 189, Aidan Mattison pinned Kendrick Tomasko in 4:39 and heavyweight Braedyn VanMeveren pinned Lance Lysdal in 3:01. In between, Gavin Schaefer picked up a 10-2 major decision over Aiden Golley in 215. 

CONSOLATION SEMIFINALS

The Marshall Tigers picked up pins in three of the first four matches in their consolation semifinal dual against Totino-Grace on Thursday. The trio of first-period pins set the tone for Marshall to pull away early for a 52-18 win, keeping their team season alive for the fifth-place game. 

Keynan Coequyt brought the energy early with a 37-second pin over Peyton Harrer in 107 and Lincoln Christenson followed up with a 41-second win by fall over Kellen Vandermyde in 114. After Logan Refsnider got Totino-Grace on the board with a 9-1 major decision over Levi Kraft, Landon Marthaler continued to seize momentum for Marshall with a pin of Isaac Bizal in 37 seconds. 

Totino-Grace made an attempt to get back into the match when Jackson Refsnider pinned Gavin Williams in 133 and Austin Herbst earned a 20-7 major decision over Dawson DeCamp. Still, another 22 unanswered points for the Tigers solidified the final result.

In 145, Tyson Louwagie pinned Dane Bonebrake in 1:37. Also during the stretch, Brayden Chandler pinned Briggs Bouwman in 50 seconds in 160 and Josh Kraft pinned Payton Herbst in 4:43 in 172.

The only Marshall points over the course of the run that didn’t come by fall came in 152, where Drew Chandler earned a dominant 10-0 major decision over Landon Bizal.

Gavin Schaefer and Braedyn VanMeveren closed out the match with two more falls, Schaefer taking down Quinn Harrer in 1:04 and VanMeveren picking up a heavyweight fall over Marion Smith in 21 seconds.

Joe Kruse gave Totino-Grace another 4 points with an 18-7 major decision over Aidan Mattison.

CONSOLATION CHAMPIONSHIP

From start to finish, the 2025 Class AA consolation championship between No. 5 Marshall and Grand Rapids was a neck-and-neck battle. Neither team won more than two consecutive matches at any point in the dual, but Grand Rapids pulled out the wins when it needed to and overcame an unsportsmanlike conduct deduction to beat Marshall 30-25.

Marshall trailed 27-25 heading into the final match, with Braedyn VanMeveren taking the mat for Marshall and Clayton Danielson for Grand Rapids. While the match started slow, VanMeveren pulled away in the third for a 5-0 win, sending his teammates to their feet for the final 30 seconds as they reality of the trophy started to set in.

Destan Skelly and Jaxon Thompson secured back-to-back wins for Grand Rapids to give their team a 27-20 lead with two matches to go. Skelly defeated Josh Kraft via 32-17 technical fall in 172 while Thompson took down Mattison with a pin in 1:45 in 2:15.

With the Tigers’ backs against the wall, Gavin Schaefer stepped up big time for the Tigers. Following a scoreless first period, Schaefer scored 8 second-period points and nearly had the pin just before time ran out.

Heading into the third, Schaefer continued to pull away. While he couldn’t get the pin, his 15-0 technical fall victory was enough to give Marshall a chance in the final match.

Christian Jelle’s 21-5 technical fall over Tyson Louwagie in 145 and Warren Ritter’s 7-5 decision over Drew Chandler in 152 gave Grand Rapids a narrow lead. Yet, Brayden Chandler stepped up to put his team back on top in 160.

Chandler controlled his match from the jump and showed no doubt on his face that he’d attain the victory. As he neared the pin, he smiled and nodded his head toward his teammates, relishing the moment until the official signaled the victory by fall at 1:14.

Keynan Coequyt picked up a 9-3 decision win over Dalton Hutchinson while Lincoln Christenson followed up with an 18-1 technical fall over Holden Brink to start Marshall off with an 8-0 lead. Still, Grand Rapids got right back into the match when Joey Seeley picked up a 3-1 decision over Levi Kraft in 121 and Kadin Martin fell Emmett Frazee in 29 seconds in 133. In between, Landon Marthaler earned a 12-7 decision over Asher Brenden in 127.