Photo courtesy of Marshall Area Wrestling Association Marshall’s Dylan Louwagie (Right) wrestles in a 139-pound match at the Hutchinson Invitational on Saturday.

The Marshall Tigers wrestling team finished first at the Hutchinson Invite on Saturday. The Tigers squared off against numerous state-ranked teams and individuals in the tournament. Among the state-ranked teams competing in the tournament were No. 5AA Watertown Mayer-Mayer Lutheran, No. 7AA Becker, No. 9AA Marshall, No. 9AAA Willmar and No. 10AAA Anoka. Marshall’s first-place effort was a whole team effort as they only had one individual champion but had wrestlers place in the top six in 12 of the 13 weight classes. The Tigers placed first with 202.5 points, which put them 34.5 points ahead of runner-up Willmar.   

Leading the way for the Tigers was Dylan Louwagie, who took first place in the 133-pound bracket and was voted the Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament. Louwagie, ranked first in the state at 133 pounds in class AA, defeated Cavin Carlson from Willmar, ranked fifth in the state in class AAA, by a score of 6-2. After a scoreless first period, Louwagie was able to get a 2-point reversal in the second period. Louwagie out-scrambled his opponent and worked through some tough situations to add two more takedowns in the third period to secure the victory. Louwagie said that he just wanted to stay on his offense after the scoreless first period.  

The Tigers had three wrestlers finish in second place. At 160 pounds, Tate Condezo picked up a fall and a major decision on his way to finals. In the finals, Condezo fell to Luke Hoag from Hutchinson in a battle between state-ranked wrestlers.    

At 215 pounds, Gavin Schaefer defeated Anoka’s Max Berglund in the semifinals 7-4 to earn a spot in the championship match, which he lost by a score of 3-1 to Matthew Veroeven from Waseca in another battle between two state-ranked wrestlers.  

Also finishing second for the Tigers was AJ Haas at heavyweight. Haas picked up a pair of pins before losing by fall to Michael Chamberlin from Anoka in the finals. 

The Tigers had four wrestlers place third in their brackets. At 107 pounds state state-ranked Lincoln Christenson began his tournament with a pin. Christenson then fell in the semifinals to third-ranked Boston Kuschel from Becker. Christenson bounced back and won his next two matches, both by major decision, to finish third.  

Landon Marthaler placed third for the Tigers at 121 pounds. Marthaler won by major decision in his opening match before losing in the semifinals. Following the loss, Marthaler pinned his next two opponents to finish third place.  

At 145 pounds, Colin Klenken took a different path than his teammates to his third-place finish. After losing his first match Klenken won his next three matches to finish third. Among his three victories was a nail-biting 3-1 overtime victory over the number two seed in the bracket.  

Aidan Mattison was Marshall’s fourth third-place finisher. Mattison pinned Aiden Golley from Becker in the first period to start off his day. After losing by a 10-6 decision to Anoka’s Luke DeChene in the semifinals Mattison bounced back with two first-period pins to finish off his day. 

Several other wrestlers earned spots on the podium with their efforts. Dawson Decamp (127), Tyson Louwagie (139), Drew Chandler (145) and Andrew Cowden (HWT) all placed fourth in their brackets. Tucker Fiene placed fifth at 172 pounds and Truman Gilbertson (139) and Matt Her (160) both placed sixth. 

Marshall faces off alongside Hutchinson again on Tuesday, when they head to Minneota for a quadrangular at 5 p.m. Windom will also participate in the meet.

TEAM SCORES 

10. MAHACA 25 

6th: Truman Gilbertson (133), Matt Her (152)