Photo by Jake McNeill The Marshall wrestling team reacts from the bench area during the Section 3AA championship match at Marshall High School on Feb. 15.

MARSHALL — Heading into the state tournament, the Marshall wrestling team is slated to have a jam-packed weekend. The Tigers earned a team state tournament berth and qualified eight individual wrestlers, setting the stage for some Tigers to wrestle as many as a total of 10 matches over three days.

The Tigers’ state run starts today with the Class AA team tournament. When the Tigers toppled New Ulm in the Section 3AA team championship, they earned their second-ever state tournament berth and first since their 2019 state runner-up finish.

While this is Marshall’s first team state tournament berth with the current iteration of Tigers, the team isn’t without state tournament experience. Lincoln Christenson returns as a junior after finishing as the 107AA state runner-up last year while Landon Marthaler returns as a senior after finishing fourth in 121AA. Brayden Chandler also brought home hardware with a 152AA sixth-place finish while Aidan Mattison and Gavin Schaefer both participated in 189AA and 215AA.

On the girls side, Hannah Ratajczak also returns after taking home a sixth-place medal in last year’s 142 division.

In the team state tournament, Marshall enters as the No. 5 seed with a dual record of 28-4 and will take on fourth-seeded Becker (25-6) today at 11 a.m. 

Marshall is a lower seed but this isn’t a situation the team hasn’t been in before; the Tigers entered the 2019 state tournament as the No. 4 seed, taking down No. 5 Foley in the quarterfinals and upsetting top-seeded Perham 27-25 in the semifinals before falling 60-7 to Simley, Inner Grove Heights in the championship match.

This year will be head coach Ethan Hoppe’s first season coaching the team in a team state tournament run. He took the reins from Justin Bouwman last season, helping the team to its second consecutive section championship match appearance before falling to Dawson-Boyd/Lac qui Parle Valley/Montevideo United.

Marshall will either face the winner of No. 1 Watertown-Mayer (19-1) and Totino-Grace (15-7) in the semifinals at 1 p.m. or in the consolation bracket at the same time. The team state championship is slated for 7 p.m. while the third- and fifth-place matches are both slated for 5 p.m.

After moving up a weight class, Christenson (41-2) enters the 114 individual bracket as the top seed and the top-ranked wrestler in the state. The Marshall junior will take on Rocori eighth grader Carter Kremer (32-11) in the first round and would face the winner of Cavan Fjeld and Shane Kramer in the state quarterfinals with a win. 

Christenson defeated Simley’s Turner Ross by 8-1 decision in last year’s state championship match, but the sophomore is not in this year’s bracket. Zumbrota-Mazeppa sophomore Sam Moore, on the opposite side of the bracket, is the second-ranked wrestler in the event.

In 127, Landon Marthaler (39-5) enters the tournament as the No. 3 seed. The lone senior ranked in the top 10 of his weight class, Marthaler opens his run against Simley eighth grader Drezden Short (18-16) before facing the winner of Zumbrota-Mazeppa’s Noah Schaefer and Asher Brenden.

Marthaler’s state tournament losses last year’s 121 bracket came against Totino-Grace’s Jackson Refsnider in the semifinals and against Foley’s Cyler Ruhoff in the third-place match. 

With neither in his bracket this year, Marthaler’s top competition is undefeated No. 1 Titan Friederichs (40-0) of Watertown-Mayer and No. 5 Raydon Graham (33-8) of Howard Lake-Waverly-Winstead. 

No. 2 Bennett Kujawa isn’t in the bracket and No. 4 Adam Parish would face Friederichs in the second round, negating the possibility of Marthaler facing both. Marthaler also defeated Graham by 7-4 decision in last year’s state tournament.

Brayden Chandler (40-7) has his eyes set on more hardware after earning a sixth-place finish as a 152-pound freshman last year. Entering this year’s 160-pound bracket ranked No. 6 in Class AA, Chandler starts against Foley’s Tyler Wilhelmi (18-14) before taking on Isaac Roberts or Caleb Fronning.

Each of the five wrestlers ranked ahead of Chandler in his division qualified for the state tournament and is in the bracket with him. Still, he would not face any of them earlier than the semifinals, where he could face No. 2 Luke Hoag of Hutchinson (40-3), No. 3 Byron Getchell of Maple River/USC (28-3) or No. 4 Slade Barnett of Waseca (42-4).

On the girls side, No. 3 Hannah Ratajczak (15-3) will face No. 8 Bri Voight (37-11) in the state quarterfinals. She wouldn’t have the possibility of facing the top-2 ranked wrestlers in her class — No. 1 Cassandra Gonzales (22-0) and No. 2 Madilyn Pulk (40-8) — until the state championship, and Ratajczak would take on the winner of No. 5 Vivian Schroeder and No. 7 Elle Eickhoff in the semifinals. 

Aidan Mattison and Gavin Schaefer each also enter the tournament with state experience and much left to prove after falling shy of the podium in last year’s appearances. The senior duo enters the tournament with Mattison unranked and Schaefer ranked No. 7 in 215.

Mattison (31-11) will face off against Mankato East’s Max Morgan in the first round. Morgan is ranked No. 5 in 189 and sits at 41-4 on the season. 

Schaefer (38-8) will take on Park Rapids’ Dandre Johnson (28-4) in the first round, with Johnson entering the match unranked. A win would send Schaefer onto a match against No. 4 Ivan Petrich (37-3) of Little Falls or No. 8 Kyler Burmeister (27-11) of Watertown-Mayer in the quarterfinals. 

Keynan Coequyt and Braedyn VanMeveren will each be making their tournament debut on opposite ends of the spectrum. Coequyt enters ranked No. 9 in 107 at 32-8 on the season while VanMeveren is unranked in the heavyweight category at 11-1 as a freshman.

Coequyt, a sophomore, will open his tournament run against senior Khalid Aziz (22-7), unranked in the weight class, while VanMeveren drew Dilworth-Gylyndon-Felton senior Roy Rude (37-1), ranked No. 4 in the class.

Today’s Class AA team state tournament starts at 11 a.m. while the Class AA individual state tournament will begin on Friday at 9 a.m. at the Xcel Energy Center. The quarterfinals are slated to begin at 4 p.m. while the semifinals and finals are slated for Saturday beginning at 9 a.m.

On the girls side, all individual matches will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday.