Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall's Gavin Williams (behind) grapples with MAHACA's Logan Gramith in a 152-pound match in the Section 3AA boys wrestling team quarterfinals on Thursday in Marshall.

MARSHALL — After earning home-mat advantage and a first-round bye for the Section 3AA tournament, the top-seeded Marshall boys wrestling dominated its matchup against No. 5 MAHACA in the North team quarterfinals. Marshall claimed each of the day’s first 11 matches by pin, technical fall or forfeit as it cruised to a 65-3 win to return to the semifinals.

“It’s not really surprising at all. We’ve been putting pretty good work in at our practices, so we just expect stuff like this to happen,” Marshall senior Lincoln Christenson said.

Thursday’s matchup was the second this season between the two Tiger teams. Marshall claimed a lopsided 66-3 win in the team’s regular-season dual and came out just as strong this time around as it rolled to a victory.

“You want to keep that going. Regardless of who we wrestle, we just tell the guys that whatever the outcome is of the first dual, be ready to wrestle whoever,” Marshall head coach Ethan Hoppe said. “Be ready to wrestle at whatever weight we put you out at. Be ready to compete and be ready to cheer each other on. It’s team sections, you want high energy, you want a lot of excitement, so when those smaller weights get that going for you, it’s a ball of momentum that’s hard to stop and it’s a lot of fun to be a part of.”

McCoy Marthaler got Marshall off to a hot start with a first-period pin in 107, and Andrew Yang kept the momentum going by jumping out to a 6-2 first-period lead before running away with a 21-5 technical fall in 114.

After Christenson won by forfeit in 121, Keynan Coequyt got off to a dominant start in 121. Facing off against MAHACA’s Will Haugen, the lone wrestler to earn a win against Marshall in the team’s last matchup, Coequyt jumped out to an 11-0 lead in the first period and never let up until he picked up the pin 30 seconds into the third period.

Colton Chandler withstood a strong first-period from Xavier Kliendl in 139, with Chandler holding a 3-0 lead after the first period. He started to build momentum in the second with a 10-0 lead before earning a 17-0 technical fall 20 seconds into the third. Levi Kraft also earned a 21-5 technical fall in 133.

Dawson DeCamp, Gavin Williams and Tyson Louwagie each earned pins in consecutive matches to seal the win for Marshall. DeCamp and Williams each earned their pins in the first period, while Louwagie got a reversal in the final seconds of the first period to cut the deficit to 3-2 before riding that momentum to a pin 30 seconds into the second period.

Noah Frazee picked up a 19-3 technical fall in 172 while Brayden Chandler won by forfeit in 189 to give the Marshall Tigers a 62-0 lead through 11 matches.

Kruz Runninghawk gave the MAHACA Tigers their first points when he came up with a takedown in the final 30 seconds of his 215 match against Marshall’s Ethan Mattison to earn an 8-7 decision. Still, Felix Kelsey closed the dual on a high note for Marshall with a 7-2 heavyweight decision over Juan Cid.

Marshall now prepares to advance to the section semifinals on Saturday in Fairmont, taking on the South’s second-seeded Windom/Mountain Lake Area.

“Week of sections, it’s always our thing to say, ‘You’re guaranteed three more practices … You get to earn one more practice for Friday if you win tonight,'” Hoppe said. “We just stress the importance of living in the moment. Don’t worry about what’s down the road. Don’t worry about what could happen, don’t worry about what we want to happen or what should happen. Just go out, compete at your highest level and have fun as a team at this point in the year. That team camaraderie is huge, so to pick up a win like this tonight just keeps it going.”

Marshall’s semifinal match against Windom is slated to begin at 12:30 p.m. in Fairmont. In the other semifinal, the North’s top-seeded New Ulm will be taking on the No. 2 seed from the South Dawson-Boyd/Lac qui Parle Valley/Montevideo United after United eked out a 31-30 win over New London-Spicer on Thursday.

Heading into the semifinals, Marshall is ranked No. 12 in Class AA while New Ulm is the top-ranked team from the section at No. 7. Marshall and New Ulm faced off in last year’s section championship, with the Tigers earning a 33-20 win to advance to the state tournament as a team for the second time in program history and first time since 2019.

Hoppe said that while the weight behind each match may change, Marshall is trying to view each match as just another dual.

“It’s just fun being with your teammates. Especially for me as a senior, it’s just nice because it means one last ride with your friends,” Christenson said. “We’ve just got to be mentally strong and we’ll be fine.”

RESULTS

107: McCoy Marthaler (MAR) def. Zachary Huebner (MAHA) Fall 1:32. 114: Andrew Yang (MAR) def. Jaxon Seggerman (MAHA) TF 21-5 4:21. 121: Lincoln Christenson (MAR) win by forfeit. 127: Keynan Coequyt (MAR) def. Will Haugen (MAHA) Fall 4:29. 133: Levi Kraft (MAR) def. Brenden Hughes (MAHA) TF 21-5. 139: Colton Chandler (MAR) def. Xavier Kliendl (MAHA) TF 17-0 4:21. 145: Dawson DeCamp (MAR) def. Casey Raths (MAHA) Fall 0:59. 152: Gavin Williams (MAR) def. Logan Gramith (MAHA) Fall 1:22. 160: Tyson Louwagie (MAR) def. Jace Kleindl (MAHA) Fall 2:32. 172: Noah Frazee (MAR) def. Tristan Schmitz (MAHA) TF 19-3 2:24. 189: Brayden Chandler (MAR) win by forfeit. 215: Kruz Runninghawk (MAHA) def. Ethan Mattison (MAR) Dec. 8-7. 285: Felix Kelsey (MAR) def. Juan Cid (MAHA) Dec. 7-2.