Kean Hicks looks for an opening against one of his opponents. The State Tournament ran March 3-5.

The Minnesota State Wrestling Tournament returned to the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul this year following last year’s make-shift tournament which was moved from the traditional site because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ten area wrestlers took part in the individual part of the tournament. Unfortunately, none of the 10 were able to medal in the highly competitive two-day event.

Boden Simon, wrestling at 132 pounds for MR/USC, was the only one of the 10 to advance to the second day of the competition.

Simon scored an opening round victory over Will Gorecki of Royalton/Upsala to set up a rematch against Logan Butzon of Jackson County Central.

Butzon had defeated Simon 3-2 the previous evening during the State Team competition.

The two wrestlers were once again locked in a tight match with Butzon holding a narrow 1-0 lead with 30 seconds remaining in the final period.

Needing to score, Simon tried a couple of desperation moves which resulted in Butzon scoring two more takedowns to make the final score 6-1 in the JCC wrestler’s favor.

Simon won his first match in the wrestlebacks when he scored late in his match against Deagen Captain of Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale/Parker Prairie to earn a 4-3 victory.

Simon exited the tourney after Cole Hollien of Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City (AGCG) won a 6-2 sudden-victory match over the MR/USC senior.

Here is a rundown, by weight class, of how the other area wrestlers did at State.

MR/USC’s 106-pounder Wyatt Walters faced the No. 1-seeded and eventual State Champion Trey Gunderson of Kerkhoven-Murdoch-Sundberg in the opening round and lost by a first-period pin.

When Gunderson won his next-round match, Walters went to the wrestlebacks where he faced Tucker Simmons of Royalton/Upsala. Simmons won by a 9-0 decision to bring Walters’ season to an end.

Braxton Simon of MR/USC suffered an opening round pin to Peyton Guillund of Minneota. Simon was eliminated when Guillund lost his second-round match.

In the 126-pound weight bracket, MR/USC’s Ethan Elvebak lost by a pin to Ryan Jenson of Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa, who ended up taking second place at the tournament.

Elvebak had one match in the wrestlebacks which he lost 11-3 to David Gregory of the Trinity School Tri Hawks.

Ethan Evenson of MR/USC faced No. 2-seeded Ethan Hendrickson, the eventual State Champion, of United North Central in the opening round and lost 12-4.

Evenson lost a hard-fought 4-2 decision in the wrestlebacks to Brady Holien of ACGC to end his tournament run.

In the 152-pound weight class, MR/USC’s Konnor Harpestad pulled off a 4-0 upset against Jake Nagel of Frazee, who came into the tournament with a 30-4 record.

Harpestad then suffered a loss by pin to Jacob Leibold of Royalton/Upsala to send him to the wrestlebacks against Isaiah Rodriguez of JCC. Harpestad had beaten Rodriguez 7-6 the previous night in the team competition but this time Rodriguez was able to down Harpestad 8-5 which brought the season to an end for the MR/USC wrestler.

Cooper Ochsendorf of MR/USC lost a 2-0 decision to Maximus Hanson of Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa in the first round and was eliminated from the tournament when Hanson lost his second-round match to JCC’s Payton Handevidt, who would go on to win the championship.

Blue Earth Area’s Kean Hicks scored the first point in his match against Ethan Waage of Badger/Greenbush-Middle River but Waage scored the next three points to earn a 3-1 win.

Waage won his second-round match to send Hicks to the wrestlebacks against Collin Boese of Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted. Boese won by a 10-1 major decision to knock Hicks out of the tournament.

BEA’s Adam Schavey led most of the way in his 182-pound match against Tate Twardowski of Long Prairie-Grey Eagle before losing 7-6. Unfortunately for Schavey, Twardowski lost his second-round match which eliminated the Buc wrestler from the tournament.

Cory Kitchel of the Bucs lost by an opening-round pin to William Freking of JCC in his first-round match at 195 pounds.

Kitchel moved to the wrestlebacks when Freking won his second-round match.

Haden Rosenow of Kimball Area was Kitchel’s opponent and he was able to pin Kitchel, which was the end of the Buc wrestler’s run at the State Tournament.