The Maple River/United South Central Longhorns wrestling team will have one of their wrestlers competing in the State Wrestling Tournament set for Feb. 26-28.

Noah Gonzalez took second place at 139 pounds at the Section 2AA Wrestling Tournament last week and that punched his ticket to the State Tournament.

Gonzalez was slated to take on Bennett Kujawa, of Becker, in the first round of the State Tourney on Thursday, Feb. 26. There will be a full story on the State Tournament in the next edition of the Faribault County Register, and results will be posted on the Register’s Facebook page.

At the Section Tournament, Gonzalez had four matches on his way to the second place finish.

He started it off with a 9-2 decision over Bly Mettler of Mankato West. Next, he took on Gage Factor of Tri-City United and won a 7-0 decision in that match.

Next, Gonzalez wrestled Lewis Foley of Watertown Mayer-Mayer Lutheran in the championship match. The Longhorn wrestler lost that match in a close 4-2 battle.

Then Gonzalez had to take on Cameron Tousignant of Scott West to determine the true second place finisher. The MR/USC wrestler took a big 11-1 major decision in that match and earned a trip to State.

The Longhorns had four other wrestlers who placed at the Section Tourney.

Alex Walser took fourth place at 114 pounds.

After losing by a technical fall in the first round to Elijah Mercado of St. Peter, Walser dropped down into the lower bracket. There he first pinned Liam Rosevold of Mankato East and then pinned Vincent Saletta of Glencoe-Lester Prairie and finally also pinned Blake Brose of Watertown Mayer-Mayer Lutheran.

That put him in a match for third place, once again facing Elijah Mercado of St. Peter. Mercado won by a fall and took third place and Walser ended in fourth place.

Longhorn Austin Sanders took fifth place at 121 pounds.

Sanders started out losing his first match by a 10-5 decision to Danny Davis of New Prague. Davis went on to take fourth place.

Sanders won a 17-3 major decision over Aaron Harding of Scott West in the lower bracket, then lost a 19-4 technical fall to Owen Delander who went on to take third place.

In the match to determine fifth place, Sanders took on Dylan Jackson of St. Peter and won with a 15-0 technical fall.

Two Longhorns ended up in sixth place at the tourney.

At 145 pounds, Shaune Peterson started off with a fall over Colton Dressen of Glencoe-Lester Prairie, but then lost a close 6-3 decision to Isaiah Depa of Delano.

In the lower bracket Peterson won a close 6-5 decision over Garrison Dierks of Mankato East, before losing a 9-0 major decision to Mason Breeggeman of Scott West, who went on toe take third place.

That put Peterson up against Depa of Delano for the second time and he lost again, this time 13-8.

Jace Ignaszewski also ended in sixth place at 152 pounds.

He first defeated Braden Linsmeier of Glencoe-Lester Prairie by a pin, then lost to Keegan O’Meara of Tri-City United by a pin.

In the lower bracket Ignaszewski defeated Zachary Weeman of New Prague with a 14-6 major decision. Next, he lost to Carson Hartmann of Scott West by a fall.

In the battle for fifth place, Ignaszewski again went up against O’Meara of TCU and this time lost by an 8-2 decision and ended in sixth place.