Jackson County Central will start its bid for a third straight trip to the state Class 1A team wrestling tournament Thursday when the Huskies host a pair of matches in the Section 3A tournament in the main gym at JCC High School.
Eighth-seeded Wabasso matches up with ninth-seeded Luverne at 6 p.m. The Huskies will face the winner in a dual scheduled for 7 p.m.
JCC defeated Luverne 46-21 in a dual in Redwood Falls on Dec. 6. The Huskies did not face the Rabbits during the regular season.
Jackson County Central has wrestled a hectic and aggressive schedule this season.
The Huskies have competed in five states (Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota) and wrestled duals against teams from five states (Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois and South Dakota).
JCC has faced two teams that have already won state championships in duals (Osage and Waverly-Shell Rock in Iowa) and three more enter the postseason ranked number one (Simley and St. Michael-Albertville in Minnesota and Brandon Valley in South Dakota).
The Huskies have had nearly a week to get ready for the start of the postseason since winning the Big South Conference championship match 44-10 over St. Peter last Friday.
After more than two months of facing a number of large schools sometimes had nearly seven times the enrollment (JCC has an enrollment of 306, while St. Michael-Albertville’s is 2,128) the Huskies will face nothing but similar size schools the rest of the way.
What’s happened to date is important, but the next three weekends will be remembered the most.
“To an extent everything matters. I tell the guys that all the time,” said JCC Coach Nate Hanson. “The postseason does matter a little more, but beating St. Peter to win the conference title was huge. We haven’t changed much. Usually we taper more because we’ve had so many guys out so we’ve had to do a little more work but the guys are excited about it. They’ve been battling all season long.”
In the quarterfinals on that side of the bracket as the teams wrestling in Jackson, fourth-seeded Pipestone hosts fifth-seeded Fulda/Murray County Central.
On the other side of the bracket, there will be two matches at Tracy with seventh-seeded Red Rock Central facing 10th-seeded Springfield at 6 p.m. and the winner facing Tracy-Milroy-Balaton/Westbrook-Walnut Grove at 7 p.m.
In the final quarterfinal match, third-seeded Adrian Area hosts sixth-seeded St. James Area.
The four teams coming out of Thursday’s matches meet in Lamberton on Saturday with the semifinals at 12:30 p.m. followed by the championship match.
The state team tournament is Thursday, March 2 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
SECTION 3A WRESTLING
Thursday, Feb. 16
First round
Upper bracket
Wabasso (7-13) vs. Luverne (9-11) at Jackson, 6 p.m.
Lower bracket
Red Rock Central (8-12) vs. Springfield (6-15) at Tracy, 6 p.m.
Quarterfinals
Upper bracket
Wabasso-Luverne winner at Jackson County Central (15-7), 7 p.m.
Fulda/Murray County Central (10-12) at Pipestone (9-9), 7 p.m.
Lower bracket
Red Rock Central-Springfield winner at Tracy-Milroy-Balaton/Westbrook-Walnut Grove (19-12), 7 p.m.
St. James Area (9-12) at Adrian Area (20-7), 7 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 18
At Lamberton
Semifinals
Upper-bracket winners, 12:30 p.m.
Lower-bracket winners, 12:30 p.m.
Championship
Semifinal winners, 2:30 p.m.
A decade of champions
Winners of the Section 3A wrestling tournament the last 10 years:
2013: Jackson County Central
2014: Jackson County Central
2015: Jackson County Central
2016: Minneota
2017: Pipestone
2018: Tracy-Milroy-Balaton/Westbrook-Walnut Grove
2019: Tracy-Milroy-Balaton/Westbrook-Walnut Grove
2020: Tracy-Milroy-Balaton/Westbrook-Walnut Grove
2021: Jackson County Central
2022: Jackson County Central
Top seeds
The No. 1 seed in each section in Class 1A. Sections 4A, 6A and 8A will have their championship match on Friday. The rest are on Saturday.
1A: Caledonia/Houston
2A: Medford
3A: Jackson County Central
4A: Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted
5A: Kerkhhoven-Murdock-Sunburg
6A: West Central Area/Ashby/Brandon-Evansville
7A: Long Prairie-Grey Eagle/Browerville
8A: Frazee