BROOKLYN CENTER – Jackson County Central and Martin County both learned their quarterfinal opponent for the team portion of the state wrestling tournament Thursday, March 3 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
The Huskies are the number one seed in Class 1A, while the Red Bulls were seeded fifth in Class 2A.
JCC and Martin County wrestlers will compete for spots in the individual state tournament at their respective section tourneys Saturday. The Huskies will wrestle at the 3A tourney in Wabasso and the Red Bulls in 3AA in Redwood Falls.
Here’s a brief look at the state team tournament. We’ll have more detailed information in a future newsletter.
Class 1A
The Huskies have only wrestled a dual against one Class 1A state team entrant, but they have been entered in an event with each of the other seven teams at least once.
Four teams that are in the team portion of the state tournament were in Jackson for the Pizza Ranch Invitational on Dec. 11.
The top three placing teams from that event (JCC, Royalton/Upsala and Maple River/United South Central) are in the 1A state tourney field.
Hutchinson/BLHS was fourth and Martin County fifth. The Red Bulls beat the Tigers to qualify for the 2A state tourney.
Jackson County Central carries a 21-3 record into the state tourney.
The one team JCC met in a dual was second-seeded Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa, with the Huskies winning 48-19 at Belgrade on Feb. 11.
As mentioned, Jackson County Central’s quarterfinal opponent, Maple River/United South Central, was in Jackson for the Pizza Ranch Invitational.
In addition to placing second at the Pizza Ranch tourney, Royalton/Upsala was sixth at the Rumble on the Red. JCC was first in Fargo.
Jackson County Central has competed with Kimball Area twice. The Huskies were second and the Cubs third at the Glencoe-Silver Lake tourney and Kimball was 20th in Fargo.
Two other 1A state teams were at the Rumble on the Red, with West Central Area/Ashby/Brandon-Evansville placing 14th and United North Central 28th.
Also, JCC and Dover-Eyota were both at The Clash in La Crosse Jan. 7-8. The Huskies placed fourth in Division 1 (also fourth overall) and the Eagles were second in Division 6 (22nd overall).
This is the 16th trip to a state tournament for a wrestling team from Jackson County.
Heron Lake-Okabena-Lakefield made one trip, HLOL/Jackson two and this is the 13th for Jackson County Central.
At last year’s state tournament, JCC lost on a tiebreaker to Bertha-Hewitt-Verndale-Parkers Prairie in the semifinals. There was no third-place match.
Class 2A
The Red Bulls have not seen any of the other teams in the state Class 2A field this season.
Martin County is in the state tournament for the fourth time in five years.
The Red Bulls were the runner-up to Kasson-Mantorville in 2018 and second to Simley in 2020.
Martin County lost to Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato in the semifinals of last year’s state tournament. There was no third-place match.
STATE WRESTLING TOURNAMENT
At Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul
Thursday, March 2
Number in parenthesis indicates seed number
Quarterfinal team pairings
Class 1A
All matches at 11 a.m.
Jackson County Central (1) vs. Maple River/United South Central
Kimball (4) vs. West Central Area/Ashby/Brandon-Evansville (5)
Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa (2) vs. Dover-Eyota
Royalton/Upsala (3) vs. United North Central
Class 2A
All matches at 9 a.m.
Simley (1) vs. Totino-Grace
Watertown-Mayer (4) vs. Martin County (5)
Kasson-Mantorville (2) vs. Mora
Becker (3) vs. Thief River Falls
Class 3A
All matches at 9 a.m.
St. Michael-Albertville vs. Apple Valley
Hastings (4) vs. Anoka (5)
Stillwater (2) vs. Willmar
Shakopee (3) vs. Northfield