Three Panther wrestlers remained undefeated in the second round of the Class A Individual State Wrestling Tournament at the XCel Energy Center in St. Paul on Friday afternoon.
Levi Eillngson (126), Jace Paplow (170) and Trevor Eisfeld (182) all won their quarterfinal match. Aden Horner (the No. 1-ranked wrestler in Class A at 106) and Sawyer Schwartz (160) both lost, meaning they will enter the wrestle back round.
• Ellingson won a 2-1 decision over Brady Holien of Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City — it was his 40th victory against eight losses.
• Paplow (45-2) pinned Rick Jones of Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg in 3:43 — it was his second pin of the day Friday.
• Eisfeld (49-0) won by an 11-2 major decision over Brady Kroll of Barnesville.
• Horner lost 11-9 when his opponent, Brandon Ross of Caledonia/Houston, was awarded two points for a takedown with :05 left in the third period that broke a 9-9 tie. Later Friday, Horner lived to wrestle another day by beating Wadena-Deer Creek’s Simon Snyder by a 13-2 decision in a wrestleback .
• Schwartz dropped a 20-9 major decision to Owen Bierga (43-1) of Staples Motley. Schwartz scored a late takedown to defeat Tate Lang of Holdingford, 4-3.
Panther wrestlers were a perfect five-for-five in the first round of the Class A Individual State Wrestling Tournament at the XCel Energy Center in St. Paul on Friday morning.
• Ayden Horner started things off with a 3-1 decision over Frazee’s Christian Carlson at 120 pounds. That moved Horner’s record to 47-2.
Horner scored a first-period takedown and was in control for virtually the entire match.
• Right after that, Levi Ellingson won a 4-2 decision over Easton McCrory of Minnewaska Area, Glenwood, at 126, pushing his record to 39-8 overall.
Ellingson went up 2-1 with a takedown with :24 left in the second period, then had another takedown at the 1:40 mark of the third.
• At 160, Sawyer Schwartz won 12-2 over Jaxon Behm of Awater-Cosmos-Grove City to improve to 42-9 on the season.
Schwartz built on 3-2 first-period lead with a second-period reversal to a 5-2 lead. A near fall with :15 left in the second game up a 7-2 lead.
• Trevor Eisfeld moved his record to 48-0 with a first-period pin over Trinity School at River Ridge at 182 pounds.
Eisfield’s pin came in 1:46 in the first period.
• Finally, at 170, Jace Paplow recorded a second-period pin to improve his overall record to 44-2.
Paplow led 5-0 at the end of the first period, went up 7-0 with a reversal, then ended it with a pin with 1:15 left in the second.
The wrestlers are off until 4 p.m., when the championship quarterfinal round begins.