See a gallery here,  here and here from the state tournament.

ST. PAUL — Two Rebels placed and three more participated at the state wrestling tournament at the Xcel Center on Friday and Saturday.

United South Central was led by Dylan Herman at 132 pounds and Colten Carlson at 182 pounds. Jacob Gonsalez, Derek Herman and Logan Sonnek also competed at the meet.

Dylan and Carlson each were one match away from the championship.

“We have high expectations,” USC head coach Marcus Eytcheson said. “The goal for both of them was a state title, but third (Dylan) and fourth (Carlson) isn’t bad by any means.”

Dylan shut out his first-round opponent, Alex Engler of Minneota in the first round 5-0. He continued to make his way to the semifinals with a pin of Evan Woitalla of Pierz in the quarterfinals. With less than 30 seconds left in the third period of the semifinal match against Harvey Friedrichs of Chatfield, Dylan was pinned and sent to the consolation bracket semifinals. During wrestlebacks, he earned a 2-1 decision over Gus McCarthy of Border West to get to the match for third place.

In the third place match, Dylan defeated T.J. Fulton of Wabasso /Red Rock Central in less than three minutes.

“I just hit a roll, got in a scramble, and a headlock was there, so I took it,” Dylan said. “My little brother (Derek) wrestled him earlier this year. He beat him, so I just had to beat him too.”

Carlson started well in the first round by earning a major decision over Noah Pesola of New York Mills (13-3). He won his second straight match with a 3-2 decision over Vince Johnson of Windom/Mountain Lake in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Patrick Rooney of Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa, the eventual state runner-up, took a 6-5 decision over Carlson. In the consolation semifinals, Carlson earned an 8-1 decision over Dillon Card of Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale. Carlson locked up fourth place after losing by a 5-2 decision to Porter Secrist of Wabasha-Kella-Alma.

Derek Heman, a freshman in the 138-pound weight class, earned a first-round decision over Cole Hennen of Minneota 6-1. In the quarterfinals, he wrestled well but fell with a 5-3 decision to the eventual state runner-up, Hunter Retzlaff of Sibley East. Derek faced another tough opponent in the first round of wrestlebacks: eventual third-place finisher Logan Peterson of Atwater-comos-Grove City. Peterson defeated Derek with a 14-0 major decision.

At 120 pounds, senior Jacob Gonzalez was pinned by state runner-up Shane Novak of New York Mills. In the consolation first round, he fell in highly contested 6-4 decision to Landyn VanOverbeke of Minneota.

Logan Sonnek also got a tough draw at 220 pounds, starting off the tournament against the state runner-up, Chase Norton of Kerkoven-Murdock-Sunberg. Norton slipped past Sonnek with a 2-1 decision in triple overtime.

“That was a big match for Logan, to come that close,” Eytcheson said.

Sonnek was eliminated in the first round of the consolation bracet by Garret Scherr of Osakis on a 7-4 decision.

“I felt like we could have had some more success,” Eytcheson said. “But, it gives us something to set our goals for next year.”