ROCHESTER — A Southland wrestler stayed undefeated as he clinched a trip to the Class ’A’ state meet at the Section 1A meet Saturday.

Matt Schroeder, a 130-pound senior for the Rebels, brought his best against Nick Masching of Hayfield in the finals. Masching kept up with Schroeder early on as he took a 1-0 lead early in the second period, but Schroeder used a takedown to take a 2-1 lead into the third period.

“He was playing defense the whole match. I just tried to stay on my game and keep working for whatever points I could get,” Schroeder said.

Schroeder (37-0 overall) finished off Masching when he turned a reversal to make it 4-1 in the third period.

“I felt confident after that. I knew I could ride him out,” Schroeder said.

While he advanced to state his sophomore year, Schroeder missed out last season when he finished third at sections. He’s now focused on making the best of his last run.

“My first goal was to get to state and I want to place at astate,” Schroeder said. “But I’ll take it a match at a time and see where it goes up there.”

Joining Schroeder at state will be Southland’s 119-pounder Grant Hegge, who beat Ethan Loftus of Dover/Eyota in the true second match to get to state.

Hegge (35-4 overall) allowed Chad Lexvold of Kenyon/Wanamingo to escape in the second period of the finals and he lost 1-0. Hegge almost tied it up with an escape in the third but he ended up out of bounds with 22 seconds left.

Masching earned a trip to state in the true second round as did two other Vikings. Masching (30-9 overall) beat Grant Kyllo of Zumbrota/Mazeppa 7-2 in the true second match.

At 140 pounds Hayfield sophomore Miles Moreno (16-10 overall) had a big run as he beat three wrestlers with over 20 wins to get to state with a win over Garritt Luker in the true second match on an injury default.

Mark Evjen (29-9 overall) also earned his second straight trip to state with a 5-2 win over K/W’s Jarid Groth in the true second match.