Just one area wrestler advanced to the semifinals at the Class ‘AAA’ Minnesota state wrestling meet at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul Thursday.

Hayfield senior Mark Evjen (31-9 overall) beat Bryce Andrews (37-3 overall) of Madelia/Truman/Martin Luther to advance to the Class ‘A’ semifinals. He will face off with Tyler Yule (38-6 overall) of Medford Friday.

Austin’s Howie Underwood and Michael Hirsch each lost their quarterfinal matches, but recovered with a wins in the wrestlebacks.

At 145 pounds, Underwood (31-10 overall) was pinned Jarrett Hoppner of Apple Valley in 40 seconds in the quarterfinals, and Underwood pinned Santonio Davis of Richfield in 4:19 in the wrestlebacks.

Underwood, who can now do no better than third, will wrestle William Baker (38-6 overall) of Spring Lake Park Friday.

At 189 pounds, Hirsch (36-4 overall) was pinned by Erik Berdahl of Bloomington Jefferson/Bloomington Kennedy and he bounced back with a 9-3 decision over J.C. O’Keefe of Stillwater.

Hirsch will take on Evan Olson (23-9 overall) of Bemidji Friday.

Class ‘A’

At 130 pounds, Southland’s Matt Schroeder suffered his first loss of the season when he was pinned by Tony Vaske (38-2 overall) of River Valley at the 5:13 mark. Schroeder (39-1 overall) beat Ryan Skinner on an 11-1 decision in the wrestlebacks and will take on Tyler Spychalla of Browerville/Eagle Valley Friday.

Hayfield’s 130-pounder Nick Masching (31-11 overall) was knocked out of the tournament as he fell to Holdingford’s Devin Scott (38-1) on a 12-5 decision in the quarterfinals and was beaten 7-6 by Rij Koehen (29-9 overall) of Frazee in the wrestlebacks.

Southland sophomore Grant Hegge (36-6 overall) was knocked out of the tournament in a 9-8 loss to Storm Booe of Badger/Green Bush/Middle River at 119 pounds.

Class ‘AA’

Grand Meadow/LeRoy/Ostrander/Kingsland sophomore Carter Brandt fell to Jeff Nielsen (35-2 overall) of Zimmerman on a 7-3 decision in the quarterfinals.

At 112 pounds, GMLOK’s Noah Schlee (31-10 overall) had his season end when he was pinned at the 4:54 mark by Chaz Abrahamson (33-4 overall) of Thief River Falls/Goodridge in the wrestlebacks.