ST. PAUL &045; The large contingent of area wrestlers at the state tournament remained that way.

Only two of 10 entrants were eliminated on day one Thursday at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

The New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva Panthers lost in team competition but will wrestle at least one more dual meet.

Three area boys, United South Central’s John Niebuhr and Steven Wood and NRHEG’s Kaleb Jacobson, can bring home a state championship.

Niebuhr, a senior who’s now 39-1, breezed through his first two Class A 145-pound matches, pinning Keith Bowman of Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale and outpointing Jaret Hall of Badger/Greenbush-Middle River 8-1. In the semifinals he’ll wrestle St. Charles senior Todd Halbakken (39-3), who won 9-8 in the quarterfinals.

Wood improved his record to 37-1 while reaching the 189 semifinals. He blanked Jeremy Meuwissen of Norwood-Young America 9-0 and beat Dane Hanson of BGMR 6-2. A senior, Wood gets Minneota senior Craig Myhre (33-5) in the semifinals.

Jacobson, a junior, got to the 171 semifinals by pinning Tyler Walters of Mille Lacs and edging Ross Kockelman of Canby 7-6.

Wood’s little brother Brian, an 8th-grader, remained alive in the 103 wrestlebacks despite losing his first match 19-4 to Zachary Sanders of Wabasha Kellogg.

USC sophomore Kenny Sandt was edged 3-2 by Rushford-Peterson senior Hank Becker in the opening round at 119 but stayed alive when Becker won in the quarterfinals.

The Rebels’ Chance Carlson defeated Chase Seys of St. Clair 9-7 in the first round but dropped to the wrestlebacks with a 12-9 loss to Blaine Lemke of Kimball Area.

USC seniors Chris Adams and Matt Linder lost in the first round and did not make the wrestlebacks. Adams finished 30-7 at 140, Linder 33-7 at 215.

NRHEG’s Anders Mattson, a junior, won his first match 6-4 over Nate Pachan of Browerville/Eagle Valley but fell 14-0 to Adam Aho of Frazee in the quarterfinals. He’ll be joined in the wrestlebacks by NRHEG senior heavyweight James Petsinger, who lost 10-6 to Jordan Keltgen of BOLD in the opening round.

NRHEG lost 48-19 to top-rated Frazee in the Class A team quarterfinals. The Panthers were to face Pierz in today’s consolation semifinals.

The tournament concludes Saturday.