ROCHESTER — The Packers advanced two wrestlers to the Class ‘AA’ state meet at the Section 1AA meet in Mayo Civic Center Saturday.

Austin junior Brennen Russell clinched his first career trip to state when he finished second at 126 pounds and junior Devon Felten won the section title with a pin over Ryan Erdman of Kasson-Mantorville in just 34 seconds.

Felten, who beat Willie Krage 1-0 in the semifinals, is making his second straight trip to state and he didn’t back down against Erdman, who was the No. 1 seed.

“I was less nervous this time around,” Felten, who is 22-7 on the season, said. “I just threw him right away and took him down.”

Russell, who is 28-8 on the season, lost 5-2 to GMLOK’s Noah Schlee in the finals. But he gave Schlee his best match of the day as his other wins were all by more than 10 points.

Russell was motivated this season after being upset in the first round of last year’s section meet.

“That really burnt me and I wanted to make it to state real bad this year,” Russell said. “I wrestled my heart out in the finals (and lost), but I still made it to state.”

Russell picked up a pin with 19 seconds left in the third period against Logan Adank of Kasson-Mantorville in the semifinals.

“It’s a very tough bracket and it’s all guys I’ve never wrestled before,” Russell said. “I like wrestling with kids that I’ve wrestled before, but I just didn’t have that option.”Austin’s Erick Power just missed his second straight trip to state at 120 pounds as he lost a ‘true second’ match 6-3 to Colin Ayers of WEM-JWP with a state berth on the line. Power had pinned Jesse Johnson of KM with two seconds left in the first period to get to the ‘true second’ match.

“All of our kids wrestled above their seeds and you can’t feel too bad about that,” Austin head coach Bill Kinney said. “I’m a little disappointed that we didn’t get three (to state), but the kids wrestled well.”

Austin wrestled as a ‘AA’ team this season after being a ‘AAA’ team in years past.

“Every bracket is a lot deeper and it was tougher. This was a big challenge and we rose to it,” Kinney said. “This is probably the best ‘AA’ section in the state.”

Kinney was especially pleased with the progress Russell has shown in the past year.

“Brennen has done so much, even outside of the season. He went to two camps over the summer, he’s done all of the extra stuff and it paid off for him,” Kinney said.

While Russell is making his first trip to state, he’s not about to say that he’s just happy to be there.

“You don’t always have next year and I’m going to go as deep as I can,” he said. “I can’t go out on the mindset that I made it to state and now I’m done.”

Austin’s Connor Eads took sixth place at 106 and Brandon Cotter took fifth place at 138.