Austin draws St. Paul Johnson in the the first round

The brackets are out and the Austin Packers know who they will face in the first round of the Minnesota Class AAA State Tournament starting Wednesday.

The Packers (23-5), the No. 4 seed in the eight-team tournament, will play St. Paul Johnson (20-8) in the first round at noon on Wednesday at Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota campus. The seeded puts Austin right where head coach Kris Fadness expected to be going in.

“We thought if we were going to get seeded at all it was going to be fourth,” Fadness said. “Johnson is an extremely talented team. They’ve really played well in the second half of the season.

“We’re going to have our hands full.”

Austin defeated New Prague in the Section 1AAA championship Friday night on an alley-oop dunk by Tom Aase coming off a pass from the top of the key by Zach Wessels with almost no time left on the clock.

The Packers return to the state tournament 30 years after their last berth.

Other games in the first round have No. 1 seed Minneapolis Washburn (27-2) facing Rocori (18-11) in the day’s first game of the day at 10 a.m.

No. 2 seed DeLaSalle (23-6) plays Detroit Lakes (22-7) at 2 p.m. and No. 3 seed Grand Rapids (24-5) will play Mankato East (25-4) at 4 p.m.

All first-round Class AAA games are at Williams Arena.