Hillsboro qualified two wrestlers, Ric Johnson and Matt Brown, while Marion's lone entry will be Adam Depler.

Johnson and Brown placed fourth in their respective weight classes while Depler was third in his; only the top four finishers move on to state competition.

"Obviously, I am very happy and excited for Ricky and Matt qualifying for the state tournament," coach Scott O'Hare said. "It will be a great experience for these two guys and one they will greatly benefit from going into their senior seasons next year."

Johnson, a two-time state qualifier wrestling at 125 pounds this season, pinned Kyle Edelman of Sabetha in the first round, pinned Tanner Moore of Mission Valley in the quarterfinals, then was pinned by Jeff Peterson of Oskaloosa in the semifinals. Johnson then beat Mike Lesline of Waubaunsee, 14-3, in the consolation finals, but was pinned by Coltan Feldman of Atchison County Community in the battle for third place.

"Ricky has really had a solid second half of the season after starting off kind of slowly," O'Hare said. "He has placed in every tournament since Christmas break and is wrestling pretty well right now.

"He experienced what the state tournament is like after qualifying last year," he added. "Hopefully, that experience will serve him well going into this year's state championship."

Johnson will take a 24-15 season record to Hays on Friday.

Meanwhile, Brown, wrestling at 152 pounds, was pinned by Tyson Utech of Herington in the quarterfinals, but came back to pin Drew Strader of Sabetha and Aaron Rowley of Burlington and then defeated Casey Nelson of Marion, 6-1, in the consolation semifinals before losing a second time to Utech, this time on points, 9-3, in the battle for third.

"Matt just had an outstanding tournament," O'Hare said. "He went in as the sixth seed, so we knew he would have to knock off some quality kids to qualify. The top three placers in his bracket are currently ranked in the top six in the state.

"I was very pleased with how Matt stepped up and wrestled this weekend to qualify for state," he added. "I think he has a good chance to surprise some people at Hays."

Brown's season record is 25-14.

While O'Hare was pleased to see two wrestlers qualify, he was disappointed that more didn't.

"I felt we had a good chance to get a few more through the regional tournament, but this was as tough a regional as we have competed in for a number of years," he said. "There were some quality wrestlers at every weight, and most weights were very deep with talent."

The following Trojans competed at Onaga, but came up short of qualifying: Zach Magnuson, 1-2 at 103 pounds; Frankie Martin, 0-2 at 112; Chris Jensen, 1-2 at 119; Grady Stultz, 0-2 at 130 (competing for Goessel); Eric Cress, 3-2 at 135 (competing for Goessel); Sean Leihy, 0-2 at 135; Ryan Kaiser, 1-2 at 140; Andrew Bina, 2-2 at 145; Josh Kenney, 0-2 at 171; C.J. Shaw, 0-2 at 215; and Kurtiz Shaw, 1-2 at 275.

"Zach Magnuson, Chris Jensen, Eric Cress and Andrew Bina were all within one match of qualifying, but just could not pull it out in their consolation semifinals matches," O'Hare said.

"Kurtis Shaw was another one I thought had a good chance of qualifying, but the 275-pound weight class at our regional was just so solid and deep. There were probably as many as eight guys in that bracket who could have qualified out of some of the other regionals."

Marion's Depler will take a 20-8 record to Hays.