Coach Rob Whelan sent his wrestling team to the Section 8-3A individual tournament this weekend hoping to match last year's total of five state entrants.
Those hopes seemed to diminish with the early week injury that sidelined state place winner Kaleb Young.
But the Jacks still qualified five, four as champions, with hopes of placing several once again.
Last year Bemidji had two third place finishers and one fifth.
Joe Andersen, Brandon Bahr, Steve Masterson and Jake Sorby won consecutive titles from 152-189 while Kyle Mason reached the final at heavyweight before losing.
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In addition, Bemidji placed five others from 4-8 among their 12 entries.
They had no wrestler at 135 or 215.
Andersen is no stranger to the state, placing fourth as a sophomore in 2005 and fifth as a junior last year.
He carries a 36-0 record to the state adding four wins to his career total at Alex to reach 206.
Three pins took him to the title round where he beat Ben Wheeler of Moorhead 5-2.
For Bahr, Masterson and Sorby, it will mark their first trip to the state,
Bahr received a first round but pinned his first opponent and won the title with 14-7 and 15-8 decisions, the last over. John Kohler of Monticello.
He carries a 27-7 mark to the state.
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Masterson, like Andersen, remained unbeaten, raising his record to 22-0 with two pins and a 3-0 final victory over Mitch Hauge of Elk River.
Mason was the surprise, following the pattern of his three teammates with a bye and two falls. He lost to Alex Gill of Apollo 7-1 in the title match.
He will take a 14-11 mark to the state.
Of the other five place winners, Corey Huber finished fourth going 2--2.
Dale Norton was sixth ending 2-3.
In seventh were Colton Doty at 2-2 and Dale Davy (1-2.
Rob Mason (0-3) ended eighth aided by two byes.
Seth Dremmel and Lance Richter lost both of their matches
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Bemidji led the field with four champions.
Section team champ Grand Rapids had three in Kurt Ehrhorn, Dan Soular and John Hopkins. Elk River had a pair in Tyler Stevens and Tyler Hemmisch and Brainerd a pair in Tyler Jensen and Nick Lingwall. Moorhead, Sauk Rapids and Apollo had one.
The state begins Wednesday at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
Andersen will attempt to become Bemidji's sixth state champion, but first since Joe Mayberry in 1999 Previous champs were the brother combinations of Nestle and Tom Grimes and Jerry and Rick Lee.
