Breckin Burzynski is headed to state—again. The Stanley Boyd wrestler earned his spot by defeating Derek Zschernitz in the third place match for the 132-pound weight class at Amery on Saturday. The state wrestling tournament will run from Thursday, Feb. 23 through Saturday, Feb. 25 at the Kohl Center in Madison.

As to Amery, Burzynski (34 -12) started off in the quarterfinal match with a win over Hunter Beese (29 – 12) of Amery, the victory coming by fall in 3:00.

Moving on to the semifinal he suffered a setback, losing by decision (Dec 5 -1) to Tyler Fink (36 – 7) of Baldwin- Woodville. Bouncing back in the consolation semi, Burzynski won by decision (Dec 7 – 0) over Owen Higgins (21 – 15) of Medford, before defeating Zschernitz to advance to a rematch with Fink, who won the second place match by no contest.

Also wrestling at Amery on Saturday was Willy Graham (31 – 18) , who lost by fall (4:28) to Braxton Weissmiller of Medford Area. Orioles head coach Greg Burzynski gave his thoughts on how things had gone after the results came in.

“Willy really put together a solid freshman season,” he said. “Sectionals didn’t go as planned, but he has a lot of potential. I am excited to see his improvement over the summer.”

As to Burzynski, he said that, “Breckin is headed to state for a second time. He will wrestle Thursday night. We will focus on some small adjustments this week, clean some things up, and be ready to go Thursday. His sectional bracket was very good, so for him to make his way through it says a lot. The kid he beat in the third place match placed 4th at state the last two years and he is sitting home this week. That just goes to show how good that bracket was. Including Breckin, there were 5 of the top 8 ranked kids in the state in the bracket and only 3 made it out. He has had the opportunity to wrestle several top-ranked opponents this season and that has just made him better. I am excited to see what he can do at the state tournament this week!”

Doors open at the Kohl Center Thursday at 9 a.m.