The regular season in wrestling is pretty brutal. There’s a lot to withstand.

Cutting weight, wrestle offs, full goes in practice, some deal with self-doubt after it finds a way to creep into the brain, at some point illness will make its way through the room, long tournament days and just six minutes of busting tail over and over again.

All the competitors want is a chance to find a place on the line – to see their name on a line of the state bracket and to toe the line in the middle of the mat.

And then anything can happen, and it usually does.

“Everything is 0-0 when you get to state,” Mesa assistant coach Bobby Williams said at sectionals last week. “You have to put it all together at the end of the season. Nothing else matters and anything can happen.”

The first day of the boys state wrestling tournament for Division I through Division III on Thursday produced some surprising results at Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum.

Only three of the 14 Division I weight classes saw all four sectional champions advance to the Friday night’s semifinals.

Division II had only one weight class – 126 – advance the four sectional champions.

Division III had three weight classes – 165, 189 and 215 – with a clean bracket as far as sectional champs advancing to the semis.

There was only one weight class where the top seed didn’t make the semifinals as eighth-seeded Nicholas Meza of Cesar Chavez topped Marana’s No. 1 Owen Proper 8-6 after building a 7-1 lead after two periods thanks two takedowns and an escape.

Division I also had other upsets as the  No. 12 seed – Chandler’s Gabriel Morgan - made the semifinals at 113, the sixth seed (Desert Ridge’s Alexander Bermudez) and seventh seed (Queen Creek’s Casey Churchill) will face off in the 126 semifinals, and the 12th seed  - Mountain Ridge’s Brody Hinks - at heavyweight is one win away from making the finals.

A sixth seed usually isn’t a wrestler good enough to be headed to Arizona St. on a scholarship, but that was the case at 165 as Chandler’s Travis Cardenas eased into the semifinals with a 50 second pin the first round and then took down the No. 3 seed Brody McClure of Mesa Mountain View with an 18-2 technical fall.

“He’s been beat up lately,” Chandler assistant coach Vidal Mejia said of the Wolves’ state champion. “The best thing about him is his resiliency.”

The upset squad in Division II, was a 12th seed – Marana Mountain View’s Devon Haver - at 138, a 14th seed at 150 in Arizona College Prep’s Aharnish Tripathi beat Canyon View’s No. 2 Brody Wiora in the first round, and No. 14 Alejandro Montoya at 157 and a 10th seed – Pueblo’s Anthony Trujillo - at heavyweight knocked off a No. 2 seed with a seven-point move in the first period.

In Division III, the 15th seed – Mohave’s Shaun Breem - at 144 was the only one to knock off a No. 2 seed in the first round, while 152 will have the sixth (ALA-Gilbert Norths Brody LeSuer) and seventh seed (Salpointe Catholic’s Ryler Jones) tangle in the semifinals, at 157 No. 12 seed Kaden Clinger of Coconino went 2-0 and at 175 No. 11 Omar Marin beat No. 14 David Holz of Crismon and at heavyweight 10th seeded Jaere Joung of Agua Fria pinned ALA-Ironwood’s Slade Wheaton in 2:59.

 Wrestling resumes Friday with boys Division IV, and girls Division I and II get underway in the a.m. session and all divisions wrestling the semifinals in the evening.

Send comments and story ideas to jskoda@azpreps365.com