As far as Ayden Shuey is concerned, the hard part is out of the way.

The DeKalb senior 132-pounder qualified for the first time for the IHSA Class 3A State Tournament, which begins Thursday in Champaign.

“I’m not saying I don’t want to place at all,” said Shuey, who brings a 27-10 record into the state tournament. “But now that I got qualifying out of the way, I’m just looking forward to wrestling at U of I and just letting it loose.”

Shuey will be joined by fellow DeKalb senior and first-time state qualifier Cam Matthews (31-12 at 150). Sycamore will send first-time qualifiers freshman Liam Schroeder (43-1 at 113) and senior Tyler Lockhart (35-10 at 126). Both senior Cooper Bode (36-7 at 165) and junior Jayden Dohogne (41-6 at 144) each took sixth last year for Sycamore, and return looking for a second medal.

Shuey will open with Joliet Catholic’s Jason Hampton (40-3). A loss will send him on a path that will need four wins to reach the medal round. He hasn’t wrestled Hampton this year.

Matthews opens with Oak Park-River Forest’s Aiden Noyes (32-7), a wrestler who has beaten him twice.

DeKalb coach Sam Hiatt said Matthews has been closing the gap on Noyes.

“He lost to him twice but it’s been close in both matches,” Hiatt said. “He’s been working hard and I think he can beat him. I like the matchup.”

And should he lose, Matthews fought back through the consolation bracket after losing his first match at the Barrington Sectional, earning his trip to state with a fourth-place finish.

“Even though the first day didn’t go my way, coming into the second day, I came in a different person for sure and had one goal set in mind, and that was to make it to state,” Matthews said.

Bode has the second-highest win total of any wrestler in the 2A 165-pound bracket, despite taking fourth in the Geneseo Sectional. He’ll open against Wheeling’s Nicholas Montesinos in his quest for a second medal in his second state trip.

Dohogne, in his third trip to state, opens up against Mahomet-Seymour’s Justus Vrona (42-9). Like Bode, he took fourth in Geneseo.

Schroeder and Lockhart each won their weight class in Geneseo. Schroeder still hasn’t lost to an Illinois wrestler and will open with Wheeling junior Frankie Katz (25-14). His second-round opponent will also have fewer wins.

“Liam has been giving us those big wins all season,” Sycamore coach Randy Culton said. “His only blemish is up in Wisconsin to a kid who’s getting a full ride to Michigan. He’s a fantastic wrestler and he’s on a mission. It’s crazy for a freshman to have his level of maturity and dominate the way he does.”

Lockhart opens against Wauconda freshman Mason Porten (33-17). Lockhart has the most wins of the eight wrestlers in his half of the bracket, but each wrestler has between 27 and 35 wins.

Class 2A preliminaries begin at about 1 p.m. Thursday, with 3A prelims starting at about 3:15. Quarterfinals for all three classes start at about 5:30 p.m.

- Shaw Local correspondent Mark Winter contributed to this report.