Blue Earth Area wrestlers gave Maple River a scare, but the No. 6-ranked Class A Eagles were able to pull out a 38-32 win in non-conference Tuesday night in Mapleton.

The Bucs won seven of the 14 matches, however, Maple River had five pins and a tech fall in their seven wins.

BEA head coach Randy Wirtjes says there were a lot of Buc fans at the meet and their strong support motivated his wrestlers.

“It’s probably the best we’ve wrestled all year. We won the matches we needed to. The kids wrestled with intensity,” says Wirtjes.

BEA jumped out to a 7-0 lead when Jake Wirtjes earned a 7-2 decision at 103 pounds and D.J. Gronewald followed with a 9-1 major decision at 112.

Kyle Sieberg put the Eagles on the scoreboard with a 5-1 decision over BEA’s Joe Franta.

Two straight pins by Jared Resutek (125) and Mark Bartley (130) increased the team’s lead to 19-3.

Maple River answered with a tech fall at 135 and a pin at 140 to cut the Bucs lead to five, 19-14.

BEA won two of the next three matches, Dan Eckhardt’s 11-3 major decision at 145 pounds and Cody Eckhardt a 5-2 winner at 160.

With the Bucs leading 26-20 with just four matches remaining, the Eagles rattled off three pins in a row to take a 38-26 lead and seal a victory.

Buc heavyweight Jake Lee took only 1:19 to pin his opponent and make the final score 38-32.



Maple River 38, BEA 32

103: Jake Wirtjes (BEA) dec. Jesse Jaeger (MR), 7-2.

112: D.J. Gronewald (BEA) maj. dec. Seth Barkosky (MR), 9-1.

119: Kyle Sieberg (MR) dec. Joe Franta (BEA), 5-1.

125: Jared Resutek (BEA) pinned Charlie Sieberg (MR), 4:51.

130: Mark Bartley (BEA) pinned Alex Schubbe (MR), 2:43.

135: Blair Oachs (MR) tech fall Collin Nienhaus (BEA), 18-2.

140: Dylan Wiotas (MR) pinned Tyler Johnsrud (BEA), 5:04.

145: Dan Eckhardt (BEA) maj. dec. Scott Schoneck (MR), 11-3.

152: Eli Oatman (MR) pinned Sinjin Bell (BEA), 4:00.

160: Cody Eckhardt (BEA) dec. Adam Zellmer (MR), 5-2.

171: Alex Bach (MR) pinned Cody Klinksiek (BEA), 1:15.

189: Brandon Reynolds (MR) pinned Taylor Andrews (BEA), 2:35.

215: Aaron Norgren (MR) pinned Mat Willner (BEA), 2:52.

285: Jake Lee (BEA) pinned Pete Guse (MR), 1:19.



Hayfield Invitational

Earning a place in 12 out of 14 weight classes was good enough to Blue Earth Area wrestlers a third-place finish at the eight-team Hayfield Invitational held Jan. 19.

The Bucs finished the day with two champions, two runnersup and one third place finisher.

With 146 team points, BEA was 21 points behind Lewiston/Altura/Rushford/Peterson (LARP), listed in the Guillotine’s Lean and Mean team rankings for Class A.

Taking first place was United South Central with 227 points. The Rebels currently are ranked No. 5 in Class A.

Buc ninth-grader Joe Franta took home the gold medal at 119 pounds, while sophomore Dan Eckhardt won the title at 145.

Franta was given a bye in the opening round of the tournament. In semi-final action, he scored a 13-7 decision over Adam Driessen of Blooming Prairie. He then defeated Tony Wesp of Anoka 9-4 in the championship match.

Eckhardt also received a bye in the opening round. He won 11-5 over Mark Evjen of Hayfield in the semis and blanked Brennen Mensink 2-0 of Grand Meadow/LeRoy Ostrander/Kingsland (GMLOK) in the finals.

Two more Bucs making it into the finals were 215-pounder Mat Willner and heavyweight Jake Lee.

Willner pinned his way to the championship match.

The Buc junior pinned Ethan Hoffman of Blooming Prairie in 3:24 and A.J. Dreyer of USC in 3:13 in the semis.

In the finals, Parker Brand of LARP and the Class A No.1-ranked 215-pounder needed just 35 seconds to score a fall over Willner.

After getting a first-round bye, Lee pinned Mark Agrimson of LARP in 3:41.

In the finals the Buc junior was pitted against USC’s Mike Linder, ranked No.8 in Class A.

Linder held a 2-1 lead late in the match in the final period. With less than a minute remaining, Lee was able to score a takedown for a 3-2 lead. However, Linder added a reversal in the waning seconds for the win.



Buc results:

103: Nathan Manfull (LARP) pinned Jake Wirtjes (BEA), 3:58; Wirtjes dec. Chad Gibson (LaCrescent), 4-0; Manfull dec. Wirtjes, 8-6 for third place.

112: Dan Anderson (LARP) pinned D.J. Gronewald (BEA), 3:30; Tyler Jennings (GMLOK) dec. Gronewald, 4-0 for third place.

119: Joe Franta (BEA) dec. Adam Driessen (Blooming Prairie) 13-7; Franta dec. Tony Wesp (Anoka), 9-4 for first place.

125: Josh Sandven (LaCrescent) maj. dec. Jared Resutek (BEA), 13-1; Hilman Speltz (LARP) dec. Resutek, 7-2; Resutek maj. dec. Seth Johnson (Blooming Prairie), 9-0 for fifth place.

130: Aaron Niles (Blooming Prairie) pinned Mark Bartley (BEA), 3:05; Bartley pinned Brandon Wiedeman (LARP), :59; Bartley pinned Josh Gifford (Anoka), 2:34 for third place.

135: Casey Hackbarth (LARP) pinned Collin Nienhaus (BEA), 1:45; Andy Hayek (Anoka) dec. Nienhaus, 11-5; Nienhaus pinned Jake Zak (Blooming Prairie), :48 for fifth place.

140: Dustin Majerus (Hayfield) dec. Tyler Johnsrud (BEA), 6-5; Caleb Bruce (Anoka) tech fall Johnsrud, 18-2.

145: Dan Eckhardt (BEA) dec. Mark Evjen (Hayfield), 11-5; Eckhardt dec. Brennen Mensink (GMLOK), 2-0 for first place.

152: Jake Herman (USC) pinned Sinjin Bell (BEA), :45; Dylan Wildeman (Hayfield) pinned Bell, 1:29; Bell pinned Lance Myren (Anoka), 2:30 for fifth place.

160: Cody Eckhardt (BEA) dec. Will Nagy (LARP), 16-12; MacEagon Voyce (Hayfield) dec. Eckhardt, 7-2; Eckhardt pinned Ben Kendhammer (LaCrescent), 2:59; Luke Ducharme (Anoka) maj. dec. Eckhardt, 9-1 for third place.

171: Nathan Goette (USC) tech fall Clinton Nienhaus (BEA), 22-7; Caleb Faulhaber (GMLOK) inj. default over Nienhaus.

189: Tony Becker (LARP) dec. Taylor Andrews (BEA), 3-1; Andrews pinned Mike Coleman (Anoka), 3:40; Jacob Gross maj. dec. Andrews, 8-0; Jake Siemers (Hayfield) pinned Andrews, 2:17 for fifth place.

215: Mat Willner (BEA) pinned Ethan Hoffman (Blooming Prairie), 3:24; Willner pinned A.J. Dreyer (USC), 3:13; Parker Brand (LARP) pinned Willner, :35 for first place.

285: Jake Lee (BEA) pinned Mark Agrimson (LARP), 3:41; Mike Linder (USC) dec. Lee, 4-3 for first place.



Team results:

USC 227, LARP 167, BEA 146, Hayfield 138, GMLOK 133, Anoka 90, Blooming Prairie 73, LaCrescent 72.5