One champion, four second-place medalists and a trio of third-place finishers helped the Bucs claim third place at the South Central Conference wrestling tournament Feb. 9 in Blue Earth.

BEA tallied 159.5 points, behind second-place St. James’ team total of 168 and Waseca’s 199 points.

Head coach Randy Wirtjes says the Bucs had “a pretty good team effort” and the teams in the conference were more balanced this year.

“Any one of four teams had a chance to win it. We finished where I thought we would,” Wirtjes says. “We needed more pins to win. Waseca got the pins to help them win.”

Leading the way for the Bucs was senior co-captain Mark Bartley, who won the 130-pound title with an 8-4 decision over Ethan Pierson of St. James.

At 112 pounds, D.J. Gronewald took home a silver medal when he was pinned in 3:53 in the finals by New Ulm’s Aaron Wenninger

St. James’ Ethan Hildebrandt, ranked No. 6 in Class A, defeated BEA’s Joe Franta 11-5 in the title match at 119.

Mat Willner tangled with New Ulm’s Pat Brinkman in the 215-pound championship match. The Class AA No.4-ranked Brinkman pinned Willner in 5:25.

After cruising into the finals with two pins that totaled less than a minute, heavyweight Jake Lee lost a close 3-1 decision to Brandon Zabel in the finals.

Jake Wirtjes captured third place at 103 pounds with a 6-5 win over Luke Derksen of New Ulm.

Dan Eckhardt (145) decisioned Justin Dokken of Waseca 3-1 for third, and Cody Eckhardt (160) easily defeated Nate Zabel of New Ulm 11-2 for the bronze medal.



Team results:

Waseca 199, St. James 168, BEA 159.5, New Ulm 150, St. Peter 122, Fairmont 73.



BEA results:

103: Jake Wirtjes pinned Justin Miest (St. James), 3:17; Nick Rydell (St. Peter) maj. dec. Wirtjes, 12-0; Wirtjes dec. Luke Derksen (New Ulm), 6-5 for third place.

112: D.J. Gronewald pinned Brady Krosch (Fairmont), :23; Gronewald dec. Nick Durisen (Waseca), 7-3; Aaron Wenninger (New Ulm) pinned Gronewald, 3:53 for first place.

119: Joe Franta pinned David Knutson (Waseca), :51; Franta pinned Tyler Krenz (Fairmont), 1:31; Ethan Hildebrandt (St. James) dec. Franta, 11-5 for first place.

125: Jared Resutek pinned Cody Olson (Fairmont), 3:13; Ryan Timmerman (St. Peter) pinned Resutek; Brady Stauffer (St. James) tech fall Resutek, 16-1 in 2:43 for third place.

130: Mark Bartley pinned Ashley Johnson (New Ulm), 1:35; Bartley tech fall Brian Zabel (St. Peter), 24-8 in 5:50; Bartley dec. Ethan Pierson (St. James), 8-4 for first place.

135: Brandon Pederson (Waseca) pinned Collin Nienhaus, 1:09; Nienhaus maj. dec. James Hady (Fairmont), 13-5; Chris Whitehead (St. James) pinned Nienhaus, 1:41 for third place.

140: Zanik Bartelt (Waseca) pinned Tyler Johnsrud, 1:17; Johnsrud maj. dec. Sam Sletta (New Ulm), 12-4; Sam Koch (St. James) dec. Johnsrud, 9-6 for third place.

145: Dan Eckhardt pinned Brent McDonald (Fairmont), 1:38; James Wilkins (St. Peter) dec. Eckhardt, 5-3; Eckhardt dec. Justin Dokken (Waseca), 3-1 for third place.

152: Adam Hoffman (New Ulm) pinned Sinjin Bell, 3:09; Bell pinned Brock Bonin (Fairmont), 1:17; Anthony Anderson (St. James) pinned Bell, 1:22 for third place.

160: Cody Eckhardt pinned Taylor Fritz (Fairmont), 1:10; Taylor Swanson (St. James) dec. Eckhardt, 4-2; Eckhardt maj. dec. Nate Zabel (New Ulm), 11-2 for third place.

171: Rhys Tiedeken (St. James) pinned Clinton Nienhaus, 3:10; Aaron Ingram (Waseca) dec. Nienhaus, 5-0; Cody Vanasse (Fairmont) pinned Nienhaus, 5:04 for fifth place.

189: Taylor Andrews pinned Andy Sanden (Fairmont), 3:07; Ethan Hoppe (St. James) pinned Andrews, 1:23; Jake Schmidt (New Ulm) maj. dec. Andrews, 9-1 for third place.

215: Mat Willner bye; Willner pinned Kevin Britton (Waseca), 5:39; Pat Brinkman (New Ulm) pinned Willner, 5:25 for first place.

285: Jake Lee pinned Scott Hines (Fairmont), :30; Lee pinned Troy Lebrun (New Ulm), :22; Brandon Zabel dec. Lee, 3-1 for first place.