Cody Eckhardt

After 14 matches and more than two hours of wrestling, nearly 15 minutes at the scorers’ table was needed to decide a winner of the Blue Earth Area-United South Central dual meet in Wells Thursday night.

Both teams won seven matches and the score was tied at 34-34.

The Bucs appeared to have won the meet after the ‘Eckhardt Boys’ scored back-to-back pins at 171 and 189 pounds.

Daniel Eckhardt put his opponent’s shoulders to the mat with 1:18 remaining in the second period, while Cody’s fall came in 2:40, to put BEA head 34-22.

The Rebels responded with two pins of their own — Alex Dreyer at 215 and Tony Willette at heavyweight to tie the score — meaning the winner of the meet would be determined by using the tie-breaker system.

Jake Wirtjes

“I’ve never been involved in a tie-breaker before. I didn’t start thinking about it until our heavyweight was put on his back,” says Buc head coach Randy Wirtjes. “I started to go through the criteria in my head and decided to just let the score table decide the outcome.”

BEA wasn’t declared the winner until officials at scorers’ table reached the ‘8th criteria’ of the tie-breaker system.

The Bucs scored first in seven matches for a total of 14 points, while the Rebels tallied 12 points in six matches.

USC started out fast when 103-pounder Dylan Herman got a fall in 1:11 to put his team ahead, 6-0.

The Bucs answered with a Jesse Alleven decision at 112, Jake Wirtjes’ pin at 119 and David Franta’s decision at 125 to take a 12-6 lead.

Mitch Heronimus

The Rebels answered with a major decision at 130, but Mitch Heronimous put the Bucs back in the win column with a 16-10 major decision.

“Our young guys really came through. Absolutely huge. Jesse, David and Mitch had big wins,” says Wirtjes. “Our juniors and seniors also really stepped it up.”

At 140, Joe Franta’s pin in 50 seconds made the score 22-10, in favor of the Bucs.

The Rebels rattled off three straight wins, two decisions and a fall, to tie the score.

That set up a dramatic ending with BEA and USC each getting two pins in the final four matches to have the outcome determined by a tie-breaker system.BEA 34, USC 34

103: Dylan Herman (USC) pinned Travis Hagedorn, 1:11

112: Jesse Alleven (BEA) dec. Jay Staloch, 8-4.

119: Jake Wirtjes (BEA) pinned Ben Johnson, :36.

125: David Franta (BEA) dec. Chad Farley, 12-9.

130: Zac Wigern (USC) major dec. D.J. Gronewald, 12-3.

135: Mitch Heronimous (BEA) major dec. Ernest Robledo, 9-1.

140: Joe Franta (BEA) pinned Colten Carlson, :50.

145: Brady Thisius (USC) dec. Matt Dulas, 5-3.

152: Preston Staloch (USC) pinned Alvin Goraczkowski, 1:34.

160: Dylan Thisius (USC) dec. Carter Hanson, 6-0.

171: Daniel Eckhardt (BEA) pinned Jordan Beyer, 2:42.

189: Cody Eckhardt (BEA) pinned Cole Wenzel, 2:40.

215: Alex Dreyer (USC) pinned Jason Mertens, :12.

285: Tony Willette (USC) pinned Taylor Andrews, 4:32.