Jaxen Klinkner of Blue Earth Area in action against United South Central at home on Feb. 15. The Bucs dominated that meet, and defeated Maple River before bowing out of team section competition.

So near, and yet so far.

The Blue Earth Area Buccaneer wrestling team fought their way to the Section 2A championship match, but for the third year in a row, they lost a hard fought battle with Kenyon-Wanamingo and took second in the section and failed to advance to the State Wrestling Meet as a team.

BEA had cruised past United South Central in a match on Thursday, Feb. 15.

That sent the No. 3 seeded Bucs into the semi finals and a rematch with the No. 2 seeded Eagles of Maple River in the first match on Saturday, Feb. 17.

The maroon and gold squad shocked the Eagles, taking a 34-25 win and advancing to the finals later that same afternoon.

But, the hard-fighting Bucs could not pull out another upset and fell to the No. 1 seeded Knights of K-W by a score of 43-23.

The Buccaneers were now slated to participate in the Section 2A Individual Wrestling Tournament, set for Friday and Saturday, Feb. 23-24, at the gym at Blue Earth Area High School.

BEA 34, Maple River 25

The Bucs had lost to the Eagles 43-28 earlier in the season, back on Dec. 10. But last Saturday they avenged that loss in high fashion against the No. 10 ranked Eagles.

The match was tied a couple of times early, and BEA actually trailed 22-12 at one point before finishing strong at the end for the win.

Caleb Beeler started things off with a 4-0 win over Boden Simon at 106 pounds. But the Eagles’ Trevor Pearson responded with a 7-5 win over Ty Peterson at 113 and the match was tied at 3-3 early.

At 120 pounds, Davis Sunken defeated Reise Hanson 4-3, and at 126 Max Ehrich pinned Cooper Ochsendorf of Maple River and BEA led 12-3.

Koby Nagel lost by a fall at 132 pounds to Cody Walters, and Joe Schavey lost a 5-2 decision to Lincoln Arndt at 138 and the match was tied up at 12-12.

Then the Eagles’ Wyatt Simon pinned Efrain Trujillo at 145 pounds and Nathan Moore took a 13-5 major decision over Rylee McGuire at 152 and BEA trailed 22-12.

The Bucs took the next four matches, however.

Jaxen Klinkner won a 13-0 major over Bryan Garlow at 160 pounds, Akeira Morrow won 5-4 over Nathan Trio at 170, Zach Buseman pinned Quinn simpson at 182 and Dominic Whitlow won 4-2 over Logan Ziegler at 195.

BEA was up by a score of 28-22 with two matches to go.

The Bucs’ Jordan Huse lost 3-1 at 220 pounds to Bill Karels and BEA’s lead was a slim 28-25 with one match to go.

But, Trevor Oppedal pinned Connor Thorn at 285 pounds to seal the Buccaneer victory and put them into the championship match.

K-W 43, BEA 23

The Bucs dug themselves a deep hole to start the match when the Knights took the first three matches by falls, and gained an 18-0 lead.

Caleb Beeler lost by a fall to Owen Scheffler at 106 pounds, Ty Peterson to Jeron Matson at 113 and Davis Sunken to Bray Olson at 120.

Max Ehrich got the Bucs on the scoreboard with a 10-5 win over Alec Johnson at 126 pounds, and Koby Nagel won by the same 10-5 score at 132 over Tyler Craig. Then Joe Schavey won by a 22-7 technical fall at 138 and the Bucs trailed just 18-11.

Unfortunately, Riley Anderson lost by a fall to Seth Brossard at 145 pounds, Rylee McGuire lost a 12-2 major to Nathan Bauer at 152 and Jaxen Klinkner lost a very close 6-5 match at 160 to Carter Quam.

Zach Buseman gave BEA three points with a 7-4 victory at 170 pounds over Cole Johnson and BEA’s deficit was cut to 31-14.

Akeira Morrow lost by a fall at 182 pounds to Logan Quam, but Jordan Huse won a 7-5 decision at 195 over Owen Hilke. The score stood at 37-17.

BEA’s Nick Lawrence lost by a fall at 220 pounds to Kaya Lindell, but Trevor Oppedal closed out the match for a win for the Bucs at 285 when he pinned Jesse Jackson.

Final score was 43-23 in favor of the Knights.