Longhorns win battle against Bucs
Maple River/United South Central goes home with 37-30 victory
The Maple River/United South Central Longhorns brought their wrestling team to Blue Earth to face the Blue Earth Area Buccaneers on Tuesday, Jan. 17.
It was a close contest but the Longhorns pulled away for a 37-30 victory over the Bucs.
BEA’s Timmy Nagel used a third-period escape and takedown to secure a 5-1 decision over MR/USC’s Noah Gonzalez in the 106-pound match to give the host team a 3-0 lead.
The Longhorns’ Wyatt Walters put his team in front 6-3 when he pinned the Bucs’ Colton Tolzmann in 48 secondes at 113 pounds.
In the 120-pound match, MR/USC’s Brayden Mithun won by a fall over BEA’s Drake Engelby in 1:09 to increase the Longhorns’ lead to 12-3.
A five-point period by the Bucs’ Carson Sturtz proved to be the difference in the 126-pound match against the Longhorns’ Isaiah Gonzalez.
Sturtz started on the bottom to begin the second period before scoring an escape for one point.
Gonzalez got a takedown but Sturtz worked for a reversal and a two-point near fall to take a 5-2 lead heading into the final period.
The match ended with Sturtz winning by an 8-5 decision to cut MR/USC’s lead to 12-6.
A pin by the Bucs’ Angel Martinez in 4:32 against the Longhorns’ Kolt Bullerman at 132 pounds tied the team score at 12-12.
BEA temporarily took the lead when Cooper Peterson won a hard-fought, 4-1 decision over MR/USC’s Braxton Simon at 138 pounds. The Bucs were up 15-12.
Garrett Bollmann of the Longhorns pinned the Bucs’ Will Weerts in 1:04 in the 145-pound match to put MR/USC back on top by a score of 18-12.
A 10-2 major decision by the Longhorns’ Chad Shull over the Bucs’ Blair Lunz at 152 pounds increased the visitors’ lead to 22-15.
A 4-2 decision by MR/USC’s Byron Getchell over BEA’s Kade Gaydon in the 160-pound match increased the Longhorns’ lead to 25-15.
At 170 pounds, Parker Meyers of the Bucs needed 1:47 to put the Longhorns’ Tyler Hollerich’s shoulders to the mat and cut MR/USC’s lead to 25-21.
The next three matches were all won by forfeit.
The Longhorns’ Max Fuller received a forfeit at 182 pounds and his teammate, Copper Ochsendorf, won by a forfeit at 195 pounds. BEA’s Cory Kitchel received a forfeit at 220 pounds to make the score 37-27 in favor of the MR/USC heading into the final match of the evening.
In the 285-pound match, it was the Longhorns’ Dizel Butler taking on the Bucs’ Zach Benson.
The match was not decided until the fourth overtime period when Benson was able to score an escape for a 4-3 win to make the final team score 37-30 with MR/USC going home with the win.
Big South Conference Tournament
Pipestone was the site of the Big South Conference Wrestling Tournament on Saturday, Jan. 14.
Jackson County Central captured the BSC title with a total of 250.5 points. St. Peter placed second with 179 points, Marshall was third with 151 and Farimont-Martin County West was fourth with 125.
Blue Earth Area had 41 points to finish in a tie for 10th place with Luverne.
Four Buccaneer wrestlers finished in the top six in their weight category.
Carson Sturtz finished fourth at 126 pounds, Cooper Peterson took fifth at 138, Parker Meyers was fifth at 170 and Kade Gaydon placed sixth at 160.
Sturz opened the tournament with a pin over Leif Ingebretsen of Luverne in 3:16 and then lost by a 9-0 major decision to eventual champion Landon Marthaler of Marshall.
In the wrestlebacks, Sturtz won by a 5-2 decision over Tegan Kral of New Ulm Area to advance to the third-place match against Benjamin Dahlin of JCC.
Dahlin was able to outscore Sturtz 13-5 for a major decision victory which gave Sturtz fourth place.
Peterson lost his first-round match to Thomas Freking of JCC by a 12-4 major decision.
In the wrestlebacks, Peterson received a bye and then pinned Miat Htoo of Worthington in 2:50 to earn the chance to wrestle for fifth place.
Peterson defeated his opponent, Talyn Tande of St. James, 6-0, to finish in sixth place.
Myers opened the day by pinning Jamen Hennen of Redwood Valley in 2:38.
In the semifinals, Christian Rodriguez of Waseca got by the BEA senior with a 3-1 decision.
Meyers pinned Eh Day Htoo of Worthington in 1:27 and then defeated Ty Frederick of New Ulm Area 5-4 to set up a match for fifth place with Joseph Connor of St. Peter.
Myers and Connor had met two days earlier in a dual meet with Meyers winning by a 10-4 decision. The score was closer this time with Myers prevailing 8-5 to claim fifth place.
Gaydon lost his opening round match by a pin to Taylen Travaille of St. Peter by a fall in 3:42.
In the wrestlebacks, Gaydon won by a fall in 2:45 over Noah Engel of New Ulm Area but then was pinned by DJ Rock of Luverne in 2:45.
In the match for fifth place, Gaydon lost to JCC’s Trey Rossow by a 9-6 decision.