Blue Earth Area 114 pounder, Timmy Nagel, pictured above, has continued to show improvement during the season. In his latest match against St. James, Nagel only needed 39 seconds to pin his opponent and earn six team points for the Bucs. In the end, the Saints won the meet by a 45-28 score.

Two forfeits and an injury were too much for the Blue Earth Area wrestling squad to overcome when they played host to the Saint James Area Saints on Thursday night, Jan. 25. The Saints took advantage of the situation to go home with a 45-28 victory over the Bucs.

St. James Area’s Beck Johnson received a forfeit at 107 pounds to give the Saints an early 6-0 lead. The Bucs bounced back with three consecutive falls to build an 18-6 lead over their Big South opponent. Timmy Nagel needed only 39 seconds to put Judson Brekke’s shoulders to the mat in the 114-pound match and tie the score at 6-6. Drake Engelby’s pin of the Saints’ Brody Romsdahl in 1:11 at 121 pounds put the Bucs on top 12-6. Wyatt Holland continued the string of falls by Buc wrestlers when he pinned Keyen Roloff in 3:53 in the 127-pound match.

The Saints cut the Bucs’ advantage to 18-12 when Damian Ramirez earned a fall in 1:20 over BEA’s Colton Tolzman.

The match at 139 pounds featured No. 10-ranked Kollin Anderson of St. James Area against Cooper Peterson of BEA. Anderson won the match by a 9-4 decision to reduce the Bucs’ lead to 18-15.

The Saints regained the lead at 21-18 when Talyn Tande won by a fall in 1:55 over Emanuel Granillo at 145 pounds.

It did not take long for BEA to go back on top. The Bucs’ Ethan Oppedal defeated Dylan Reid by a 12-2 major decision at 152 pounds to make the score 22-21 in favor of the Maroon and Gold.

Next, the lead swung back to the Saints by a 27-22 margin when Levi Miest was able to pin BEA’s Tristan Tungland at the 3:03 mark of the 160-pound match.

The back-and-forth scoring returned to the Bucs’ favor with a pin by BEA’s Kade Gaydon over Peyton Wolner in 1:27 at 172 pounds. With Gaydon’s victory, BEA was now ahead 28-27.

In the 189-pound match, an injury to the Bucs’ Cory Kitchel resulted in St. James Area wrestler Jarrett Durheim being awarded the win to put St. James out front for good at 33-28.

The Saints’ Julio Esqueda defeated Noah Smith by a pin at 215 pounds and St. James Area received a forfeit at 285 pounds to make the final score 45-28 and give the Saints the victory.