BEA’s Drake Engelby, above, is shown competing in his first-round match at the Maher Invitational on Dec. 7, in Blue Earth. Engelby would go on to win the championship at 121 pounds.

Nine teams competed in the Maher Invitational Wrestling Tournament held on Saturday, Dec. 7, at Blue Earth Area High School. In the end, the winner was decided by half of a point.

The Fairmont/Martin County Red Bulls won the championship with 164.5 points to narrowly squeak by runner-up Maple River/United South Central’s score of 164 points.

Waterville-Elysian-Morristown/Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton placed third with 144 points, Tri-City United was fourth with 143, Triton finished fifth with 119, Worthington placed sixth with 94, Waseca was seventh with 81.5, BEA took eighth with 77 and La Crescent-Hokah was ninth with 42.5.

Drake Engelby, who wrestled at 121 pounds, was BEA’s only champion.

Timmy Nagel finished second at 127 pounds. The Bucs had two wrestlers finish in fourth place. They were Will Weerts at 172 pounds and Chase Gambell at 285.

The Longhorns also had one champion who was Noah Gonzalez at 127 pounds.

MR/USC had a number of wrestlers who placed in the top four spots.

Earning runner-up honors were Austin Niebuhr at 107 pounds, Wyatt Walters at 145 and Isaiah Gonzalez at 152.

Third-place finishers for the Longhorns were Alex Walser at 114 pounds and Riley Sparks at 121.

Finishing in fourth place were 133-pounder Jace Ignaszewski, 189-pounder Max Fuller and 215-pounder Dizel Butler.

BEA’s champion Engelby began the tournament by pinning Christian Dailey of Worthington in 2:43.

In the semifinal round, Engelby earned a 9-5 decision over the Longhorns’ Sparks.

Engelby earned the top spot on the podium with an 8-5 decision over Trista Gessler of Tri-City United in the championship match.

MR/USC’s champion, Noah Gonzalez, had a bye in the first round of the 127-pound weight class to advance to the semifinal round against Worthington’s Kian Ling. Gonzalez defeated Ling by a 16-1 technical fall to move into the championship against BEA’s Nagel.

In a very tight contest, Gonzalez scored the only point of the match on an escape to defeat Nagel 1-0 and claim the championship.

The Bucs participated in triangular meets at St. Peter on Thursday, Dec. 12, and on the campus of Mankato Loyola on Saturday, Dec. 14.

The Longhorns wrestled at Triton on Dec. 12 and at Jackson County Central on Dec. 14.

Results of those contests will be in next week’s edition of the Faribault County Register.