Jake Ryan Engelby works to put the shoulders of Luverne’s Ridha Kadhim to the mat. Engelby ended up winning the match by a 16-0 technical fall in the Bucs’ 40-35 victory over the Cards.

The Big South Conference Wrestling Tournament was held in Marshall on Jan. 10 with 14 teams competing for the championship. The 14-team tournament featured schools from three different classes, Class A, Class AA and Class AAA.

When the competition was done it was the New Ulm Area Eagles in first place with 191.5 points. St. Peter was the runner-up with 174.5 points and Marshall was third with 147. Blue Earth Area finished 13th with 49 points.

Three BEA wrestlers, Timmy Nagel, Will Weerts and Chase Gambell, finished in the top six in their weight classes.

Nagel competed at 133 pounds. He had a first-round bye before winning by a 19-3 technical fall over Deven Parpart of Waseca.

In the semifinal round, Nagel was defeated by undefeated and eventual champion Miklo Hernandez of Pipestone Area.

Nagel then defeated Levi Kraft in a wrestleback match to earn a spot in the third-place match against Kane Johnson of New Ulm Area. Johnson won that match by a 10-0 major decision which put Nagel in fourth place.

Wrestling at 172 pounds, the Bucs’ Will Weerts won his opening-round match by a fall in 1:02 over Jacob Wallace of St. James-Madelia.

Next, Weerts lost a close 7-5 decision to Matthew Gangestad of Luverne which sent Weerts to the wrestleback side of the bracket.

Weerts won by a fall in 4:36 over Damian Aguirre of Windom-Mountain Lake to advance to the next round where he defeated Austin Newcombe of the Martin County Red Bulls by a 17-0 technical fall.

Lucan Fuhr of Redwood Valley stopped the win streak by Weerts with a 12-3 major decision over the BEA wrestler which put Weerts into the match for fifth place.

Meeting Luverne’s Gangestad for the second time in the tournament, Weerts lost in a 14-7 sudden-victory to finish in sixth place.

Gambell lost his first-round match to Isaiah Friese of New Ulm Area but battled back to claim third place at 285 pounds.

Gambell won his second match with a pin in 57 seconds over Griffin Smidt of Pipestone Area. Next Gambell put the shoulders of Martin County Area’s DJ Miller to the mat at the 2:20 mark to advance to the third-place match. Gambell’s first-period pin over Dylan Mertens of Redwood Valley in 1:48 cemented his third-place finish at the tournament.

Blue Earth Triangular

The Blue Earth Area Buccaneers hosted a triangular meet on Jan. 8 with the Luverne Cardinals and the St. James-Madelia Spartans coming to town for some wrestling action.

The first meet of the night featured St. James-Madelia taking on Luverne with the Spartans winning by a 48-29 margin.

Next, BEA defeated Luverne 40-35. The final contest of the evening saw the Spartans top the Bucs by a 60-18 score.

BEA 40, Luverne 35

The Bucs fell behind 6-0 after the 107-pound match but they closed to within one point when Jake Ryan Engelby won at 114 pounds with a 16-0 technical fall over Ridha Kadjim. Engelby established a 10-0 lead after the first period with a takedown, a three-point near fall and a four-point near fall and then finished the match off in the second period.

Luverne reestablished their six-point lead at 11-5 when they won by a technical fall at 121 pounds.

At 127 pounds, Drake Engelby pinned Josh Johnson in 1:05 to tie the score at 11-11.

Luverne went up 17-11 when they won by a fall at 133 pounds.

Timmy Nagel’s 17-2 technical fall win over Aaron Kindt make the score 17-16 with Luverne in the lead.

Layden Basset scored a first-period takedown over Mason Shaffner in the 145-pound match and then pinned him at the 3:29 mark to give BEA their first lead of the match at 22-17.

Wins by falls at 152 and 160 pounds and by a forfeit at 172 pounds gave the Cardinals a 35-22 lead with three matches left to go.

BEA’s Will Weerts triumphed by a pin in 1:27 over Andrew Deutsch at 189 pounds to reduce Luverne’s lead to 35-28.

Jacob Gambell pinned Jaxson McTigue in 47 seconds at 215 pounds to narrow the Cardinals’ advantage to 35-34.

BEA’s Chase Gambell won by a forfeit at 285 pounds to give the Bucs the 40-35 victory.

St. James-Madelia 60,

BEA 18.

A strong St. James-Madelia team handed BEA a 60-18 loss.

BEA won only three matches against the Spartans.

Timmy Nagel won by a forfeit at 139 pounds.

Will Weerts won by a fall over Jacob Wallace at the 4:26 mark in the 172-pound match and Chase Gambell pinned Jeremiah Garza in 4:52 of the 285-pound match.