The Longhorns’ Alex Walser controls his opponent while wrestling at the Takedown on 22 Tournament held earlier in February.

The Maple River/United South Central Longhorns wrestling team took part in a triangular on Thursday, Feb. 5. They wrestled both New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva – and won big – and Grand Meadow/LeRoy-Ostrander/Southland – and lost a heartbreaking tiebreaker by one point.

MR/USC 54, NRHEG 18

It was the Cardinals of New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva who jumped out to a 6-0 lead.

The Longhorns Austin Niebuhr lost a close 7-6 decision at 107 pounds to Owen Schlaak, and at 114 Alex Walser lost a 9-4 decision to Grahm Jacobson.

Then Austin Sanders won by an injury default at 121 pounds over Charlie Tufte, and at 124 Riley Sparks won by a pin over Bo Holland and the Longhorns were up 12-6.

A forfeit by MR/USC at 133 pounds tied the match up at 12-12. However, the Longhorns won the next five matches to take a 42 to 12 commanding lead.

Noah Gonzalez won by a fall over Chase Johannsen at 139 pounds, Shaune Peterson won by a fall over Adrian Naser at 145, Jace Ignaszewski won by a fall over Wyatt Hendrickson at 152, Brayden Mithun won by forfeit at 160 and Kolt Bullerman won by a fall over Noah Weller at 172.

NRHEG took the win at 189 pounds when Gavyn Elvebak lost by a fall to Ryan Schlaak.

Then Max Fuller won by a fall over Wyatt Larson at 215 pounds and Blake Foesch won by a forfeit at 285.

GM/LO/S 37,

MR/USC 36

At the end of the match between the Grand Meadow/LeRoy-Ostrander/Southland Bulldogs and the Maple River/United South Central Longhorns, the score was tied 36-36 at the end of the 13 matches.

GMLOS won on the first tie-breaker, which was the team with most wins in the match. The Bulldogs had seven and the Longhorns had six.

MR/USC took an early 12-0 lead when Austin Niebuhr won by a fall over Derek Steinkamp at 107 pounds, and Alex Walser won by a fall over Lincoln Lunning at 114.

Austin Sanders lost by a fall to Chase Van Hill at 121 pounds, Riley Sparks lost by a fall to Parker Armagost at 127, and the Longhorns forfeited at 133 and the Bulldogs took an 18-12 lead.

Noah Gonzalez won by forfeit at 139 pounds and things were all knotted up at 18 a piece.

Shaune Peterson lost a 14-7 decision to Cael Smith at 145 pounds and GMLOS was back in the lead by three, but Jace Ignaszewski won by a fall over Jaydence Ward at 152 and now the Longhorns were up by three, 24-21.

Longhorn Brayden Mithun last by a fall at 160 pounds and the Bulldogs were up by three. But Kolt Bullerman won by with a 28 second pin of Mathen Felix and the MR/USC was back in the lead by three.

Gayvn Elveback’s pin of Scotty Swanek at 189 pounds put the Longhorns in the lead by nine, 36-27.

But then GMLOS won the last two matches. Max Fuller lost to Drake Payne at 215 by a pin, and Blake Foesch lost a 4-2 decision at 285 to Wyatt Krull and the score was tied – with the Bulldogs winning by one on the tiebreaker.