Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Hsa Khee Lar tries to pin his Windom Area opponent during their match on Thursday. The Tigers defeated the Cobras 59-10.

MARSHALL – The Marshall wrestling team continued its dominant start to the season, and Thursday night’s 59-10 dual victory over Windom Area came with an achievement.

The Tigers clinched the Big South Conference West Division with the victory, and Marshall coach Justin Bouwman said he was pleased with the group effort from his team to reach that milestone.

“It was a group effort; everyone came out and wrestled really well. Windom’s got some really good kids on the bottom,” Bouwman said. “Grant Louwagie ran into a returning state entrant and wrestled him really well. Then our upper weights came in and did what they do and took control of the match from there.”

Conner Roth got things started for the Tigers with a pin in 2:26 before Hsa Khee Lar won by technical fall to give Marshall a quick 11-0 lead. After Windom won the next two matches to cut it to 11-7, the Tigers got victories from Noah Jensen (Dec. 7-4), Eli Cole (Pin 1:14) and Jackson Hughes (Forfeit) to take a 26-10 lead.

Zach Stahl (160 weight class) won by pin in 1:32 before Elijah Sterner took down Jesse Jepson by decision (5-2) to push the Tigers lead to 35-10. Marshall then closed the meet with victories from Wyatt Martin (pin), Jaiden Bahr, Zack Felcyn and Cole Felcyn (forfeit) to earn the 59-10 win.

Bouwman said their biggest key during the meet was their aggressiveness to start the meet and take control from the beginning.

“I think it was our aggressiveness; we came out way more aggressive than we have the last couple of duals, and it really showed and put us in a position to win,” Bouwman said.

Marshall will look to continue its strong start with a meet against Quad County and Redwood Valley on Jan. 26 at 5 p.m.

Bouwman said their biggest takeaway will be fixing some little things and continuing to get better as they go on in the season.

“We’ve got some little things that we need to fix, just some technique and stuff,” Bouwman said. “Just like every other sport, you just have to keep getting better as the season goes on.”