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PREP WRESTLING: At the ready

Marshall shows focus in wins over MAHACA, Minneota

Photo by Jake Przytarski Marshall’s Jackson Vierstraete tries to pin his MAHACA opponent during their match on Thursday. Marshall defeated MAHACA 54-21.

MARSHALL — Following an extended layoff due to inclement weather, the No. 6 ranked Marshall wrestling team returned to its home mat on Thursday where they notched hard-fought victories over area-rival Minneota and section foe Morris Area Hancock Chokio-Alberta in a triangular meet.

Marshall coach Justin Bouwman tipped his cap to both opponents and praised his team for a strong performance in the pair of wins.

“Overall I think we did really well,” said Bouwman. “We had a couple of matches that could’ve gone either way and you’re going to have those in good duals. We expected those from both of those teams. Morris is a section opponent so you’re going to get good solid matches there and Minneota is Minneota. They’re always consistent. They’re solid and they’ve got some great coaches over there that do a great job and you always have to be ready for them.”

Marshall 54,

MAHACA 21

After falling 41-26 in its dual with Minneota to begin the triangular, MAHACA shifted its focus to Marshall who got off to an electric start in its first bout of the evening.

Brett Regnier at the 106 weight class opened the dual for Marshall and recorded the first of seven pin-fall victories for the team. Dylan Louwagie at 113 kept the momentum building for the Tigers with a decision victory to give Marshall a quick 9-0 lead.

Following a pair of wins for MAHACA by way of pin-fall and decision that knotted the score up at nine apiece, Marshall responded with five consecutive wins that included pin-fall victories for Tate Condezo at 132, Connor Roth at 138, Tucker Fien at 152 and Grant Louwagie at 160. Noah Jensen added six more points with a forfeit victory at the 145 weight class to put Marshall ahead 39-9.

Staring down a large deficit, MAHACA was able to make up some ground with a pin victory at 170 and 220, but Marshall’s closed out the bout with three more wins as Spencer Wambeke edged his opponent via decision at 182 before Cole Felcyn at 195 and Jackson Vierstrate at 285 all pinned their opponents to lead the Tigers to victory.

Marshall 42,

Minneota 26

Picking up where he left off in his previous match, Regnier had his hand raised for a second time following a decision victory over Peyton Gillund at the 106 weight class to put the Tigers in front early at 3-0. Minneota’s Eric Carrasco, who won his first match of the night as well, provided the Vikings’ response with a technical-fall win over Aiden Mattison at 113 to make it 5-3.

Undeterred, the Tigers stormed back with four straight victories as Dylan Louwagie picked up a tech-fall win over Troy Vankeulen at 120 before Hsa Law Eh and Connor Roth each edged their opponents via decision. Tate Condezo, fresh off of his pin-fall victory earlier against MAHACA, notched another against Minneota’s Alex Depestel at 132 to give the Tigers a 20-5 lead through 138.

Minneota’s Jonah Gruenes and Blake Reiss got the team back on track with a pair of crucial wins via sudden death decision and pin fall that cut the deficit to 20-14, but a pin for Grant Louwagie over Branden Johnson at 160 temporarily stalled the momentum. The Vikings went on to close out the dual with two more wins via pin at 170 and 220 by Conner Sik and Jackson Esping, but victories for Spencer Wambeke, Cole Felcyn and Jackson Vierstrate gave the Tigers a 42-26 dual-win.

Though the result wasn’t the one that they hoped for, Minneota coach Matt Myrvik was pleased to see that the team is continuing to make progress.

“Obviously Marshall’s coming off a great year last year and has a lot of good pieces with experience,” said Myrvik. “This is our first year wrestling them in a couple of years I think. We tried to get our good kids on their good kids and we lost a few of those matches. We thought we could’ve competed a little better in some of them, but we’re making progress to where we need to be at the end of the year.”

Next up

Marshall will be back on its home mat next Thursday when the team hosts Redwood Valley for a dual at 7 p.m. Minneota will be right back in action today when the team travels for a road-dual hosted by LPGE-B.

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