Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Dylan Louwagie sizes up his Martin County opponent during their Section 3AA championship match on Saturday. The Tigers fell to the Red Bulls 41-25.

MARSHALL — The Marshall and Martin County wrestling teams have had similar experiences when it comes to deciding which one gets to go to state. Round 1 went to the Red Bulls in 2018, who defeated Marshall on the road for their first trip to the Class AA meet. Then last year, it was the Tigers’ turn, using a come-from-behind effort to win in Fairmont to punch its ticket to state for the first time in program history.

Facing each other for the third time in as many years with a trip to state on the line, the newest installment in the Marshall-Martin County showdown featured another solid performance from either side. In the end, it was the road team that continued its streak of qualifying, as Martin County used a strong run in the middle of its lineup to defeat the Tigers 41-25 and earn a trip to state for a second time.

Despite the tough finish, Marshall coach Justin Bouwman was proud of the way his team competed and left everything out on the mat.

“Overall, every kid wrestled really tough and really hard and put everything out there. We came up a little short, but I’m not going to fault these guys, they wrestled and did everything we asked them to do,” Bouwman said. “Sometimes when you have to move up weight it’s a little tough and sometimes when you have to cut weight it’s harder and there are a lot of things that went into what these guys did for us this week to try and make things happen.”

Martin County 41, Marshall 25

Having just competed against the Red Bulls last week in the Big South Conference championship, the Tigers knew they were going to have to mix things up in order to come out on top this time around. Bouwman said they wanted to reshuffle the lineup and create some different matchups to try and throw Martin County off balance.

“We wanted to try and get some different matchups with some of those kids they have in the middle that are really good,” Bouwman said. “We tried to get some of those things to help us out a little bit and some of them worked, some of them didn’t, but the kids put out 110% and that’s all we can ask.”

The Tigers’ gameplan got out to a good start, with Brett Regnier getting a pin (4:25) in the opening weight class before Dylan Louwagie won by decision (7-0) to give Marshall a 9-0 lead.

“Those two little guys built everything for us and kind of got rolling,” Bouwman said on the first two bouts. “We took a mentality of we’re all in this together and each one of us counted on each other; we needed them to get started and they did.”

Martin County quickly responded, however, and made its presence felt by winning the next eight consecutive bouts — highlighted by four pins — to take a 38-9 advantage. The Tigers were able to close the match on a strong note, winning three of the final four bouts, but didn’t have enough room to make up the difference. Spencer Wambeke won by major decision (11-3) while Jaiden Bahr (0:38) and Jackson Vierstraete (2:24) both picked up a pin for Marshall to bring it to the 41-25 final.

Marshall 43,

Worthington 22

The Tigers began the final four with a semifinal matchup against Worthington, who had defeated New Ulm in the quarterfinal. Marshall was able to get out to a strong start, winning four of the first five bouts. Dylan Louwagie won by technical fall (16-0) while Hsa Khee Lar won by forfeit, Hsa Law Eh won by major decision (13-2) and Tate Condezo won by a pin (3:26) to give the Tigers a 21-3 lead.

Bouwman said their key early on against Worthington was moving around their lineup, and felt they were able to take advantage of some of the matchups.

“When we moved guys around, the matchups were better for us,” Bouwman said. “We got some things that we really liked and some styles with some of our younger kids matched up a little bit better and that helped out a lot.”

After Worthington got back on the board with a pin, Connor Roth answered right back for Marshall with a pin of his own (0:51) at 145 pounds before Noah Jensen won by decision (8-3) and Grant Louwagie won by major decision (13-2) to push the Tigers lead to 34-9. Worthington would win three of the final five bouts to close the match, but Spencer Wambeke’s pin and Cole Felcyn’s decision victory (6-2) helped put things out of reach and set up the rematch between Marshall and Martin County.

Respecting the rivalry

The Tigers and Red Bulls have faced each other several times throughout the past few seasons, including in the Big South Championships and in the section tournament. Bouwman said although there are times when they don’t like each other, both sides have a mutual respect for one another and it has helped create an exciting atmosphere in wrestling to watch.

“It’s a lot of fun. There are definitely times where we’re not so happy with each other, but we respect each other and I think that’s a big thing that makes wrestling really awesome,” Bouwman said. “All it takes is one day and this was their day, they wrestled really well and we wish them the best in representing our section as well as they can.”

Up next

Marshall will compete in the Section 3AA individual tournament next weekend in Luverne. Bouwman said their biggest takeaway is to maintain their aggressiveness on the mat and keep moving forward as a group.

“Just from both sides with each dual, there were matches where we had to do some things and score some points and we did really well,” Bouwman said. “We were aggressive, much more than we were last time, and I think that’s what we need to do, keep our aggression level up and going forward all of the time.”