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Red Bulls defend Maher Invite crown; B.E. Area places 2nd

BLUE EARTH — The Class AA No. 3-ranked Fairmont/Martin County West Red Bulls stampeded their way to nine individual gold medals to outdistance the Class A No. 4-ranked Blue Earth Area Bucs for the Dick Maher wrestling invitational team crown Saturday.

The Red Bulls, who captured the Maher championship in 2017 prior to last year’s weathered-out event, piled up 232.5 points to top the host Bucs’ runner-up total of 157 in Saturday’s eight-team invite in Blue Earth.

“It was a good start to the season, but we still have plenty to work on in practice,” said Red Bulls head coach Adam Williamson. “We definitely had a lot of bright spots up and down our lineup and came away from the meet with a number of positives to build on.”

Indeed. Seven of the Red Bulls’ eight state-ranked grapplers earned a spot atop the medals podium, with two unranked grapplers — Kain Sanders and Jacob Rahn — also contributing individual titles on the 7-hour tournament.

The Red Bulls displayed their skilled depth by fending off the Bucs by winning all four head-to-head showdowns in the finals, with Sanders and Rahn compiling perfect 3-0 records in their round-robin 113- and 220-pound brackets, respectively.

“He’s shown a lot of improvement since the beginning of last season,” Williamson said in reference to Sanders, who was selected by coaches and officials as the recipient of the Dick Boran Award, given annually to the competition’s top underclassmen. Ironically, Kain Sanders joined father, Red Bulls assistant coach and former Madelia/Truman mat standout, Derek Sanders, as a winner of the award.

“Connor Simmonds is the only other wrestler to win the award since we became the Red Bulls, so it says something about his (Kain Sanders) performance today,” said Williamson.

Sanders pinned the Bucs’ Carson Sturtz with only 5 seconds remaining in the opening 2-minute period to capture the 113-pound gold medal. Sanders also earned falls over Mankato East’s Easton Stangl (58 seconds) and Lake Mills’ Geraldo Vazquez (2:00) to pace a flawless performance on the day.

Rahn also compiled a 3-0 record to strike gold at 220 pounds. The Red Bull senior posted an 11-1 major decision over the Bucs’ Nick Lawrence, pinned Maple River’s Thayne Decker in 1:03 and earned the slap of the canvas in 2:23 over Waterville-Elysian-Morristown/Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton’s Brant Melchert.

No. 3-ranked 106-pounder Jesse Potts, No. 2-rated 120-pounder Lucas Jagodzinske, No. 2 126-pounder Jaxson Rohman, No. 3 138-pounder Connor Simmonds, No. 2 152-pounder Payton Anderson, No. 3 160-pounder Miles Fitzgerald and No. 3 182-pounder Nathan Simmonds rounded out the Red Bulls’ lengthy list of Maher individual champions on Saturday.

Due to a shortage of wrestlers in some of the brackets, teams were allowed to insert a second entry which created a clash of Red Bulls teammates in the 106-pound finale.

Potts built an 8-0 first-period en route to a 16-0 technical fall over teammate Cooper Steuber to garner the gold medal.

Potts gained the finals via a semifinal fall in 1:19 and a first-round bye, while Steuber compiled a 15-0 technical fall and a 3-1 decision to advance.

Lucas Jagodzinske, Rohman and Connor Simmonds then duplicated Sanders’ performance by winning their respective gold-medal matches against Buc opponents.

Jagodzinske outdueled Class A No. 9-ranked 120-pounder Ty Peterson by a 7-0 decision, Rohman used a takedown-for-escape strategy to best No. 8-ranked 126-pounder Davis Sunken by a 12-5 decision, while Simmonds produced a 16-0 technical fall over the Bucs’ Caleb Beeler in the 138-pound finale.

Augustana University commit Payton Anderson later pinned Lake Mills’ Casey Hanson — who’s ranked No. 9 at 152 in the Iowa Class 1A state poll — in 3:10 for the gold medal for the Red Bulls, while Fitzgerald and Nathan Simmonds won by decisions.

Fitzgerald downed Class A No. 3-ranked 160-pound Caden Ochsendorf of Maple River in the finals, 5-1, while Nathan Simmonds edged No. 4-ranked 195-pounder Nathan Trio of Maple River for the 182-pound crown.

No. 6-ranked 145-pounder Jaxen Klinkner of Blue Earth Area joined teammates Carson Sturtz (106), Ty Peterson (120), Davis Sunken (126), Caleb Beeler (138) and Luke Mertens (195) as silver medalists for their home-opening competition. Klinkner pinned his way — 3:36 over WEM/JWP’s Kurtis Crosby and 5:25 over Maple River’s Cooper Ochsendorf — to the finals before dropping a narrow 4-2 decision to Mankato East’s Braeden Hendel.

Hendel also upended Red Bulls’ standout Cale Steuber via an 8-4 semifinal decision. Steuber rebounded to coast to an 18-4 major decision over Ochsendorf in the third-place clash.

Jacob Beeler (132), Nicholas Nelson (152) and Nick Frank (182) each contributed third-place finishes to the host Bucs’ runner-up team showing.

The Red Bulls host Waseca and Redwood Valley in a 5 p.m. triangular Tuesday in Fairmont, while Blue Earth Area competes in the Lake Mills triad at 5 p.m.

2019 Dick Maher Invite

Team Standings: 1. Fairmont/Martin County West 232.5; 2. Blue Earth Area 157; 3. Lake Mills 149; 4. Mankato East 132; 5. Maple River 131.5; 6. Westfield 69; 7. WEM/JWP 46.5; 8. Madelia/Truman/Martin Luther 3.

Individual Results

106 pounds: Championship: Jesse Potts (FHS/MCW) tech. fall Cooper Steuber (FHS/MCW) 16-0. 3rd Place: Luke Scholtes (East) pinned Kinser Hanson (LM) 1:49. 5th: Caleb Langager (BEA) pinned Braxton Simon (MR) 1:52.

113: Round-Robin: Kain Sanders (FHS/MCW) 3-0; Carson Sturtz (BEA) 2-1; Easton Stangl (East) 1-2; Geraldo Vazquez (LM) 0-3.

120: Championship: Lucas Jagodzinske (FHS/MCW) dec. Ty Peterson (BEA) 7-0. 3rd: Jack Ramaker (LM) pinned Alex Beaty (LM) 3:38. 5th: Aden Welcome (FHS/MCW) bye.

126: Championship: Jaxson Rohman (FHS/MCW) dec. Davis Sunken (BEA) 12-5. 3rd: Trevor Pearson (MR) major dec. Jimmy Gallardo (LM) 17-3. 5th: Lane Lembke (Westfield) pinned Dylan Samlaska (WEM/JWP) 0:28.

132: Championship: Tyler Helgeson (LM) dec. Boden Simon (MR) 4-2. 3rd: Jacob Beeler (BEA) dec. Keegan Bronson (Westfield) 12-8. 5th: Andrew Womack (LM) dec. Stephen Barnacle (East) 11-6.

138: Championship: Connor Simmonds (FHS/MCW) tech. fall Caleb Beeler (BEA) 16-0. 3rd: Ethan Evenson (MR) tech. fall Dalton Thorson (LM) 15-0. 5th: Tucker Rients (WEM/JWP) tech. fall Carlos Garcia (MTML) 19-3.

145: Championship: Braeden Hendel (East) dec. Jaxen Klinkner (BEA) 4-2. 3rd: Cale Steuber (FHS/MCW) major dec. Cooper Ochsendorf (MR) 18-4. 5th: Parker Meyers (BEA) dec. Carver Rohman (FHS/MCW) 8-6.

152: Championship: Payton Anderson (FHS/MCW) pinned Casey Hanson (LM) 3:10. 3rd: Nicholas Nelson (BEA) pinned Brian Thilges (East) 0:34. 5th: Noah Ziegler (MR) bye.

160: Championship: Miles Fitzgerald (FHS/MCW) dec. Caden Ochsendorf (MR) 5-1. 3rd: Ethan Rider (WEM/JWP) dec. Sebastian Munera (East) 5-4. 5th: Ashten Love (LM) pinned Cael Willaert (East) 3:02.

170: Championship: Elijah Wagner (LM) pinned Brady Hanson (LM) 1:16. 3rd: Tyler Archer (Westfield) dec. Leslie Miller (East) 9-4. 5th: Brady Walters (MR) pinned Kean Hicks (BEA) 3:36.

182: Championship: Nathan Simmonds (FHS/MCW) dec. Nathan Trio (MR) 6-4. 3rd: Nick Frank (BEA) major dec. Drake Harnish (LM) 12-1. 5th: Caleb Kai (East) won by injury default over Logan Johnson (BEA).

195: Championship: Kolin Baier (East) pinned Luke Mertens, 0:58. 3rd: Max Olson (FHS/MCW) pinned Mitchell Fiebiger (Westfield) 0:48. 5th: Brayden Lindeman (LM) bye.

220: Round-Robin: Jacob Rahn (FHS/MCW) 3-0; Brant Melchert (WEM/JWP) 2-1; Thayne Decker (MR) 1-2; Nick Lawrence (BEA) 0-3.

285: Championship: Dylan Nirk (Westfield) pinned Rieley Fleming (East) 3:10. 3rd: Wyatt Rodriguez (East) pinned Michael Sheehy (WEM/JWP) 0:53. 5th: Zach Christensen (BEA) pinned Chris Jantgaard (WEM/JWP) 2:27.

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