VIEW TO A FALL — Blue Earth Area wrestler Ty Peterson (left) presses down on Pipestone Area opponent Karter Wixon en route to a fall during 138-pound action in the two teams’ Big South Conference dual meet Tuesday night in Blue Earth. (Photo by Greg Abel)

BLUE EARTH — With the team down 27-24, Max Ehrich stepped to the mat and won by fall to give the Class A No. 10-ranked Blue Earth Area Bucs momentum over the Waseca Bluejays.

Blue Earth Area swept its Big South Conference wrestling triangular against Waseca (54-27) and the Pipestone Area Arrows (64-24) on Tuesday night in Blue Earth.

In the first meet of Blue Earth Area against Waseca, Bucs’ freshman Cooper Peterson forced a double-overtime 106-pound match against John Feeley.

Peterson went behind early getting taken down by Feeley and Feeley’s reversal gave him a 4-3 first period edge.

Peterson tied the match in the second period by a takedown and an escape. Neither opponent scored a point in the third and fourth period, but Feeley pinned Peterson with 50 seconds remaining in the second overtime.

“In his second match, I thought he competed well,” head coach Randy Wirtjes said. “That kid’s a pretty good wrestler and Cooper got it into overtime and it didn’t ended how we wanted it to, but at least he battled all the way through. That’s what we want our guys to do.

“It might not always be the right thing, but if they’re battling and they keep improving in practice then it will work out.”

Caleb Langager and No. 8-ranked 132-pounder Ty Peterson secured pins for the Bucs, while Class AA No. 9 ranked 132-pounder Luke Osweiler and Mason Gehloff secured pins for the Blue Jays to even the score at 18-18.

The Bluejays regained the lead after a won decision by Christian Rodriguez and a Brandon Lopez pin gave them a 27-18 lead.

Ehrich established himself early in his 170 weight class match against Waseca’s Carter Ellis. The No.7 ranked wrestler made two takedowns on Ellis, with Ellis escaping one takedown. Ehrich pinned Ellis in 37 seconds.

“Max is a senior leader on the team,” Wirtjes said. “Max is kind of the heart and should and got that fall. We’re pretty experienced from Max on up. They know what they gotta do and they gotta maybe pick the slack up for some of the younger guys and they kind of followed that lead.”

The Bucs finished the meet with three straight pins. Nick Frank made two takedowns, recorded a two-point near fall and pinned Waseca’s Payton Garza in 3 minutes and 28 seconds at the 182 weight class. Adam Schavey, Logan Johnson, and Luke Mertens finished the match with pins.

The Waseca Bluejays defeated the Pipestone Area Arrows 55-24 in the second dual meet of the triangular meet on Tuesday night in Blue Earth.

In their first match, the Bucs used forfeits and pins to their advantage. The Bucs outpinned their opponents 6-3 and received five forfeits to defeat the Pipestone Area, 64-24.

“We always talk bonus points and our guys did get bonus points, but we gave up too many pins,” Wirtjes said. “That’s one of them things where we’ll have to grow and get over some of those aches and pains and try to stay off our backs.”

The Bucs plan to build off this result by taking the positives from everything, not harp on the negatives, but fix them and improve everyday.

“It doesn’t matter who we wrestle,” Wirtjes said. “We’re going to prepare the same, but we want to keep intensity, go after bonus points, try to score the first takedown and not go on our back.”

Blue Earth Area (2-0) travels to Mapleton to face Maple River for a 6 p.m. nonconference dual meet on Thursday.

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B.E. Area 64,

Pipestone Area 24

106: Brayden Burmeister (PAA) pinned Cooper Peterson, 2:19. 113: Caleb Langager (BEA) won by forfeit. 120: JJ Martens (PAA) pinned Carson Sturtz, 5:10. 126: Davis Budden (PAA) pinned Angel Martinez, 3:52. 132: Nate Bobendrier (PAA) pinned Brody Anderson, 1:10. 138: Ty Peterson (BEA) pinned Karter Wixon, 2:39. 145: Parker Meyers (BEA) won by forfeit. 152: Gabe Smith (BEA) won by forfeit. 160: Kean Hicks (BEA) pinned Gavin Olson, 1:10. 170: Max Ehrich (BEA) pinned Jackson Melcher, 3:22. 182: Nick Frank (BEA) pinned Allen Tubbs, 0:36. 195: Adam Schavey (BEA) won by forfeit. 220: Logan Johnson (BEA) won by forfeit. 285: Luke Mertens (BEA) pinned Jayden Hoss, 3:40.

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B.E. Area 54, Waseca 27

106: John Feeley (WAS) pinned Cooper Peterson, 7:10. 113: Caleb Langager (BEA) pinned Elijah Biehn, 0:32. 120: Mason Gheloff (WAS) pinned Carson Sturtz, 0:49. 126: Angel Martinez (BEA) won by forfeit. 132: Luke Osweiler (WAS) pinned Brody Anderson, 1:15. 138: Ty Peterson (BEA) pinned Oliver O’Brien, 3:19. 145: Christian Rodriguez (WAS) dec. Parker Meyers, 5-2. 152: Brandon Lopez (WAS) pinned Gabe Smith, 3:37. 160: Kean Hicks (BEA) won by forfeit. 170: Max Ehrich (BEA) pinned Carter Ellis, 0:07. 182: Nick Frank (BEA) pinned Payton Garza, 3:28. 195: Adam Schavey (BEA) pinned River Schmidt. 0:44. 220: Logan Johnson (BEA) pinned Buck Kuhns, 0:46. 285: Luke Mertens (BEA) pinned Jayden Hoss, 1:46.