By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne-Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth wrestling team mixed it up twice during the first week of the regular season.
The Cardinals placed eighth as a team at the Flandreau, S.D., Tournament Saturday before battling Fulda-Murray County Central to a draw in Luverne Tuesday.
L-H-BC-E wrestles in Windom tonight, at the Jackson County Central Tournament Saturday and in Harrisburg, S.D., Tuesday.
L-H-BC-E 36, F-MCC 36
A 12-point run to end the match allowed the Rebels to come from behind and draw with the Cardinals in Luverne Tuesday.
L-H-BC-E led by as many as 18 points during the battle, but F-MCC outscored the Cards 24-6 the rest of the match to keep the hosts from posting a victory on Parents' Night.
The Cardinals trailed 12-6 when they posted five straight wins between 112 and 135 pounds to open a commanding 30-12 lead.
The runs consisted of pins from Anthony Boyenga (1:55 over Dillon Hotovec at 112), Kerry Fink (3:13 over Jacob Nolt at 119) and Chris Tiesler (:46 over Nick Henning at 130), and decision wins from Dustin Donth (6-2 over Ben Kremer at 125) and Justin Mann (9-6 over Eric Zins at 135).
A forfeit to F-MCC's Wade Behr at 135 and Ryan Olsem's pin in 2:48 over Dusty Seachris at 145 trimmed L-H-BC-EÕs lead to six points, but Cardinal Canaan Petersen pinned Andy Witzel in 2:45 at 152 to give the hosts a 36-24 advantage with two matches remaining.
The Rebels picked up the final 12 points of the match when Dean Paulzine pinned Brant Jacobs in 3:02 at 160 and Chris Hawkinson drew a forfeit at 171.
A new state rule calls for a pre-match draw to determine which weight class starts the match.
The 189-pound match was selected to open TuesdayÕs contest, which featured L-H-BC-E's Joel Evans pinning Matt Witzel in 2:54.
F-MCC moved in front 12-6 when heavyweight Nick Steinmetz pinned Cody Jagow in 3:04, and Luke Giese covered Aric Uithoven in 1:43 of the 103-pound match.
Match wrap-up
189 (L) Evans pins Witzel.
275 (F) Steinmetz pins Jagow.
103 (F) Giese pins Uithoven.
112 (L) Boyenga pins Hotovec.
119 (L) Fink pins Nolt.
125 (L) Donth dec. Kremer.
130 (L) Tiesler pins Henning.
135 (L) Mann dec. Zins.
140 (F) Behr by forfeit.
145 (F) Olsem pins Seachris.
152 (L) Petersen pins Witzel.
160 (F) Paulzine pins Jacobs.
171 (F) Hawkinson by forfeit.
Flandreau tourney
The Cardinals opened the season by competing at an eight-team tournament in Flandreau Saturday.
Two L-H-BC-E athletes placed well individually, and the Cardinals capped the field as a team with 50 points.
Howard (169), Pipestone-Jasper (155), Elk Point-Jefferson (155), Sioux Valley (90), Garretson (87), Flandreau (87) and Deuel (64) topped the Cardinals in team competition.
Joel Evans and Cody Jagow turned in L-H-BC-E's best efforts by placing second and third at 189 and heavyweight respectively.
Evans bested Deuel's Lon Nelson 8-5 and pinned SV's Scott Colby in 47 seconds before losing by fall in 58 seconds to Howard's Phil Ruml.
After receiving a bye in the first round, Jagow was pinned by eventual champion Josh Corbin, of Howard, at 2:39 of the semifinals. Jagow then pinned FlandreauÕs Casey Kneebone at :56 in the third-place match.
Cardinals Dusty Seachris and Canaan Petersen went 2-2 and placed fourth at 135 and 145.
Anthony Boyenga (103), Kerry Fink (112), Chris Tiesler (119) and Dustin Donth (125) all went 1-2, while Justin Mann (130) and Brant Jacobs (152) were 0-2.