Blackduck-Cass Lake-Bena sends three wrestlers to state

BLACKDUCK – The Blackduck-Cass Lake-Bena wrestling team is sending three athletes to the Class A state wrestling meet which begins Thursday at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

Andrew Nissen finished second at the Section 8A meet in the 106-pound division as did teammates Daven Staples at 160 and Tanner Templin at 195.

Nissen went 3-1 at the section meet. After winning his first two matches Nissen fell 17-8 to Tanner Reetz of Frazee in the title match. Nissen, however, was forced to battle for true second where he edged Willie Neine of Fertile-Beltrami 5-4.

In the 160-pound division Staples won his first three bouts but lost 12-7 to Tom Ingle of Badger-Greenbush-Middle River in the championship match.

Staples also was forced to wrestle in a true second match and he pinned Nate Starry of Frazee in 1:22 to punch his ticket to state.

Templin also was forced to wrestle in the true second bout. He went 2-0 before lisng 5-4 to Colton Laymon of West Marshall in the championship bout. Templin earned his trip to the state by stopping Garret Pemelton of Dilworth-GF 8-5 in the true second match.

BCLB’s other section place winners included David Foster who placed sixth at 113, Mason Frenzel who was fifth at 138, Cooper Jedlick who was sixth at 152, Nate Jablonski who was third at 170 and Brady Gross who was third at 182.

Jablonski lost in the true second match 11-1 to John Westman of BGMR while Gross did not have the opportunity to wrestle for true second.

In Section 8-2A Jordan Murphy of Fosston-Bagley was third in the 220-pound class, losing by a pin in 3:47 to Tyshaun Brown of Thief River Falls in the true second match.

Finishing fourth for the Greyhounds were Luke Juve at heavyweight and Gabe Hanson at 126. Placing fifth were Alexi Bode at 152 and Wyatt LaFriniere at 160.

Girls basketball

The Subsection 8-A East tournament begins today with play-in games hosted by Blackduck, Cass Lake-Bena and Lake of the Woods.

Blackduck, the eighth seed, will welcome No. 9 Laporte while No. 6 Cass Lake-Bena entertains No. 11 Bug O Nay Ge Shig and No. 10 RLCC visits No. 7 Lake of the Woods.

The sub-section scene shifts to Bagley High School and BSU for Thursday’s quarterfinals.

The schedule at Bagley finds Clearbrok-Gonvick facing the Laporte/Blackduck winner at 6 p.m. and No. 4 Kelliher-Northome tangling with No. 5 Mahnomen at 7:45 p.m.

Red Lake will face either Lake of the Woods or RLCC at 6 p.m. Thursday at BSU while the late game pits No. 3 Fosston against either CL-B or Bug O Nay Ge Shig.

On March 2 the quarterfinal winners will square off at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in Thief River Falls. The East sub-section title game will be March 5 while the Section 8A championship will be decided on March 8.

Those games will also be played at the REA.

Bagley received the No.5 seed in 8-2A North and will travel to fourth-ranked Warroad for Friday’s quarterfinals. If the Flyers top the Warriors they will face Crookston 6 p.m. Friday at Bemiji State.

The sub-section final will be played at BSU on March 5 and the Section 8-2A championship game will be hosted by BSU on March 8.