That's a 'first'! Jaguars clobber the Bulldogs!

The Jaguars gather for the post-match handshakes. Much to smile about!

The Jaguars were absolutely on fire tonight! That is how you win a tough wrestling match. Take no prisoners!

Austin Jaeger's first-period pin (1:29) at 145 pounds clinched the win tonight for the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team. It has been quite a night for Jaguar fans, watching their team jump out to a 40-0 lead through the 152-pound match. Paynesville Area falls to 4-2 in duals, while the Jaguars improve to 3-0 for the first time since the 1998-99 season.

Final score: B-B-E 49, Paynesville Area 15. The Bulldogs got two pins and a decision...that's it; the Jaguars, meanwhile, won 11 of the 14 matches, with 10 of those 11 being contested.

That's a wrap!

...after the 145-pound match...
 

The closest a B-B-E wrestling team has gotten to beating Paynesville was in the 1990 Sub-Region 5A playoffs, when the Jaguars lost to the Bulldogs in the championship match by a 32-18 score. Interestingly, the father of two of this year's Jaguar wrestlers was a senior on that team: Joe Schramel.

Last season the Jaguars were semi-competitive with Paynesville in a 38-21 loss.

Beating Paynesville tonight was especially enjoyable by former head coach Chuck Marks, who had a front row seat while helping coach and cheer on the guys the entire night.

B-B-E fans gave a nice salute to the team after the conclusion of the heavyweight match.

Hats off to head coach B.J. Friedrichs, as he has done a remarkable job keeping the ship running after the loss of Coach Vos. Tonight Coach Friedrichs was focused on his guys the entire way. Not once did he give the slightest hint of gloating as the Jaguars piled up the points. He was classy the entire way and made sure his team kept their heads straight as well. When a match gets away like that, it's easy for athletes on either team to lose focus, especially as you climb up the weights. That didn't happen tonight, especially when our freshmen heavyweight (rookie) Ben Feuerhake won a 7-2 decision over Paynesville senior Tanner Harder in the final match. That may have been the highlight of the night and the icing on the cake.

There was a bit of a bittersweet feeling, though, without having Coach Vos enjoying the win for a team that he had a direct hand in building.

Up next: a trip to Sauk Centre next Tuesday night to face Sauk Centre-Melrose in a second straight non-conference border battle.

More to follow later tonight.