Wrestlers light up West Central Area Invitational field (VIDEOS*)

Today was a huge, huge day for our B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team. They entered a tough field at the West Central Area/Grant County invitational in Barrett and mopped up on the competition. First place, baby!!!! How sweet it is. I only know of two champions, but I am sure there are more: 106-pound Noah Welte and 138-pound Ryan Jensen. *Two other B-B-E champions were Maximus Hanson (170) and Ethan Spanier (220).

More to come after I see the full set of scores.

CHECK THIS OUT! The Jaguars absolutely did mop up on the field with a boost by its four champions. They tallied 207 team points compared to runner-up and host WCA/Ashby/Brandon-Evansville's 163 points. OH! And I forgot to mention: WCA/A/BE was ranked No. 2 in the state in the latest Guillotine rankings. In third place was No. 12-ranked Canby with 153 points. No. 11-ranked Border West had a tough day with a sixth-place finish with 94 team points. This was a very, VERY good day for our wrestling program.

**While I'm researching Trackwrestling, get a load of this crazy fourth installment of my Winter Sports Show; you just might not believe it, because I hardly do myself:


By the time we got towards the end of the game, the general feeling was that the game was in a tie. The 9 p.m. end time of open gym was just a couple minutes away. So Gannon and Kyle from each team agreed that it would go to the last made shot to determine the winner. Cameron Loe on my team got the final bucket on a layup. That was exciting. By then, everyone else who was at open gym had poured over into the main gymnasium to watch. I'm telling you: it was quite the spectacle.

And for the record! I recorded that just 28 minutes after I left the court at B-B-E high school at the conclusion of our 5-on-5 basketball game. I was feeling very, very good at the time of recording. Now one full hour later, my calves are burning! It is good that track and field season is still a few months away, because I'm not ready for that whatsoever. I have many nights on the treadmill ahead of me during the upcoming winter months. Currently I'm laying down and resting after hitting the shower. I am definitely an old man, but that still does not mean I can't push myself to become better, or even bigger, faster and stronger!! It is ALWAYS good to challenge yourself to become better. And EVERY DAY is a great day to give the absolute best effort that you can. As I said on Box Score Sports last Tuesday: being in peak health is something we should all strive for.

Next day update: I woke up on Sunday morning being able to walk! I consider that a win.

Back to our wrestlers...
I just saw that Talen Kampsen had an outstanding tournament today with a third-place finish at 195 pounds. He finished 3-1 overall and got to the third-place match with a win by pin in just 22 seconds against Canby's Sawyer Drietz. In the third-place match, Kampsen won an exciting 8-7 decision against Kaden Holt of Pelican Rapids.

Grant County wrestling results by weight division:
106 - Noah Welte 1st place
113 - Aiden Mueller 3rd
120 - Louie Tensen 4th
126 - open

132 - open
138 - Ryan Jensen 1st
145 - Wyatt Engen 2nd (Engen upset the No. 2 seed in the bracket with a win by fall (4:42) to get into the championship)
152 - Tanner Viessman 3rd
160 - Hunter Laage did not place
170 - Maximus Hanson 1st
182 - Carson Gilbert 2nd
195 - Talen Kampsen 3rd
220 - Ethan Spanier 1st (Spanier won the title with a win by decision in sudden victory fashion!)
285 - Harley Weber 2nd (Weber lost a heartbreaker by a 3-2 decision in his championship)

More to come, but probably not until the newspaper comes out next week. I will get more details from this tournament in print. Starting on Sunday this weekend, I have to gear up for what will likely be a 16-page newspaper. I know it will be at least 16, but I doubt there's any chance I'll be able to make it 18 pages. 

*I may repost this later in a new blog post...but this was a great sequence later in the second half at Holdingford on Friday; the Jaguars went down swinging and fought the entire way:


The day of Saturday, December 10 was crazy busy from start to finish. It was similar to the Saturday we had a week ago. And that Saturday a week ago is just two weeks removed from a musical to end all musicals that we had in Olson Auditorium. Today there were visits by Santa Claus in both Belgrade and and Brooten, and The Grinch even made a stop at the Brooten Lanes for a period of time that was so remarkable I can't even begin to describe it. Our Brooten lighted Christmas parade was wonderful and included three groups of royalty from Brooten, Belgrade and Starbuck. I was so thrilled I could hardly believe it when Miss Brooten Jacey Tensen was able to make it to town before the parade. Jacey was tied up all day starting with a 5:45 a.m. bus with the wrestling team in Barrett. She and fellow senior Cali Knutson are the wrestling team student managers. Katelynn Uphus made the drive down from college in Grand Forks, and Tiyana Schwinghammer was able to be there from start to finish along with Katelynn for all the activities at the Brooten Lanes after she had family commitments earlier in the day. The town was buzzing with activity all night. The bowling alley had a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd almost the entire time! Both the KaDe Shack and Marcia's Bar and Grill were also busy all evening.

The margins were very tight for many of us, but we put it all together and made the day work. And a special thank you to Tim and Suzie Tensen for commandeering the Miss Brooten Suburban for the parade! That allowed me to get some much-needed photos of an event we hold just once a year in Brooten.

All the words in the world can't express how our community is glowing right now. Its people just glow. It's wonderful.