Girls' basketball starts 2-0, wrestlers second at Melrose...by razor-thin margin

The B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team had three squads in action at Minnewaska Area, which is the first time in three seasons that they've had two varsity squads in action plus a JV squad. The invitational featured six teams.

*Here's the Pirouettes varsity jazz squad...they were outstanding!


On Saturday (tomorrow) the dance team travels to Rocori.

It's a 2-and-Oh start for the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team! The Jaguars defeated Pine River-Backus 60-41 tonight on the road. It was a marquee win for the team after they suffered huge graduation losses and withstood whatever the Tigers threw at them. PR-B had extra motivation as they wanted to get the bad taste of a 70-44 sub-section semifinal loss last March out of their systems. That did not happen.

Next: the Jaguars travel to Royalton next Tuesday for the conference opener. The Royals will be far and away much, much tougher than either of B-B-E's first two opponents.

*Here's a video from late in the first half at Melrose...


The Jaguars struggled late in that first half in the season opener, but they recovered nicely to win by double digits at Melrose. The free throw shooting was harsh!!! At one point I counted that we made 6 of 17 free throw tries.

At Melrose tonight, B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team members competing in their respective championship matches will be Ryan Jensen (145), Brett DeRoo (152), Ethan Mueller (160), Maximus Hanson (189), Carson Gilbert (215) and Harley Weber (285)...the Jaguars have a steep hill to climb as a team, as they trail Paynesville Area 197 points to 178.5 points as of 9:25 p.m. The upside to this: Paynesville does not have anyone wrestling against any of those Jaguars in those title matches.

Paynesville Area claimed titles at 114 and 127, and they have a wrestler in the finals at 139. The Jaguars need to light things up the rest of the way to catch the Bulldogs.

A few championship match updates at Melrose:
At 139, Paynesville's wrestler finished in second place. (B-B-E is open at 139 and 172.) Earlier tonight at 114, Noah Welte lost a 5-0 decision to Paynesville's Roman Roberg to take second place. At 145, Ryan Jensen won a thriller by 9-7 decision in the championship match against Mora senior Nathan Nelson. At 152, DeRoo took the title! He won a 5-0 decision in the finals against Mora senior Brock Folkema. At 160, Ethan Mueller took the title! He won a 3-1 decision in the championship against Thief River Falls senior Ethan Lane.

The gap between B-B-E and Paynesville is shrinking!

Down the stretch at Melrose...
At 189, Maximus Hanson won the championship match by fall (2:38) against Mora junior Jared Yates. At 215, Carson Gilbert won a 4-0 decision against Eden Valley-Watkins senior Sonnie DeHeer. Now all that's left is heavyweight. At 285, Harley Weber won a 3-1 decision against Ottertail Central senior Kale Rich in the championship. He was the sixth Jaguar to earn an individual title tonight. However, once the dust settled and all the points were tallied, the Paynesville Bulldogs emerged as champions with 206 team points. The Jaguars took second place with 204.5 points. Crazy! It was about as exciting as it gets throughout the last two hours of the 13-team invitational.

Area girls' basketball scores on December 1:
MACCRAY 66, Dawson-Boyd 40
Lakeview 48, Yellow Medicine East 40
#8 New London-Spicer 76, Paynesville 46
Central MN Christian 76, Ortonville 20 Swanville 76, Benson 39
Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 63, Renville County West 33