Jaguars second at Jackhammer Invitational (VIDEOS)

Videos added (from December 7) to this post on Sunday after church...

They gave an incredible effort, but ultimately No. 4-ranked (Class 2A) Totino Grace had too much firepower for the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team at the Pequot Lakes Jackhammer Invitational this weekend. In the final 29-team standings, the Jaguars had 187.5 points to 209.5 points for the No. 4-ranked Eagles of Fridley.

The Jaguars came up big by edging out No. 10-ranked (Class 2A) Pequot Lakes/Pine River-Backus, who took third with 160 points.

At 152, Brett DeRoo won a 4-2 decision in sudden victory overtime fashion in the semifinals. In the championship, he lost a 5-2 decision to Perham senior Carson Byer.

At 172, Maximus Hanson was absolutely dominant while earning pins in four of his five matches in the tournament. He won by fall in the semis (3:05) and championship (3:36) to remain undefeated on the season.

At 189, Hunter Laage lost in the semifinals but rebounded to take third place with a win by a 3-2 decision in his last match.

At 215, Carson Gilbert lost in the semis but rebounded to take third place with a win by a 9-2 decision in his final match.

Here's a video from back on December 7 with the Jaguars taking on Border West at Minnewaska:


Noah Welte won by pin in that match against the Buccaneers. Welte had a great tournament at the Jackhammer Invitational and took fifth place at 114; in the fifth-place match, he won by fall (0:44) against New York Mills freshman Aiden Meech. He is 11-4 so far to start his junior campaign.

Here's Aiden Mueller at 121 pounds that night in Minnewaska Area...


Aiden Mueller won that match by a 9-8 decision.

Next for the No. 3-ranked Jaguars is a huge, huge Central Minnesota Conference triangular on Tuesday in Kimball. Also there will be the Paynesville Area Bulldogs, who have designs on earning a conference title. Last year, the Bulldogs went 3-3 to take fourth place in the seven-team CMC.

And on to Sunday, December 17...
Children at Sunburg Free Lutheran church held their annual Christmas program in front of a full house this morning. You can listen to part of their program, with children signing Go Tell It on the Mountain, by clicking over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper: https://shorturl.at/aCHO6.

At Sunburg Free church on Sunday, I enjoyed visiting with members of the Jess and Tammy Berge family. Tammy (Thonvold) is a 1991 graduate of B-B-E high school and played on some of the very first Jaguar girls' basketball teams under former head coach Bob Cassidy (1974-1992). Jess and Tammy's daughter Abby Berge, B-B-E Class of 2023, had one of her best games of her young college career with 11 points in 18 minutes of play in Minot, North Dakota on Saturday. Her Minnesota State University-Moorhead Dragons defeated the Minot State Beavers 68-40 to square their Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference record at 3-3. In addition, the youngest member of the Berge family was part of the B-B-E 8th grade boys' basketball team that won the Central Minnesota Conference tournament title on Saturday in Royalton. Austin Berge is one of six eighth graders on that team, which also earned the CMC title when they were seventh graders.

And speaking of Christmas! Here's a video featuring part of the final songs performed by grades K-3 students at B-B-E elementary's Christmas program on December 6:


This last newspaper issue featured a few photos from that program. With luck on my side, I hope to get more published in the December 21 issue. We'll see!