Section individual wrestling, robotics and speech today (UPDATES**** and VIDEO)

Today there are three big events taking place, including one that features state qualifiation on the line. Updates are being posted below on this blog post throughout the day. Note: my last morning update for section wrestling was a 11:20 a.m. (See below)

**Saturday mid-afternoon update...I've got additional notes posted below at the bottom of this blog post with wrestling updates out of Canby, where five Jaguars are gunning for a section title; others may be in the running for a state berth, but that's all yet to be determined with much to still shake out.

Final results from the Section 5A individual wrestling tournament will be posted in a new blog post at 7 p.m. tonight. Hit refresh of the blog to check that out and see how many Jaguars have advanced to state.

UPDATE at 5 p.m...more outcomes have been decided for the remaining Jaguars in contention for state...look at the bottom of this blog post for more on that...as of now, Ryan Jensen, Maximus Hanson and Carson Gilbert have earned guaranteed trips to the individual state tournament. Three other Jaguars are still in contention with true second matches forthcoming.


At Maple Lake today, the B-B-E speech team is competing in their fifth meet of the season. I will be reporting on their Browerville trip last weekend plus today's Maple Lake invitational in next week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

In robotics news! Saturday updates...
At Willmar high school, the B-B-E Resistance Robotics team is giving their robot its first run through real competition with the Week Zero scrimmage today. Action concludes before 4 p.m. this afternoo. I hope to be there after lunch! You can read a little about this year's robotics team and competition by clicking over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://rb.gy/9xvc12. The full article along with additional feature photos were published in the February 23 issue of The Voice.

**Here's a video from Willmar this afternoon...


At Canby high school...
The B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team is competing in the Section 5A individual tournament. A few results of early matches are posted below. The section is experiencing the lack of wrestlers that has plaqued this sport across all corners of Minnesota. How incredibly lucky are we at B-B-E that we have a full wrestling room and ample depth that can overcome injuries throughout the lineup. We have such great student-athletes! This is not something to be taken for granted. It takes a mountain of hard work to get to where our wrestling program is.

107: Noah Jensen had a first-round bye and then lost a 12-5 decision in the quarterfinals to Paynesville's Jamison Meagher; this bracket has just 8 wrestlers, so he has a couple byes ahead of him in the consolation bracket.

114: Noah Welte (28-12) had a first-round bye in a nine-man bracket; he will face K-M-S's Oswaldo Moreno (18-24) in the quarterfinals. **Welte won by fall (3:14) against Moreno to advance to the championship semifinals, where he will face Benson sophomore Gavin Olson (32-7) for a berth in the championship.

121: Noah DeRoo (10-12) had a first-round bye in what is a six-man bracket; he faces K-M-S's Cole Froehlich (26-16) in the quarterfinals. **Noah DeRoo lost by fall (0:56) to Froehlich and has a least a couple byes in the consolation bracket.

127: in a 10-man bracket, Jace Mueller (12-18) won his opener by a 7-2 decision against K-M-S sophomore Zachary VanHeuveln; he will take on Benson sophomore Max Nygaard (31-8) in the quarterfinals. **Jace Mueller lost a tech fall (4:11) against Nygaard; he faces Quad County freshman James Hardin (9-22) in wrestlebacks. ****Jace Mueller lost by fall (4:46) against Hardin to see his seventh grade varsity season conclude with a final record of 12-20.

133: Dylan Koob (4-14) won his opener by fall (0:49) against Ortonville's Justus Romanoff; in the quarterfinals, Koob lost by fall (1:27) to top-seeded and undefeated K-M-S sophomore Trey Gunderson (47-0) to move into the wrestleback side of his nine-man bracket. **Koob had two byes in wrestlebacks and now faces Benson junior Mu tah Wah (13-26) in the wrestleback bracket.

139: top-seeded senior Ryan Jensen (40-0) had a first-round bye and faces BOLD sophomore Trey Zamarron (5-18) in the quarterfinals of an eight-man bracket. **Ryan Jensen won his quarterfinal match against Zamarron by fall (0:37) to advance to the championship semis. In the semis, he will face A-C-GC sophomore Joseph Sherwood (27-18).

145: senior Tanner Viessman (35-2) had a first-round bye in his nine-man bracket and faces Benson senior Derek Johnson (9-27) in the quarterfinals. **Viessman won his quarterfinal match against Johnson by fall (0:45) and now faces K-M-S freshman Taytan Nielsen (30-14) in the championship semifinals.

152: junior Brett DeRoo (34-5) had a first-round bye in his nine-man bracket and faces Canby senior Brodyrck Gravdal (15-16) in the quarterfinals. **Brett DeRoo won his quarterfinal by a 16-2 major decision against Gravdal and now faces Minneota junior Destin Fier (24-11) in the championship semifinals.

160: Ethan Mueller (33-9) had a first-round bye in his nine-man bracket and faces Minneota freshman Cael Fier (9-4) in the quarterfinals. **In his quarterfinal match, Ethan Mueller won a 5-3 decision against Fier to advance to the championship semifinals.

172 Maximus Hanson (42-0) had a first-round bye in his nine-man bracket and faces Ortonville junior Logan Omundson (10-29) in the quarterfinals. **Hanson won by fall (0:46) in his quarterfinal match against Omundson. His opponent is to-be-determined as of 11:21 a.m.

189: Hunter Laage (29-11) had a first-round bye in a seven-man bracket and faces K-M-S freshman Jake Holtkamp (16-15) in the quarterfinals. **Laage won by fall (1:10) against Holtkamp in the quarterfinals to advance to the championship semifinals; his opponent is to-be-determined as of 11:37 a.m.

215: Carson Gilbert (36-3) had a first-round bye in his nine-man bracket and faces Quad County freshman Owen Slettendahl (15-17) in the quarterfinals.

285: Harley Weber (25-7) had a first-round bye in his eight-man bracket and faces A-C-GC junior Juan Cardenas (12-15) in the quarterfinals.

Updates on Saturday afternoon...in a nutshell...at 107, Noah Jensen will wrestle for fifth place. At 114, Noah Welte will wrestle for fifth place. At 121, Noah DeRoo will wrestle for fifth place. At 160, Ethan Mueller will go for third place. At 189, Hunter Laage will wrestle for third place. At heavyweight, Harley Weber was injured in his semifinal match, and his status is unclear. He has been placed in the fifth-place match.

Going for first place for the Jaguars...at 139, Ryan Jensen will wrestle for a section title while facing Canby junior Blake Giese (26-19) in the finals. At 145, Tanner Viessman will also go for a state title as he is facing No. 2-seeded Sam Drietz (a junior with a 30-9 record) of Canby in the championship. At 152, Brett DeRoo earned an exciting upset semifinal win by a 7-2 decision against No. 2-seeded junior Destin Fier of Minneota. He will wrestle for a section title against BOLD's top-seeded and senior Austin Kiecker (42-4). At 172, Maximus Hanson will wrestle for a section title as he faces No. 2-seeded junior Aaron Jones (35-12) of K-M-S in the championship. At 215, Carson Gilbert will go for a section title against A-C-GC's No. 2-seeded senior Isaiah Renne in the championship.

Championship-round results...
Ryan Jensen won the 139-pound section championship to punch his way back to state.
Tanner Viessman lost a hearbreaker in a 3-1 decision in sudden victory overtime to fall into a true second-place match, where he faces Kiecker of BOLD for a trip to state at 145 pounds.
Brett DeRoo also lost a heartbreaker by an identical 3-1 sudden victory decision to fall into a true second match, where he faces Straumann of A-C-GC for state at 152 pounds.
Maximus Hanson won the 172-pound title with a 17-2 technical fall in his championship.
Hunter Laage won the third-place match at 189 pounds and now gets a true second match, where he'll face Peyton Hemmesch of Paynesville for a trip to state.
Carson Gilbert won the 215-pound title with a 3-1 decision in his championship.