Photos by Samantha Davis. Marshall's Braedyn VanMeveren begins to pin New Ulm's Emerson Johnson in the final round of the Big South Conference championship Saturday night. Both VanMeveren and Gavin Schaefer recorded pins in the final two rounds in the Tigers' 34-24 win. Below: The Marshall boys wrestling team stands together with their plaque after winning the Big South Conference Saturday night.

MARSHALL — In a match that once again came down to the final rounds, the No. 5 Marshall boys wrestling team came up big in the end to defeat No. 11 New Ulm 34-24 to win the Big South Conference in a Saturday night dual. Lincoln Christenson, Brayden Chandler, Gavin Schaefer and Braedyn VanMeveren all recorded pins.

“We knew it was going to be a hard fought [battle],” VanMeveren said. “I just really think we can be the best team out there.”

Marshall faced a 6-point deficit after the first six rounds, but the Tigers took the next three straight to catch up. Schaefer and VanMeveren got back-to-back pins over their opponents in the final two rounds of the match to secure the win, and the conference title.

“That was one of our goals this year. We have a good team, we have a team that has the potential to win the conference and the individual tournament, which we were able to do,” Marshall head coach Ethan Hoppe said. “We were able to cross off one of those goals tonight, which is fun for the kids.”

For a majority of the match, the two teams fought back-and-forth, trading takedowns and leads.

“It’s always close when you wrestle with New Ulm. They have a great program, and they are a team where we know that they’re going to get their wins. It’s a lot about being able to withstand the bonus points,” Hoppe said. “It was close, and it was, by all means, they all wrestled hard … It’s just one of those matches where you hang on and get your wins where you can.”

New Ulm built up a 15-9 advantage after taking the 133 and 139, but Tyson Louwagie began to turn things around for the Tigers.

Louwagie brought Marshall within two at a 15-13 deficit in the 145 round after earning a 10-2 major decision win over Braxton Kiecker through three periods.

Drew Chandler then put Marshall back in the lead by a point after taking down Candon Briggs in 152. Chandler followed that up with the second pin of the night over Dirk Haynes in the 160 round.

Chandler’s pin gave Marshall a 22-15 advantage with four rounds to go.

“We knew we had the potential and the possibility to get some big points there. It’s just the fact of like, the kids got to go out and be able to execute it, and they were able to tonight,” Hoppe said.

New Ulm’s Wyatt Pollard secured a technical fall at 2:33 over Josh Kraft in 172, and Lane Ruch won the 189 over Marshall’s Aidan Mattison in a 10-2 major decision.

New Ulm earned a 24-22 lead with the two consecutive wins.

With two rounds to go, Schaefer pinned the Eagles’ Jamisen Frederickson at 3:44 to give Marshall the lead back and set the stage up for VanMeveren.

VanMeveren, who also sealed Marshall’s dual win against Scott West in the final round Friday night, came up with a first period pin at 1:17 in the 285 over Emerson Johnson.

The Tigers gym erupted with excitement as VanMeveren fist bumped the air, crowning Marshall as conference champions.

“I just needed to win,” VanMeveren said about his mindset entering the mat. “A win is a win. I just had that same mentality, to go out there and win. Do whatever we need to for the team.”

Marshall’s Keynan Coequyt and New Ulm’s Regan Johnson started the match off in the 107 round. Johnson collected 3 points with a takedown in the first period, and grabbed another two in the second.

Coequyt responded with a 3-point takedown midway through the final period and put up a fight, but Johnson withheld him to take a 6-3 decision and put the Eagles up 3-0 early on.

The Tigers’ deficit didn’t last long, as Christenson brought the heat to put Marshall on the board with a 6-3 lead after pinning the Eagles’ Braydon Miller at 3:22 in the 114 round.

“It’s a fun group of kids to work with, it really is,” Hoppe said. “When they come together and they gel like this, it makes it even better, even more special regardless of the wins.”

Levi Kraft and New Ulm’s Alex Portner went back-and-forth in the 121. But, Portner came out victorious by the end of the third with a 13-4 major decision.

The win put the Eagles back up by a point, 7-6, showcasing the aggressive competition between the two teams after the first three rounds.

Marshall heads into the postseason 25-4 overall, and will next await seeding information for the Section 3AA wrestling tournament, to be announced in the coming days. The tournament will begin Feb. 13, and the Tigers will be the host site for the semifinals and championship match.

“One of the kids when we were doing our breakdown here, he said, ‘No one outworks us on starting Monday.’ They know this is a stepping stone, but we don’t want this to define our season,” Hoppe said. “It’s awesome and we can celebrate it, but we know that we want to continue to have more. We want to continue to do well, and that starts on Monday at practice.”

RESULTS

107: Regan Johnson (NUA) over Keynan Coequyt (MARS) (Dec 6-3) 114: Lincoln Christenson (MARS) over Braydon Miller (NUA) (Fall 3:22) 121: Alex Portner (NUA) over Levi Kraft (MARS) (MD 13-4) 127: Landon Marthaler (MARS) over Kane Johnson (NUA) (Dec 4-1) 133: Tegan Kral (NUA) over Emmett Frazee (MARS) (TF 21-4 4:07) 139: Elijah Rieser (NUA) over Dawson DeCamp (MARS) (Dec 5-2) 145: Tyson Louwagie (MARS) over Braxton Kiecker (NUA) (MD 10-2) 152: Drew Chandler (MARS) over Candon Briggs (NUA) (Dec 10-3) 160: Brayden Chandler (MARS) over Dirk Haynes (NUA) (Fall 2:33) 172: Wyatt Pollard (NUA) over Joshua Kraft (MARS) (TF 18-3 2:33) 189: Lane Ruch (NUA) over Aidan Mattison (MARS) (MD 10-2) 215: Gavin Schaefer (MARS) over Jamisen Frederickson (NUA) (Fall 3:44) 285: Braedyn VanMeveren (MARS) over Emerson Johnson (NUA) (Fall 1:17)