BROOKINGS – The Bobcats won five of the eight matches contested in Thursday night’s Eastern South Dakota Conference dual against Watertown, but came up on the short end of the scoreboard, 45-22, in the team score.

Brookings gave away 36 points with forfeits at 106, 113, 145, 152, 170 and 195.

“They were missing a couple of kids, too,” BHS head coach Scott Miller said of the Arrows. “We might be able to get up to 10 wrestlers within the next couple of weeks when we get healthy, but Watertown has some good kids – the Althoff kid at 120 was a state placewinner and we had a great match at 132 that could have gone either way and we ended up with a major decision.

“The kids that we put on the mat are wrestling hard, and they’re wrestling well, right now.”

After Watertown’s Ty Althoff won a 5-0 decision over Connor Klinkhammer in the first match contested at 120, Jason Nixon and Ben Althoff had a battle royale at 126, with Nixon rallying in the third period before winning by fall with 6 seconds left.

Althoff led 4-3 after a period and then picked up a reversal late in the second to go up 6-3.

Nixon escaped, and then, took Althoff down to tie the score at 6-6, but Althoff went back up 7-6 when he escaped with 33 seconds left.

Nixon then scored a takedown and near fall points before a pin was called with 6.7 seconds on the clock for the Bobcats’ first win of the night.

At 132, Watertown’s Jaxson Waugh spotted Nolan Archer the first point of the match with an illegal slam on the takedown, which helped the Bobcat sophomore to a 5-3 lead after a period.

Archer earned six near fall points in the second period to extend his lead to 11-3 before scoring on a reversal and three back points in the third for a 16-3 advantage.

Waugh scored on a reversal inside of 35 seconds left, and then, Archer escaped for the final margin as Brookings pulled within 15-10 in the team race.

Mac Young stopped the Watertown slide with a hard-fought 5-3 decision over Jaxon Bowes at 138.

Young led 3-2 after a period, and then, extended his lead with a reversal in the second before Bowes scored the only point of the third with an escape.

After a pair of forfeits, Bobcat senior Logan Bowes made short work of Lexan Thorson at 160, winning by fall in 2:38. Bowes led 11-0 heading into the second period before adding three back points and then finishing off Arrow sophomore.

Watertown sandwiched a pair of forfeits around Bobcat senior Jacob Schoon’s 11-4 decision over Jayden Hartford at 182.

Schoon led 4-1 after a period as he scored a takedown in the first 15 seconds, and then, added two more points with another takedown after Hartford escaped.

Hartford tied it at 4-4 with an escape and takedown in the second before Schoon went back up 6-4 after a reversal midway through.

Hartford gave an escape point to Schoon before the third as both wrestlers started in the neutral position and Schoon added to his lead with a takedown and a pair of nearfall points for the 11-4 win.

Gus Miller added to the Bobcats’ team total with a 2-0 decision over Mac Freidel at 220 pounds as he escaped early in the second, and then, picked up a stalling point on Freidel in the third.

At 285, Watertown’s Lincoln Stahl scored a takedown midway through the first period before Tucker Christie escaped to cut the margin in half heading into the second.

Stahl extended his lead to 5-1 after the second, and then, Christie earned an escape early in the third to get within 5-2. But Stahl added another takedown and three nearfall points for a 10-2 edge before Christie escaped late in the 10-3 loss.

Brookings competes in the Madison Tournament on Saturday, with a start time of 10 a.m.

“There’s 21 teams down there, and there’s a lot of people that we’re not going to see ever again – some B schools and a team from Omaha – so it’s another great tournament where you get to go and just wrestle; you don’t have to worry about your region and things of that nature,” said Miller. “We’re going to see some kids that are a lot better than what we’ve seen already, so if we take a step forward with some of these kids, we’re going to do just as well down there.”

Watertown 45, Brookings 22

106 – Connor Hanson, W, won by forfeit. [W 6-0]

113 – Connor Schneider, W, won by forfeit. [W 12-0]

120 – Ty Althoff, W, dec. Connor Klinkhammer, 5-0. [W 15-0]

126 – Jason Nixon, B, wbf over Ben Althoff, 5:54. [W 15-6]

132 – Nolan Archer, B,  maj. dec. Jaxson Waugh, 17-5. [W 15-10]

138 – Mac Young, W, dec. Jaxon Bowes, 5-3. [W 18-10]

145 – Kobe Kettwig, W, won by forfeit. [W 24-10]

152 – Jake Werner, W, won by forfeit. [W 30-10]

160 – Logan Bowes, B, wbf over Lexan Thorson, 2:38. [W 30-16]

170 – Sam Stroup, W, won by forfeit. [W 36-16]

182 – Jacob Schoon, B, dec. Jayden Hartford, 11-4. [W 36-19]

195 – Connor Wirtjes, W, won by forfeit. [W 42-19]

220 – Gus Miller, B, dec. Mac Freidel, 2-0. [W 42-22]

285 – Lincoln Stahl, W, dec. Tucker Christie, 10-3. [W 45-22]