Last Friday, the Beaver wrestling team hosted their last home dual of the 2019-2020 regular season against the 19th ranked Luther Norse of Dubuque, IA. This was also a special event for the students of Buena Vista as the Student Section for the night was moved mat side so they could get even better seats than usual. 

The football team even had fun with it and dressed up in different themes including muscle beach, Hawaiian vacation, jerseys, and flannel. Even many of these players, who had never experienced wrestling before had fun at the duel.

“It was fun to watch while also learning what everything is and how points are scored,” said Lavell Harris, a freshman football player at BVU from Murrieta, California.  

Entering the dual, the Luther Norse stood at 11-6 in regular season duals 5-3 in the American Rivers Conference (ARC). Meanwhile, the Buena Vista Beavers were 3-8 in the regular season and 0-8 in the ARC. The Norse were coming off a 21-16 dual win versus Central College in Dubuque while the Beavers wanted to get the sour taste out of their mouths after their loss to Simpson College, 24-16, in their annual Ballroom Brawl. There would be no individually ranked wrestlers in the dual.  

The night began with the 125-pound matchup between Byron Fleming, the sophomore of BV, versus Sam Camacho of Luther. Fleming lead the way the previous week with a 4-3 decision to start the Simpson duel. Fleming, with a record of 19-14, takes a tough first loss 8-4 minor decision giving Luther the lead of 3-0. The next two matches would not go the way the Beavers wanted either as Brandon Foster would lose by major decision, 10-0, to the Norse’s Tyler DiFiore at 133 pounds and at 141 pounds, Marcus Mandler of Luther would win by fall over Jonathon Taylor of BV in 1:36. 

As Buena Vista would now trail Luther 13-0, BV would get their first points of the night in the form of a forfeit. BV senior, Collin Stilson, holder of the most match victories on the team, would end up taking a forfeit at 149 pounds cutting Luther’s lead to 13-6. Stilson was another wrestler who, the week before, had picked up a win in the Ballroom Brawl with a fall over Robby Silva of Simpson in 4:59.  

Teyler Bruch would follow up for another win at the 157-pound weight class over Luther’s Tyler Menegay. Bruch was able to take control of the push and pull match with a minor decision 9-5 cutting into the Norse lead once again, 13-9. Luther would come right back as Tanner Weaver would defeat Parker Pruel of BV 8-0 in a major decision.

Floyd Miller would not have any of that as the freshman would come out strong and pick up his 15th win of his first collegiate career with a 5-2 minor decision over Isaiah Mitchell. This would bring the dual team score to 17-12, Luther on top. “I felt I wrestled hard and was able to control the match,” said Miller, “We’ve been training hard in order to peak at the right time in the season.” 

The rest of the night would be a struggle for the Beavers as they would lose the next three matches, scoring a total of three points. At 184 pounds, BVU’s Diego Escarcega would take a technical fall to Luther’s Ira Kuehn, 15-0, in 5:08. Donovan Corn would follow that up with another win for Luther defeating Don Phillips II, 7-0. Ending the night, at 285 pounds, the Norse would get another technical fall with Keenan Feldpausch over Nick Mitchell, 19-3 in 6:38.  

Luther would take the dual 30-12 over Buena Vista winning seven of the ten matches on the night. This brings the Norse’s record to 11-6 and 5-3 in the ARC. As for BVU, winning three matches of the dual, holds a current record of 3-9 and 0-8 in the ARC.

The next task on the schedule for the Beavers is the NCAA Lower Midwest Regional Tournament in Dubuque, IA on Saturday, February 29th through Sunday, March 1st.