MW WRESTLING: Gainey grabs pin for Bluejays wrestling team in loss to Ridgewater

WILLMAR — Greg Gainey picked up a pin in 2 minutes, 22 seconds for the Minnesota West Bluejays in a 30-15 loss to the Ridgewater Warriors in men’s wrestling Wednesday.

The Bluejays’ John Bush won by forfeit in the 125-pound weight class giving the team its first points of the day against the Warriors. Both teams forfeited the 133 and 141-pound weight classes before Ridgewater’s Klinton Van Heuveln pinned Minnesota West’s Mike Tanner at 149-pounds.

“I felt like we wrestled pretty well today,” MW coach Bob Purcell said. “Tanner wrestled one of the top guys in the country and was able to do a good job.”

At the 157-pound class, Jadon Evans won by decision over the Warriors’ wrestler 8-6. Gainey then pinned his opponent in just over 2 minutes at 165-pounds.

From there on out, Ridgewater picked up wins in the last four weight classes to get the win.

Trevor Mahlum won by technical fall over the Bluejays’ Ben Goodwin by a score of 19-5, while Brady Thisus took down Jerrell Ferguson in 3 minutes, 30 second at 184-pounds.

“Ben just got back from two months off, so we will need to get him back in shape,” Purcell said. “Jerrell looked good on his feet during his match.”

The Warriors won both the 197-pound and heavy-weight classes by forfeit to round out the meet.

“We were really having some problems on the bottom tonight,” Purcell said. “We will need to work on that going forward. I’ve seen improvement from the guys, but we still need to work on getting better.”

The Bluejays wrestle next at the Worthington Open Saturday at Worthington.

Tags: minnesota west sports, sports, wrestling