Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm’s Cole Ranweiler won his match at 132 pounds during the Eagles’ meet against St. Clair Thursday at New Ulm High School. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

NEW ULM — The New Ulm wrestling team was 2-0 on Thursday night in triangular action with a 44-16 victory over St. Clair in nonconference wrestling and a 39-34 victory over St. James in Big South wrestling action.

New Ulm is now 4-9 overall and 1-4 in the conference.

The Eagles had several wrestlers go 2-0 on the night and it paid off in a big way in the end.

“It was a good night for us,” New Ulm Coach John Rieser said. “St. Clair — we’ve seen them before — so it kind of went as expected. St. James, we knew it was going to be a barnburner, could go either way. There was a few matches went our way, few matches went their way, but we came out on top. So it was kind of a team win for us. We bounced some kids around and a real team win.”

Carter Brandes, Rebekah Hoppe, Cole Ranweiler, Sean Howk, Hunter Ranweiler and Colby Wenninger all went 2-0 on the night for New Ulm.

New Ulm started out taking on St. Clair and went up 12-0 early on after a forfeit victory for Nick Teneyck at 106 and a Brandes forfeit win at 113. Cole Ranweiler put New Ulm ahead 24-6 after a pin victory over Lucas Kruse at 1:28.

Howk (138) extended the New Ulm lead to 29-6 in a 138-pound match after a dominant 17-1 tech fall win over Gage Baker.

Hunter Ranweiler (145) then picked up a fall win at 1:23 over Chase Baker to give New Ulm a 35-6 lead. Wenninger (220) later ended the meeting between the two teams with a 5-2 decision win over David Loeffler.

In Big South action against the Saints, New Ulm started up 6-0 after Brandes picked up a 9-4 decision win over Troy Parulski at 106 and Jackson Bode (113) took a 5-1 decision win over Wyatt Westcott. The Eagles forfeited at 120 to Sam Kulseth, but a 5-2 decision win by Hoppe over Austin Knickrehm put the Eagles ahead 9-6.

After Cole Ranweiler got a fall win over Erik Morales-Banda at 1:22 and Howk got another pin victory on the night at 2:55, this time over Landon Hoppe, New Ulm led 21-6. Hunter Ranweiler continued the dominance for New Ulm with a fall win at 2:17 over Alex Hanson.

Sophomore Tallin Johnson pulled off an upset 9-1 major decision victory at 152 over No. 5-ranked Tanner Stark to cut the Saints deficit to 27-10. After a fall win by Tony Rodriguez at 160 and a pair of forfeit wins, St. James closed the gap to 33-28 and the next match at 220 became vital for the Eagles to win.

Wenninger took down Riley Sandmeyer early on and went up 5-0 after a near fall. After a reversal, Sandmeyer trailed 5-2. But Wenninger got Sandmeyer back on the mat and was able to keep him down for a big fall victory at 1:40 for a 39-28 Eagles’ lead.

The Eagles forfeited the next match at heavyweight, but it wasn’t enough for the Saints to escape with an overall win after Wenninger’s big second victory on the night.

“I felt good about it,” Wenninger said. “Came out, ready to work as hard as I could and it paid off. He [Sandmeyer] came out and he tried to headlock me — and to counter that — you grab around the waist. I got the takedown, he rolled me through. I got a little sloppy, but he got his arms caught. So I put him to his back and came back up, got the single and put him away.”

New Ulm wrestles Saturday in tournament action starting at noon at the Tracy Veterans Memorial Center.

New Ulm Area 39, Saint James Area 34

106: Carter Brandes (NUA) over Troy Parulski (SJA) (Dec 9-4); 113: Jackson Bode (NUA) over Wyatt Westcott (SJA) (Dec 5-1) 120: Sam Kulseth (SJA) over (NUA) (For.) 126: Rebekah Hoppe (NUA) over Austin Knickrehm (SJA) (Dec 5-2) 132: Cole Ranweiler (NUA) over Erik Morales Banda (SJA) (Fall 0:38) 138: Sean Howk (NUA) over Landon Hoppe (SJA) (Fall 2:55) 145: Hunter Ranweiler (NUA) over Alexander Hanson (SJA) (Fall 2:17) 152: Tallin Johnson (SJA) over Tanner Stark (NUA) (MD 9-1) 160: Anthony Rodriguez (SJA) over Wyatt Zuhlsdorf (NUA) (Fall 0:46) 170: Lane Miller (NUA) over (SJA) (For.) 182: Jacob Brey (SJA) over (NUA) (For.) 195: William Rehm (SJA) over (NUA) (For.) 220: Colby Wenniger (NUA) over Riley Sandmeyer (SJA) (Fall 1:40) 285: Noah Sandmeyer (SJA) over (NUA) (For.)

New Ulm Area 44, Saint Clair-Mankato Loyola 16

106: Nick Teneyck (NUA) over (SCML) (For.) 113: Carter Brandes (NUA) over (SCML) (For.) 120: Jack Klinder (SCML) over Jackson Bode (NUA) (Fall 3:01) 126: Rebekah Hoppe (NUA) over (SCML) (For.) 132: Cole Ranweiler (NUA) over Lucas Kruse (SCML) (Fall 1:28) 138: Sean Howk (NUA) over Gage Baker (SCML) (TF 17-2 5:00) 145: Hunter Ranweiler (NUA) over Chase Baker (SCML) (Fall 1:23) 152: Tanner Stark (NUA) over (SCML) (For.) 160: Double Forfeit 170: Aaron Drummer (SCML) over Lane Miller (NUA) (MD 10-2) 182: Dylan Thompson (SCML) over Jaden Drill (NUA) (Fall 3:30) 195: Double Forfeit 220: Colby Wenniger (NUA) over David Loeffler (SCML) (Dec 5-2) 285: Double Forfeit