Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm Area's Kane Johnson pins New London-Spicer's Connor Hauptli-Pomplun at 133 during a nonconference prep wrestling dual on Saturday at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM – New Ulm Area stayed undefeated on the season with a 43-25 win over New London-Spicer in a nonconference prep wrestling dual on Saturday.

“We just can’t get complacent,” NUA’s Candon Briggs said. “It’s easy to look at our record and look at who we beat … but I feel like our team is pretty good at not looking at the rankings and caring much. Now that we know that we’re up there, we’ve just got to keep stacking practices and making each one better. Just not get complacent and just understand that what we’re trying to get, it’s only three more weeks. Work hard for three weeks, and we won’t regret it.”

NUA’s Chase Wilson opened up the dual with a pin in 3:19 over Jesus Riza at 107, and Regan Johnson accepted a forfeit at 114 for a 12-0 NUA lead. Braxton Miller took a 10-1 major decision loss to Kellon Hanson at 121 to put the score at 12-4, but Alex Portner came back with a takedown, an escape, another takedown and a 2-point near fall for a 9-0 major decision over Andrew Sandau for NUA.

Kane Johnson had another pin for NUA in just 31 seconds over Connor Hauptli-Pomplun at 133, and at 139, Elijah Rieser put together five takedowns of Josh Lucas before winning by fall at 3:35 for a 28-4 NUA lead.

Jeremiah Nelson won a 9-4 decision over Tegan Kral at 145 and Holton Hanson won by fall over Spencer Drill at 152 in 1:12 to cut the lead to 28-13, but Braxton Kiecker came back with a takedown and a quick pin over Rylan Plumley Champagne at 160 for a 34-13 lead.. NUA’s Briggs matched up against Caleb Nelson at 172, with neither scoring a point in the first period. Caleb Nelson earned a reversal to start off the second period, but Briggs scored a reversal in return to tie the match at 2-2 before the end of the second period. After a struggle, Briggs again scored a reversal late in the third period and tacked on a 2-point near fall for a 6-2 decision.

“I had a couple coaches from other towns talking about what he was good at,” Briggs said. “I knew he was going to go leg in and pop. He did that, and we’ve been working on that a lot in the practice room, and that’s how I scored my points. We both traded reversals in the second, and in the third it was just, I had to keep going. He had my head and shoulder locked up, and I just had to keep going.

NUA’s Dirk Haynes scored three takedowns on Luke Hannig before pinning him in 1:54 at 189 before LNS earned two pins from Matthew Gehrke and Garret Leenstra over Tilken Fruhwirth and Emerson Johnson at 215 and 285, respectively, to put the final score at 43-25.