FARGO – South Border needed every point possible to beat Velva in the NDHSAA 2024-2025 State Wrestling Class B Boys Tournament in the Team Duals event on Saturday, February 22, in Fargo. South Border had won the team competition from the individual brackets on Thursday and Friday with a 149.5 team score while Williams County posted a 116 for second place and Velva hit 114 for third place.

In the Team Duals on Saturday, South Border squeaked by Velva 34-33 for their second title of the week at the Fargodome while Velva brought home a second place and third place finish. Kenmare-Bowbells finished in ninth place after the individual brackets, Bishop Ryan in 11th place and Stanley at 14th.

At the 107-pound weight class, Isaiah Hackman from Velva lost a 9-4 decision to Jace Boynton of Bowman County-Beach for the second place finish for the Aggies. At the 114 classification, Payton Seay from Bishop Ryan lost to Walker Miller from Ellendale-Edgeley-Kulm in the third place match for the Lions to gain fourth place points.

Pitch Hager from Velva beat Cole Mogren from Kenmare-Bowbells in the third place match at 121 while Cohen Bell from Stanley lost 10-1 to Charlie Irwin of New Salem-Almont at the 127 weight class for first and second place. In the same weight class, Nonner Melin from Kenmare-Bowbells beat Logan Potts from LaMoure-LM for seventh place.

At 139, Brextyn Yanish lost to Sawyer Owens from Hillsboro-Central Valley giving the Aggie the second place finish.

At 145, Carson Hildre also from Velva lost to Kash Brown from Williams County for another second place Aggie finish. William Cook from Kenmare-Bowbells too third place with a win over Griffin Greenley of Lisbon at 145 as well. Breyden Buee from Des Lacs-Burlington (DLB) posted a win over Kale Hase of Harvey-Wells County for seventh place in the same weight classification.

At 152, Bailey Zachmeier from Rugby beat Zeke Symington from Pembina County North for seventh place for the Panthers. At 160. Lincoln Spear from Kenmare-Bowbells took the state title with a win over Sawyer Noll of Boman County-Beach while Maddox Campbell from Velva finished in eighth place in the same weight class.

At 172, Bishop Ryan standout grappler, Drew Zwak, beat Cael Hebl of Lamoure-LM for third place. Madden Barstad of Velva took sixth place in the fifth place match with Emery Noll from Bowman County-Beach in the same weight class.

Trey Bohmbach from Stanley took home fourth with a loss to William Roundy of Killdeer in the third place match at 189 while Kenny Smith from DLB won fifth place over Brayden Chenault of Hillsboro-Central Valley in the same weight class. Noah Werner from Velva took eighth place at 189 as well.

Johnathan Smith from DLB beat CL Weinberger from New Salem-Almont at 215 for third place while Griffin Wilhelmi from Stanley took sixth place in the same weight class.

At 285, Cade Okeson from Bishop Ryan pinned Matthew Jacobs from Williams County for the state title while Levi Uran from Stanley placed eighth at the same weight class.

The 2025 NDHSCA Class B Boys Division Coach of the Year went to Jeff Boynton from Bowman County-Beach while the 2025 NDHSCA Class B Division Senior Athlete of the Year was awarded to Charlie Irwin from New Salem-Almont

Team Scores – B Boys

1. South Border, 149.5

2. Williams County, 116.0

3. Velva, 114.0

4. New Salem-Almont, 109.0

5. Oakes, 90.5

6. Lisbon, 87.0

7. Northern Lights, 83.0

8. Bowman County/Beach, 82

9. Kenmare-Bowbells, 71.5

10. Harvey-Wells County, 71

11. Bishop Ryan, 67.0

12. Carrington, 66.5

13. Napoleon G-S, 60.5

14. Stanley, 57.5

15. Killdeer, 57.0

15. Kindred, 57.0

17. Hillsboro-Central Valley, 55

18. LaMoure-Litchville/Marion, 54

19. Des Lacs-Burlington, 49

19. Hettinger/Scranton, 49.0

21. Ellendale-Edgeley-Kulm, 48.5

22. Linton-HMB, 27.0

23. Grafton, 23.0

24. Mondak Thunder, 16.5

25. Pembina County North, 12.5

26. Beulah-Hazen, 12.0

27. Rugby, 8.0

28. May-Port-CG, 3.0

29. Northwood, 2.5

30. Northern Cass, 1.0

31. Larimore, 0.0