STORM LAKE, Iowa (Jan.  15, 2026) - The Buena Vista men's wrestling team hosted Nebraska Wesleyan on Thursday night in the team's annual Ballroom Brawl, but the Prairie Wolves spoiled BVU's home opener by edging the Beavers 28-19 inside of the Dows Ballroom.

The two teams traded victories in each of the first four duals of the evening. NWU came out with a major decision to begin the night before the Beavers got a 17-0 technical fall at 133 pounds by freshman Jack Decker to take a 5-4 lead. Decker got a takedown and a pair of four-point nearfalls in the first period to take control. The two wrestlers began on their feet to begin the second period where Decker got a takedown and a three-point nearfall less than 30 seconds into the period to end the match early.

After the Prairie Wolves regained the lead with a fall at 141 pounds, BVU came right back with one of its own by Ben Bouaphakeo at 149. The freshman went up 7-0 and later led 10-1 in the first before NWU's Nathan Rowden got an escape and a takedown of his own to cut the deficit down to 10-4. Bouaphakeo got an escape to go back up 11-4 going to the second period, and after an escape by Rowden, Bouaphakeo came right back with a takedown that went right into putting Rowden on his back for the fall just over 30 seconds in.

Junior LaTravion Agu gave the crowd many exciting moments in his match at 157 pounds and came away with a stunning roll through to avoid being taken down late in the match and avoided giving up bonus points during a hard fought 11-4 loss.

At the midway point of the dual, the Beavers took a moment to introduce and salute its wrestling alumni that were back on campus and in attendance, spanning six different decades.

Following the recognition, the Prairie Wolves would push their lead up to 16-10 after a narrow decision at 165 where Trev Halsey got a takedown in the closing seconds to rally and defeat senior Hayden Stout 5-4. BVU was deducted a team point following the loss for unsportsmanlike conduct.

The Prairie Wolves got a fall at 174 to extend the margin to 22-10 before BVU rallied late to send the dual down to the final match. Senior Trevor Kruse led 3-0 after one period of his match at 184 pounds before dominating on top to pick up six nearfall points before ending the match with his fourth fall of the year and moving his overall record to 10-3.

BVU then pulled within 22-19 at 197 pounds with senior Luis Salazar coming through with a late reversal on the edge of the mat as his opponent was just seconds away from securing riding time to escape with a thrilling 7-6 victory.

It came down to 285 pounds, and  after a scoreless first period, BVU junior Colton O'Hern got an early second period escape to go in front 1-0. Moments later, he nearly had a bear hug locked up on his opponent but would lose his momentum on the way down and was taken down and lost by fall in 3:34.

The Prairie Wolves improved to 3-3 (1-3 A-R-C) while Buena Vista dips to 3-7 overall (0-3 A-R-C).

Next up for the Beavers will be a non-conference home dual next Thursday, Jan. 22, inside of Siebens Fieldhouse against Saint John's University (MN) starting at 7 p.m.