BISMARCK -- Oakes got the pin it needed, but that final win wasn't enough.
Cody Kasprick pinned Eric Wilcox in the second round to give the Tornadoes a 31-31 tie with Velva-Garrison-Max, but the Aggies edged Oakes on criteria.
The first criteria is most wins in the dual, and Velva-G-M won eight of the 14 weight classes.
"It's tough because it was so close and it was an emotional match," Oakes coach Cory Schall said. "We're all up because of that last match, and then we lose on criteria.
"Both teams wrestled well. We just came up short."
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Oakes led 25-18 with four matches to go, but V-G-M turned the tide.
Collin Kittelson scored a pin at 152, followed by a decision in favor of Jacob Duchsherer at 160 and a major decision victory by Ethan Mattingly at 171.
That gave the Aggies a 31-25 lead going into the final match, and the three consecutive wins gave them enough to clinch on criteria.
"We're a young team, and this was some good experience for us," Schall said. "I thought we were the underdog coming in, and I thought we wrestled well."
Even though the Tornadoes got the pin they needed in the final match, Schall said it was the first match that may have cost Oakes. At 215, V-G-M's Ryan Ekstrom oscored an 8-3 decision over Trey Peterson.
"They got us at 215, and that put us in a hole," Schall said. "I mean, we got a couple close ones, too, but 215 was one I thought we really could've had."
Lisbon won its first-round dual, and it didn't need any hand-wringing over criteria. The Broncos blasted Rolla-Rock Lake-St. John 47-27.
Lisbon's roll got started five matches in. Down 12-6, Nathan Tandeski and Michael Nord took the mat. RRLSJ's Tandeski is ranked second at 119, and Lisbon's Nord is ranked third.
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Nord notched a third-round pin, and the Broncos took off. Following Nord's pin, Reed Huether scored a technical fall at 125, and Ryan Koenig earned a pin at 130, and the rout was on.
"He had beaten (Nord) before, so I'm sure they were thinking they were going to get a win out of that one," Lisbon coach Joe Kern said. "And then we get a pin, and we started feeling it.
"We got going after that, and everybody was pumped."
Hillsboro-Central Valley came up short against Hettinger, falling to the Black Devils 36-34. Hettinger won five of the first six matches to open a 27-3 lead and never looked back.
In the other first-round dual, Watford City dumped Carrington 38-34.
In today's semifinals, Carrington will take on Velva-Garrison-Max, and Lisbon will face Hettinger. The Broncos have never won a dual title.
"We got the good start that we wanted," Kern said. "That's one down, and hopefully two more to go."
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