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Trojans’ heavy hitters deliver at Mustang Duals

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE • South Tama County junior Colton Vest tries to flip Sigourney-Keota’s Zech Boender to his back during the first period of their 138-pound match at Saturday’s East Marshall/GMG Mustang Duals in Le Grand. Vest, who earlier recorded his 100th career win, pinned Boender in 1 minute, 23 seconds, to help the Trojans rally past the Savage Cobras in their last dual of the day.

LE GRAND — South Tama County wrestling coach Nathan Van Dyke didn’t sweat the 27-point deficit for a couple reasons.

It’s still January. The season doesn’t hang in the balance yet.

It’s the 126-pound match. Here comes the Trojans’ heavy hitters.

A long Saturday ended with an ideal draw that allowed the Trojans to send their own “Murderers’ Row” to bat with the final dual on the line, and South Tama’s fearsome fivesome knocked it out of the park. STC got the 27 points it needed to tie Class 1A No. 9 Sigourney-Keota at 39-all before the eighth tiebreaker criteria determined the Trojans to be winners.

It was an exclamation point on a productive day for South Tama, which improved to 15-8 with a 4-1 showing good for second place at East Marshall/GMG’s Mustang Duals. The Trojans’ lone loss came against 2A No. 5 Washington, 39-33, in spite of STC’s three open weights on the light side of the lineup.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE • South Tama County junior Pedro Rodriguez tries to turn Sigourney-Keota’s Trent Hendricks during their 145-pound match in the final dual of Saturday’s East Marshall/GMG Mustang Duals in Le Grand. Rodriguez pinned Hendricks in 1 minute, 20 seconds, to help the Trojans rally past the Savage Cobras.

“It’s challenging,” said Van Dyke. “The thing is we’ve got good numbers on our team. We’ve got 26 wrestlers. It just so happens that nobody falls at the lighter three weights, so we don’t worry about it anymore, it’s just part of the deal. We’re used to it and we’ve just got to dig ourselves out of that hole every time.”

In the final dual of the day, that 18-point handout had the dual-ranked Savage Cobras sitting pretty. Sigourney-Keota led 39-12 with five bouts remaining, but the lead was anything but safe.

Unlike the 1927 New York Yankees’ batting order that led off with a group monikered as “Murderers’ Row,” South Tama’s lineup conveniently ended with its best five wrestlers. Starting at 126 pounds with fifth-ranked Brady Fritz, the Trojan comeback began with an 18-second pin.

Eighth-ranked Tanner Probasco followed with a 9-4 decision at 132 pounds, putting the pressure on the remaining STC trio to run the table with pins.

They obliged.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE • East Marshall/GMG senior Nick Meling, top, controls Dyersville Beckman’s Grant Hoeger during their 120-pound match Saturday at the Mustang Duals in Le Grand. Meling won this match by major decision, 11-1, and was 5-0 on the day.

Fourth-ranked Colton Vest needed 1:23 to record his third pin of the day, Pedro Rodriguez flattened his foe in 1:20, and second-ranked Isaac Judge used just 40 seconds to score his fourth and final pin of the day at 152 pounds.

The results was a 39-all tie, but the eighth tiebreaker criteria — the team having the greater number of first points (total match points) — awarded the win to South Tama.

Had it all the way?

“It’s a January dual tournament so it doesn’t mean as much as the sectional or anything like that, so we don’t put too much pressure on those types of wins,” said Van Dyke. “But we knew we had a shot and they knew we had a shot, so that’s what makes it fun.

“I scoreboard watch a little bit. I keep track on my notebook too so I kind of have an idea what needs to happen if it gets close near the end. I don’t like to [pressure wrestlers for pins]. The first thing is they’ve got to go out and win the match and then those good things will happen. That puts a lot of added pressure on a kid if you say you’ve got to go out and get a pin, so I try to take the pressure off.”

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

That doesn’t stop they don’t step on the mat in search of six points, though.

“Oh yeah, they’re looking to score points and put people away when they get them on their back,” said Van Dyke.”

The quartet of Fritz, Probasco, Vest, Rodriguez and Judge — all juniors, by the way — went a combined 25-0 on Saturday, recording 14 pins, one major decision and seven minor decisions. They received just three forfeits and scored a grand total of 127 of the team’s 209 points.

“I’d rather have those guys at the end than anybody else,” Van Dyke smiled. “I had those [forfeits] in ahead of time so I have an idea when we’re working our way through the dual. Wherever they fall, I don’t really think about that too much I guess. I just look at the matchups beforehand and let it play out.”

The finale was one of two dual wins that required tiebreaker criteria. South Tama started pool play with a 55-24 win against Union Community, and then got the bonus point with eight match wins to Dyersville Beckman Catholic’s six for a 37-36 victory.

The Trojans then took unbeaten Washington to task, falling 39-33 to settle for second place in Pool B. STC then stomped Independence 46-21 before rallying past Sigourney-Keota in the final contest, 40-39.

“We took a lot of positives out of [the day],” said Van Dyke. “We win two duals on criteria — those are fun, exciting for the kids, keeps everybody into it, especially this time of the season where you know you’re getting into a grind and the season’s tough and it’s wearing on you mentally.

“I think Washington’s an undefeated dual team and we gave them a run. You’d like to get that win, but at the same time it’s encouraging that we’re battling with some of the top teams in the state [in spite of] the forfeits.”

Vest joined the likes of Fritz, Judge and Probasco by winning his 100th career match. His 44-second pin of Washington’s Cade Pohren accounted for the milestone victory at the midpoint of his 5-0 day. He had three pins, a major decision and a decision.

Judge racked up four pins and a decision, while both Fritz and Probasco had three pins, a decision and a forfeit. Rodriguez had three decisions, a forfeit and that final pin that proved so pivotal in that win against Sigourney-Keota.

Not to be outdone, STC’s Dalton Rosenberg was 5-0 at 182 pounds on the day. He had one pin, a major decision and two minor decisions to go with a forfeit. Josh Theisson (160) and Kyle Kucera (285) both recorded three wins apiece, while Tanner Walz (170), Cael Kellogg (195) and Mario Moncada (220) each tallied two wins.

South Tama dives back in with two dates next week, going to Grinnell on Thursday before traveling to Williamsburg next Saturday for the WaMaC Conference tournament.

“We’re still honing in on it,” said Van Dyke. “The goal is to peak at the right time of the season, but we’re still taking it one step at a time. There’s still things we need to work on so we’ll continue to tweak things and get better where we need to and try to be where we need to be at the end of the season.”

Host Mustangs finish last with 1-4 day

Tournament host East Marshall/GMG came away from the day with a 1-4 showing, led by eighth-ranked Nick Meling’s 5-0 performance.

Meling piled up two pins, a technical fall and two major decisions to lead the Mustangs, who went 1-2 in Pool A competition before going 0-2 in cross-bracketed action.

East Marshall/GMG fell to Independence (63-18), beat Sigourney-Keota (43-36) and lost to Benton Community (45-23) in pool play prior to succumbing to Dyersville Beckman Catholic (42-28) and Union Community (42-31).

“If you classify it how everybody else looks at it, we won one dual, lost four,” said Mustang head coach Todd Hinegardner. “But me sitting in the corner, we came a long way today. We did some things we’ve been working on, they’re gaining. We had some kids get some wins maybe they shouldn’t have, and it’s just nice to see the kids doing things that we work on in the room for once.

“We’re still [working on] basics. I’m a true believer in basics win matches, and we’ve still got to work on basics. Once we get the basics down, the core things down, they can develop some things off it that they want to work into their system, so it’s one step at a time.”

Meling, ranked eighth at 126, went unbeaten at 120 on Saturday. He was one of five Mustangs to finish above .500 for the day, joined by four matmen who went 3-2. Carson Burchland (113), Lansin Lacina (152), Noah Bandstra (160) and Cole Nauman (170) helped to highlight for EM/GMG. Bandstra recorded two pins while Lacina’s three wins came without the benefit of a forfeit.

Hunter Faircloth (126) and Dawson Riemenschneider (138) each scored both of their wins by fall, as well, for the Mustangs (9-20).

“We hand-fought real well, we came up from the bottom a little bit better, a little more cross-face, a little more stuffing heads and sprawling — things we’ve been working on and it’s always good to see that [show up in a meet],” said Hinegardner. “No doubt once we start getting this stuff down we’re going to start throwing other things at them. We’re just building confidence right now, confidence that they can hang with everybody. We might not win every match, but we’re going to wrestle for six minutes.”

The Mustangs join Dike-New Hartford at Iowa Falls-Alden on Tuesday for a double dual, and the North Iowa Cedar League Tournament is next Saturday in Parkersburg.

East Marshall/GMG Mustang Duals

Saturday

At Le Grand

Team Standings — 1. Washington 5-0, 2. South Tama County 4-1, 3. Independence 3-2, 4. Sigourney-Keota 1-4, 5. Dyersville Beckman Catholic 3-2, 6. Union Community 2-3, 7. Benton Community 1-4, 8. East Marshall/GMG 1-4.

POOL A

Sigourney-Keota 39, Benton 27

Independence 63, East Marshall/GMG 18

East Marshall/GMG 43, Sigourney-Keota 36

Independence 48, Benton 24

Independence 43, Sigourney-Keota 42

Benton 45, East Marshall/GMG 23

POOL B

Washington 49, Beckman 30

South Tama County 55, Union 24

Washington 57, Union 12

South Tama County 37, Beckman 36

Washington 39, South Tama County 33

Beckman, 49 Union 30

Championship Bracket

South Tama County 46, Independence 21

Washington 53, Sigourney-Keota 16

Washington 58, Independence 12

South Tama County 40, Sigourney-Keota 39

Consolation Bracket

Beckman 42, East Marshall/GMG 28

Union 39, Benton 36

Beckman 45, Benton 3

Union 42, East Marshall/GMG 31

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