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Win one for the seniors

Bobcat wrestling team beats Urbandale in final home meet

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • Marshalltown senior Chayton French, right, celebrates after pinning Urbandale’s Adam Fraher to close out the Bobcats’ win over the J-Hawks in their final home dual meet of the season.

It’s a sad fact in sports that there comes a time where an athlete competes for a final time in front of their home crowd.

That time was Tuesday night for the Marshalltown wrestling team, as it hosted Urbandale for its final home dual of the year, but the Bobcats sent their seniors out on a high note with a 47-33 win over the J-Hawks.

It was actually the seniors who shone brightest for MHS, as five of the seven walked away victorious, with Jordan Fox starting off the match with a pin of Cole Secaur in the second period and Chayton French ending emphatically with a pin of Adam Fraher, also in the second period.

Bobcats head coach Mike Mann said from the moment the varsity guys took the mat they did well to put on a show for the home crowd.

“It was good once we kind of got rolling there, Fox got us going and then Jordan [Anderson] and it ended with Chayton,” Mann said.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • Marshalltown sophomore Zach Bitker, top, works on flipping over Urbandale’s Justin Boyles for a pin during their match at 113 pounds on Tuesday in the Roundhouse.

All of the wins for Marshalltown came by either pin or forfeit, except for sophomore Zach Bitker’s win over Justin Boyles at 113 pounds. Bitker controlled Boyles the whole match, but he couldn’t quite keep the J-Hawk on his back, so with time running down in the third period Bitker made a smart decision. He was only one point away from a technical fall victory, so he let Boyles up and subsequently took him down, securing the five points for his team.

Mann said that was an intelligent decision by a guy who’s really just starting his high school career.

“You just have to work all angles, he had his head in the match and finished strong there and was still able to pull out the fall,” Mann said.

Urbandale won the next two matches, but senior Logan Baccam got the momentum back with a win over Darius Brown by third-round pin, which essentially sealed the victory for MHS. Mann said this was always going to be a tough test for his guys, but they were able to come out on top one last time at home.

“I thought they wrestled really well, we knew Urbandale would challenge us and it was good that these seniors could go out with a win,” Mann said.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

Mann said this has been one of the only years in his tenure as Marshalltown coach that he has been able to run a full lineup in every meet, and he credits that fact to the seniors who have been with him throughout their four years.

“It’s always nice to have a lot of seniors, and most of them have been four-year wrestlers,” Mann said. “That doesn’t happen every day, this is my sixth year and this is the first time I’ve ever had 15 wrestlers. Three came out for the first time, so we had 12 before the other three came out, one of those being a foreign exchange student. It was a nice way to have a lot of seniors this year, they have been good leaders for the rest of the team.”

Though they are done wrestling at the Roundhouse, the season is far from over for the Marshalltown wrestlers. Next up they travel north for a makeup dual with Fort Dodge, the No. 2 dual team in Class 3A, on Monday, then the Bobcats have a few days to prepare for the CIML Conference meet on January 26.

Marshalltown 47, Urbandale 33

At Marshalltown

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

195–Jordan Fox (MHS) pinned Cole Secaur 3:21; 220–Tanner Teem (U) pinned Decker Mann 1:59; 285–Jordan Anderson (MHS) pinned Drake Page :39; 106–Bennett Hageman (MHS) won by forfeit; 113–Zach Bitker (MHS) tech. falled Justin Boyles 18-3; 120–Colby Burright (U) pinned Jay Drummer 4:53; 126–Spencer Daves (U) dec. Saul Pantoja 8-2; 132–Cal Baethke (U) pinned Coltin Grimm :41; 138–Logan Baccam (MHS) pinned Darius Brown 4:21; 145–Dycen Blocker (MHS) won by forfeit; 152–Adam Banwell (U) pinned Jaimen Rivera 1:41; 160–Hayden Friedrichsen (U) pinned Wyatt Himes 5:30; 170–Brian Trowbridge (MHS) won by forfeit; 182–Chayton French (MHS) pinned Adam Fraher 2:43.

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