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Mustangs top MHS at Montezuma Invitational

MONTEZUMA — The Marshalltown wrestling team crowned more champions than and won more head-to-head matches against East Marshall/GMG, but the Mustangs came out on top of the heap Saturday at the Montezuma Invitational.

Carson Burchland, Cole Nauman and Noah Bandstra emerged as bracket champions for East Marshall/GMG, which outlasted Marshalltown to win the tournament with 210 team points. The Bobcats crowned Bennett Hageman, Zach Bitker, Julian Gomez and Jordan Anderson atop their weight classes, but Marshalltown came up short with 200.5 points in the 10-team field.

East Marshall/GMG sent five wrestlers to their respective finals, getting its first win with Burchland at 138 pounds. Burchland went 2-0 on the day with a pair of pins, decking Pella’s Ryan Von Donselaar in 3 minutes, 23 seconds, in the championship match.

Nauman had two pins on his way to the 160 finals before scoring a 14-4 major decision over Jaedon Probasco from Montezuma. Bandstra, who is ranked seventh at 182 pounds by The Predicament, pinned his way through the 195 bracket with three first-period falls. He capped his day of just 3:27 on the mat by flattening Reid Walters of Chariton in 1:48.

Dom Ridout (106) and Dane Thompson (126) earned runner-up finishes for the Mustangs, while Kordell Negrete (120), Garrett Kerber (145) and Caden Steward (170) won their final matches for third place.

Marshalltown got its first of four champions with Hageman at 120. The Bobcat junior pinned Negrete and then Pella’s Tyson Mick for the bracket title. Bitker — ranked seventh in 3A — took the title at 126 with a semifinal pin of Chariton’s Trae Hall before beating EM/GMG’s Thompson 8-4 in the finals.

The Bobcats’ heavyweights — Gomez and Anderson — capped the day in a big way. Gomez won twice by fall and then beat Pella’s Braydon Peterson in a 12-2 major decision for the 220 crown, while eighth-ranked Anderson pinned Kyler Medhurst (Waukee JV) and Tyler Vandermolen (Pella) for the 285 title.

Saul Pantoja (132) and Austin Close (182) came in with runner-up finishes for MHS. Pleasantville’s Nolan Roff outscored Pantoja in the finals, 13-12, while Close was pinned by Luke Groves of North Mahaska in their title bout.

Javier Rodriguez (106) and Victor Zavala-Livengood (152) closed the day with victories to collect third place points, but a disqualification cost the Bobcats more points and a potential team title. MHS freshman Gannon Williams was disqualified in the third-place match against EM/GMG’s Steward and all of his team points for the day were tossed out.

Both Gannon and Carson Williams finished in fourth place for the Bobcats, who totaled 13 placewinners.

Pella placed third in the final team standings with 174.5, followed by Pleasantville (134.5) and the Waukee junior varsity (125).

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