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Waukee spoils Marshalltown’s home wrestling opener, 45-19

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Marshalltown senior Zach Bitker gets in deep on a double-leg takedown of Wawukee’s Andrew Hembry during their 145-pound match in Thursday’s CIML wrestling meet at MHS. Bitker won the match by major decision, 15-6.

The marquee match of the dual went to Marshalltown, but the dual itself was dominated by Waukee.

The Warriors (8-1), ranked sixth in Class 3A by The Predicament and ninth by IAwrestle.com, won eight of 13 matches and claimed a 45-19 victory in the Marshalltown wrestling team’s home opener on Thursday night at the Roundhouse.

Bobcat senior heavyweight Jordan Anderson improved to 13-0 for the season with a 7-4 decision over Waukee’s Conner Arndt in a battle between ranked wrestlers. Anderson is rated fourth by IAwrestle.com, though unrated by The Predicament, and Arndt is ranked fifth or fourth by respective sources.

Anderson scored the only three takedowns of the match and managed to overcome a penalty point for locked hands in the second period by recording the deciding takedown with 40 seconds left in the third.

It was Anderson’s fourth win in as many varsity matches with Arndt over the last three seasons, though each of the first three were pins in Anderson’s favor.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

This victory only made a dent in the sizable lead Waukee had established by the time the heavyweights met in the middle of the mat.

“I thought Anderson stayed pretty focused and kind of just waited it out,” said MHS head coach Mike Mann. “He’s got a way to counter a lot of positions and he won all the counter positions and took [Arndt] down.

“It was a good match, a good win for Jordan, it’ll build his confidence and it’s another CIML win. I believe he’s still undefeated so he’s on a roll. We will see what happens this Saturday and there will be some other sleeper teams there and it’ll be good to see if he’s going to stay focused and on a roll, but right now he’s wrestling real well.”

Marshalltown (4-4) goes to Waukee’s Al Garrison Duals on Saturday morning.

The Bobcats got five match victories in Thursday’s cross-conference loss, though only two came by bonus points. Marshalltown senior 145-pounder Zach Bitker gave his team a brief lead in the dual, 7-6, after following up Bennett Hageman’s decision at 138 with a major decision of his own.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

Hageman dominated Lucas Gardner, 6-0, for the Bobcats’ first win of the night, and Bitker beat Andrew Hembry 15-6 thanks to six takedowns, two near-fall points and enough fight to atone for a mistake early in the third period. Bitker led 12-4 going into the final period but lost control of Hembry during a takedown attempt and wound up on the mat. But Bitker escaped quickly and regained his lead with one last takedown to keep the major decision intact.

“There’s certain positions in wrestling, even when you’re dominating and you’re having a good match, that it only takes one moment to relax and if you’re in the wrong position the next thing you know you expose yourself and you get thrown to your back,” said Mann. “That happened to ao couple of our guys today, but then they fought out of it and came back through. Those are things you don’t like to see, you hope they learn from them here because someday somewhere there’s going to be a match you might not recover from that mistake. But today, guys that were in trouble and made a mistake that were dominating redeemed themselves after that and came back and scored again to prove it — that was a good thing to see.”

Javier Rodriguez was one of those wrestlers, like Bitker, who held a comfortable lead but had to escape serious danger. Rodriguez was leading Waukee’s Tanner Smith 9-1 to start the third period when Smith — who chose the top position — caught the Bobcat junior in a headlock and held him nearly flat along the edge of the circle. Smith scored three near-fall points to erase the eight-point deficit, but Rodriguez managed to roll through for a reversal and held on for an 11-7 decision.

Saul Pantoja closed the dual with Marshalltown’s only other win, pinning Waukee’s Caden Sposeto in 1:18.

Newly ranked Carson Williams put up a valiant effort against No. 2 Cael Thorson in their bout at 220, but Thorson topped Marshalltown’s seventh-rated grappler 7-2.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

“He gave that guy everything he had,” Mann said. “He gave it a shot but didn’t get him turned over.”

Waukee racked up three pins, two technical falls, two major decisions and one minor decision to go with the forfeit offered up by the Bobcats at 195.

“As a team we’re competing well,” Mann said. “Our guys that won tonight are some of the older guys that are more experienced.

“I’ve got a lot of notes here, but it still always comes down to the smaller details. … There’s certain things that guys need to be consistently doing. There’s a counter for almost any position you get in. There’s a few positions where it’s over, you’re stuck, but for the most part all the little details — everybody needs to keep working on.”

Waukee 45, Marshalltown 19

At Marshalltown

132–Carter Smith (W) pinned Hector De La Cruz 1:34; 138–Bennett Hageman (MHS) dec. Lucas Gardner 6-0; 145–Zach Bitker (MHS) major dec. Andrew Hembry 15-6; 152–Cody Anderson (W) tech. falled Jay Drummer 21-6; 160–Jermaine Sammler (W) major dec. Nick Rebik 12-4; 170–Tanner Spyksma (W) pinned Dylano Castellanos 2:29; 182–Griffin Gammell (W) major dec. Coltin Grimm 15-4; 195–Gavin Jones (W) won by forfeit; 220–Cael Thorson (W) dec. Carson Williams 7-2; 285–Jordan Anderson (MHS) dec. Conner Arndt 7-4; 106–Elijah Hofbauer (W) pinned Edgar Almanza 1:39; 113–Javier Rodriguez (MHS) dec. Tanner Smith 11-7; 120–Thurman Christensen (W) tech. falled Luke Hageman 17-1; 126–Saul Pantoja (MHS) pinned Caden Sposeto 1:18.

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