by Caleb Peter
On the night of Jan 26., after a long ride to BGM at Brooklyn, the Mustang grapplers faced off against three 1A schools, BGM, Twin Cedars, and Colfax-Mingo. The night ended with three wins, two of them by perfect scores of 84-0, due to a number of forfeits. Only the Tigerhawks of C-M provided competition for the Mustangs, 51-28. With the three wins, the Mustangs set a new school record of 21 wins in a season!
“I was very pleased with our performance at BGM. Anytime you can shutout two teams in one night, it is a good outing. The team responded well and bested a good Colfax-Mingo team to cap off the night,” said Head Coach Cory Waddell.
The first team the Mustangs faced was Twin Cedars. Twin Cedars’ team consisted of only four wrestlers, and PCM had a full line up. The four PCM wrestlers who had matches were seniors Clayton Welch, 220, and Jakeb Fenton, 120, junior Brady Fagen, 152, and sophomore Lucas Roland, 160. All four showed their dominance over their opponents as they each pinned their opponents in the first period. The Mustangs won 84-0, a perfect score.
The next team the Mustangs faced was BGM. Every single match was won either by pin or forfeit. The wrestlers who pinned their opponents were freshman Payton Drake, 106, sophomore Clay Van Wyk, 113, sophomore Cody Wallace, 132, junior Chase Shirk, 138, senior Xavier Miller, 145, Fagen, 152, and sophomore Jarron Trausch, 170. It was another perfect score for the Mustangs, 84-0.
Finally, the last team standing against the Mustangs were the C-M Tigerhawks. The Tigerhawks had almost a full line-up, with forfeits only at 170 and 182. The first matches started at the heavy weights. Welch and freshman Jace Smith both lost their matches by pins. Lightweight Drake pinned his opponent in the second period. Sophomore Clay Van Wyk, at 113, lost his match 9-0 and junior Caleb Peter, at 120, was pinned in the first period.
The score was now 22-6, with C-M in the lead, but the Mustangs grabbed the lead with four pins in a row. Fenton, Wallace, Shirk, and Miller all pinned their opponents. Fagen was pinned in the second period, and Roland pinned his opponent. Trausch and sophomore Dalton Schlangen received forfeits at 170 and 182. Senior Leevi Telfer ended the meet winning by decision 4-1.
The next time the team wrestles is the sectional tournament this Saturday at Bondurant-Farrar. “Our push for the State Tournament begins this Saturday,” said Waddell. “This team will be prepared to give our best effort and qualify as many individuals as we can. It is our goal to finish in the top two of the team race and qualify for regional duals.”
