The Iola High wrestling team lost in two hard-fought matches against Osawatomie and West Elk Thursday evening. THE MUSTANGS didn’t fare as well against Osawatomie.
“We don’t have enough wrestlers,” head coach Brad Carson said. “The open weight divisions hurt us quite a bit.”
Based on the point margins, Carson said Iola most likely would’ve won a close match against West Elk.
Raymond Branstetter started the competition against Moriah Gillespie for West Elk. The match went all three rounds, and three injury timeouts were taken for blood on the mats — a product of Branstetter’s bloody nose. He won by a point advantage of 14-11.
Then came the open rounds, five total. West Elk gained 30 points off the open 106-, 120-, 126-, 132- and 138-pound divisions. Then Iola had a chance to make their statement.
Cody Connor came out with a pin in the first round over Garrett Kambky at 145 pounds.
Zeph Larney, returning from a knee injury, dropped West Elk’s Jonathan Andrews to the mats during the second round of their 152-pound match. Paxton Noll briefly broke the trend with a pin in the first round over Iola’s Travis Rieske at 160 pounds. Nick Jacobs doubled up West Elk’s wins with a pin over Andrew Garber in the first period of their 170-pound match.
Bryce Misenhelter had the Mustangs back on the scoreboard in his 182-pound match with an impressive pin on Yancy Wade after just 28 seconds on the mat. Stephen McDonald was equally impressive with a hard flip on Kaleb Lawrence in a first-round victory at 220 pounds, even after aggravating a shoulder injury five days earlier at a tournament in Frontenac.
West Elk left the heavyweight division open, but it wasn’t enough for a score bump. The Mustangs dropped the overall score, 42-36.
“Zeph did a good job coming back from an injury, he was very aggressive,” Carson said.
JV wrestler Brice Aiello started with a pin over the Trojans’ Kitina Diediker. Then the open rounds began to mount up on Iola, giving the opponents another 30-point advantage.
The Mustangs lost three hard matches in a row once the wrestling commenced. Andrew Cannon had the point advantage over Cody Connor, 12-2. The Trojans’ Andy Blanton had a second round pin over Larney, and Devon Dozier had a first round pin on Rieske.
Garber broke the trend with an impressive and hard-fought match against Cole Wallace. He had the advantage after three rounds, 11-4.
“I’m proud of Garber, he fought like heck,” Carson said. “I could tell he wanted it, he had something to prove.”
Matt Lofing won over Misenhelter, 7-4, and Tanner Foulk won over Chase Roettgen, 10-4, at 195 pounds. The final score of the match had the Trojans on top 49-3.
Carson said he was proud of the way his team fought.
“We had a refusal to lose, and to get pinned,” Carson said. “We had some tough matches against Osawatomie, we just didn’t rise up to the challenge.”
The Iola wrestlers continue their regular season action today with a tournament in Silver Lake.
Wrestlers give home fans quite a show
