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MONROE — Newton junior Destin Schroder got the Cardinal wrestling team off to a good start against Prairie City-Monroe on Tuesday night.
Schroder pulled off a big win over Class 2A No. 1 Lucas Roland in the first match of the final dual of the night, and it set the tone early for the Cardinals.
Newton was unable to hold its lead over the Mustangs though, and PCM rallied from a big hole to win 43-33.
The Mustangs trailed 27-6 and 33-15 but won the final five matches to complete the comeback.
“When we got to that stretch of weights, I knew we were going to come out on top,” PCM coach Jeff Nicholson said.
Nicholson has seen his team do that before. PCM is very strong from 145 to 182, and the Mustangs were able to take advantage of their strongest group of weights to complete a 2-0 night of wrestling.
Both Newton and PCM defeated Woodward-Granger 49-30 in the earlier matches.
Even though the Cardinals couldn’t hold their lead against PCM, Newton head coach Andy Swedenhjelm was proud of his team’s efforts throughout the night.
“I was happy with our fight. We got after it, we wrestled hard and we wrestled tough,” Swedenhjelm said.
“I am glad our kids stepped up for a fight and were ready to go.”
Schroder’s win over Roland was the biggest highlight of the night for the Cardinals. Schroder, who is ranked 10th in 3A, trailed Roland 4-2 after one period and 4-3 after two. He rallied with a takedown and got back points in the final 30 seconds of the match.
It was only the sixth loss of Roland’s career. Schroder has now won 13 straight matches and is 17-1 on the season.
“I thought back to last year when he beat the crap out of me, and because of that, I never stopped wanting to wrestle him,” Schroder said. “Something gave me a spark in that last period and I was able to get it done.
“This puts me on a whole new level of motivation.”
Swedenhjelm added, “That’s got to be a confidence booster. When you can beat a kid like that, it shows that you can beat anyone out there. I would put Lucas up there with anyone in 3A, too. He’s very good. Destin should have all the confidence in the world right now.”
The win gave Newton early momentum against the Mustangs. But PCM took some back when sophomore Cooper Sloan pinned Newton freshman Owen Sanger at 195.
Swedenhjelm moved his normal varsity 195-pounder, senior Jaise Gulling, and 220-pounder, junior Gage Linahon, each up a weight for strategic purposes. Both of those wrestlers earned pins at those weights, but Swedenhjelm expected to get a win at 195, too.
“Owen is 12-2 on JV. He’d be a varsity guy on a lot of programs,” Swedenhjelm said. “I kind of expected that to go the other way, but he put himself in a bad position. He’s young and still learning.”
Still, the Cardinals held a 27-6 lead after Gulling (13-4) pinned PCM junior Seth Greiner, Linahon pinned PCM junior Jace Smith, sophomore Anthony Bestell (13-4) took a forfeit at 106 and freshman Brennan Amos (12-6) pinned PCM freshman Trey Thomas at 113.
That’s when the Mustangs began their rally though.
Sophomore Landon Fenton (4-1) completed a 2-0 night when he pinned Newton freshman Damien Bayles at 120. Then Class 2A No. 8 Payton Drake (18-3) downed Newton senior Blake Cockerton 5-1 at 126.
At 132, Newton got back six points when PCM sophomore Brian Nicholson lost due to injury time. Brian Nicholson butted heads with Newton freshman Brady Romberg and was unable to continue.
Coach Nicholson was unsure of his son’s status after the meet.
“I thought we were in trouble again when Brian had to injury default his match,” Coach Nicholson said. “I thought we’d get six there so that’s a 12-point swing. So my own kid is hurt plus I thought we were in trouble on the scoreboard, too.”
PCM finished strong though.
Freshman Kaleb Ives turned the momentum back to the home team when he scored a first-period pin over Newton freshman Colin Sharp.
That got the Mustangs within 33-21, and PCM won the final four matches to close it out.
Sophomore and 2A No. 5 Colby Tool (23-1) pinned Newton junior Canaan Terpstra in the second period, senior Cody Wallace (20-5) scored a 10-2 major decision over Newton junior Zane Kohlmeyer and seniors Wes Cummings (20-2) and Jarron Trausch (22-3) each scored pins inside of 30 seconds to finish the night.
Second-ranked Cummings won his match by fall over Newton senior Reece Caves in 23 seconds, and second-ranked Trausch pinned Newton freshman Jaden Shannon in 24 seconds.
“With that group of guys, we feel like if we are down by a reasonable margin we will be able to pull ourselves out of it. That’s what we did,” Trausch said.
Trausch went 2-0 on the night. The two victories moved him into sole possession of second place on the school’s all-time win list. Trausch passed Dalton Kingery and now has 147 career wins. The school record of 156 was set two seasons ago by Xavier Miller.
“It’s cool to know and nice to have my name in the record books. It feels good, but it’s not something I pay much attention to because I haven’t reached my full potential yet,” Trausch said. “It’s cool that I have that many wins, but I haven’t done what I want to do as of now.”
PCM went 8-5 in contested matches against Newton. The Mustangs recorded six pins, while Newton had three pins and took one forfeit.
Newton was 8-5 in contested matches and had six pins against Woodward-Granger.
Linahon, who is ranked No. 8 in 3A at 220 pounds, faced 2A No. 1 Cody Fisher of Woodward-Granger in his first match. Fisher is a future Iowa State Cyclone who came into the night unbeaten at 16-0.
Fisher pinned Linahon (14-4) in the first period on Tuesday.
“I told Gage after that match that’s what a Division I, state champion looks like,” Swedenhjelm said. “If you want to get to that level, which he does, that’s what we have to look like. So we have to bulk up and get stronger. Once we get to that point, then he will be in a much better spot.”
The Hawks (5-7) held an 18-12 lead on Newton before the Cardinals (6-6) rolled off five in a row to take control. Gulling, Bestell, Bayles, Cockerton, Romberg and Kohlmeyer all had pins in that dual. Schroder took a forfeit at 182, Amos got a 5-0 decision and Terpstra (12-6) scored a 15-6 major decision.
Schroder, Gulling, Bestell, Amos and Romberg all went 2-0 on the night.
The Mustangs faced Woodward-Granger in the opening dual of the night. PCM built a 20-0 lead following major decision wins by Cummings and Trausch, a forfeit win by senior Devin Burke and a pin by Roland.
The Hawks won the next four matches by either pin or forfeit to take a lead, but PCM got falls by Fenton, Drake and Nicholson to regain control. Tool and Wallace finished the win with a technical fall and pin, respectively.
Cummings, Trausch, Fenton, Drake, Tool and Wallace were all 2-0 on the night. Fenton won both of his matches by fall.
The Mustangs have now won five straight duals and improved to 11-5 on the season. Coach Nicholson said Roland and Fenton probably wrestled earlier than they wanted them to, but the squad needed a boost of energy to get on track.
“This last week, things definitely changed for us. We got some of our guys back, and you could tell,” Coach Nicholson said. “Nothing was going right as a team before that. I feel a lot better right now than I did two weeks ago.”
Coach Nicholson said Fenton is battling through a foot injury and Roland is not 100 percent in shape yet after working his way back from a torn ACL he suffered in early spring.
“Landon is cleared, but his foot is hurting really bad. He can’t push very hard on it,” Coach Nicholson said. “But he knew we weren’t going to win the dual if he didn’t wrestle, and he got the points we needed.
“Lucas will be fine. That match doesn’t bother me as far as what we are looking to do at the end of the year. He’s only gotten two weeks of live wrestling in so far. He’s not in shape yet. We knew that, and he knew that, but we thought he would be able to overcome it.”
The good news for PCM is that the Mustangs have hit the holiday break and have a few weeks to nurse some injuries.
PCM doesn’t return to action until 9:15 a.m. on Jan. 5. That’s when they host the annual Mustang Invitational in Monroe.
Newton is back on the mats against Oskaloosa at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 3 in Oskaloosa.
PCM 43, Newton 33
182: Destin Schroder (NEWT) over Lucas Roland (PCM) (Dec 8-5) 195: Cooper Sloan (PCM) over Owen Sanger (NEWT) (Fall 1:35) 220: Jaise Gulling (NEWT) over Seth Greiner (PCM) (Fall 1:41) 285: Gage Linahon (NEWT) over Jace Smith (PCM) (Fall 1:32) 106: Anthony Bestell (NEWT) over (PCM) (For.) 113: Brennan Amos (NEWT) over Trey Thomas (PCM) (Fall 0:29) 120: Landon Fenton (PCM) over Damien Bayles (NEWT) (Fall 0:26) 126: Payton Drake (PCM) over Blake Cockerton (NEWT) (Dec 5-1) 132: Brady Romberg (NEWT) over Brian Nicholson (PCM) (Inj. [time]) 138: Kaleb Ives (PCM) over Joseph Colin Sharp (NEWT) (Fall 1:40) 145: Colby Tool (PCM) over Canaan Terpstra (NEWT) (Fall 3:06) 152: Cody Wallace (PCM) over Zane Kohlmeyer (NEWT) (MD 10-2) 160: Wes Cummings (PCM) over Reece Caves (NEWT) (Fall 0:23) 170: Jarron Trausch (PCM) over Jaden Shannon (NEWT) (Fall 0:24)
PCM 49, Woodward-Granger 30
160: Wes Cummings (PCM) over Gabe Yangst (WOGR) (MD 8-0) 170: Jarron Trausch (PCM) over Cale Pritchett (WOGR) (MD 13-3) 182: Devin Burke (PCM) over (WOGR) (For.) 195: Lucas Roland (PCM) over Nathaniel Rosen (WOGR) (Fall 1:39) 220: Cody Fisher (WOGR) over Seth Greiner (PCM) (Fall 0:25) 285: Tyler Lawrenson (WOGR) over Jace Smith (PCM) (Fall 3:33) 106: Joel Harney (WOGR) over (PCM) (For.) 113: Aidan Honkomp (WOGR) over Trey Thomas (PCM) (Fall 0:39) 120: Landon Fenton (PCM) over Dilynn Lewiston (WOGR) (Fall 2:49) 126: Payton Drake (PCM) over Matthew White (WOGR) (Fall 1:46) 132: Brian Nicholson (PCM) over Corbyn Atwell (WOGR) (Fall 0:45) 138: Colt Palmer (WOGR) over Kaleb Ives (PCM) (Fall 1:37) 145: Colby Tool (PCM) over Dustin Harney (WOGR) (TF 17-1 5:14) 152: Cody Wallace (PCM) over Devan Brown (WOGR) (Fall 1:36)
Newton 49, Woodward-Granger 30
170: Cale Pritchett (WOGR) over Jaden Shannon (NEWT) (Fall 2:28) 182: Destin Schroder (NEWT) over (WOGR) (For.) 195: Jaise Gulling (NEWT) over Nathaniel Rosen (WOGR) (Fall 1:47) 220: Cody Fisher (WOGR) over Gage Linahon (NEWT) (Fall 1:27) 285: Tyler Lawrenson (WOGR) over William Muckler (NEWT) (Fall 3:35) 106: Anthony Bestell (NEWT) over Joel Harney (WOGR) (Fall 1:24) 113: Brennan Amos (NEWT) over Aidan Honkomp (WOGR) (Dec 5-0) 120: Damien Bayles (NEWT) over Dilynn Lewiston (WOGR) (Fall 5:07) 126: Blake Cockerton (NEWT) over Matthew White (WOGR) (Fall 2:20) 132: Brady Romberg (NEWT) over Corbyn Atwell (WOGR) (Fall 4:45) 138: Colt Palmer (WOGR) over Joseph Colin Sharp (NEWT) (Fall 1:19) 145: Canaan Terpstra (NEWT) over Dustin Harney (WOGR) (MD 15-6) 152: Zane Kohlmeyer (NEWT) over Devan Brown (WOGR) (Fall 0:36) 160: Gabe Yangst (WOGR) over Reece Caves (NEWT) (Fall 2:57)