Strong finish propels Newton boys past Dutch

Newton and Pella exchanged blows for the first seven weights of their Little Hawkeye Conference wrestling dual on Thursday night.

The Cardinals trailed 12-0, led 18-12 and then fell behind 24-18. However, a stretch of three straight pins at the heaviest weights in the lineup led a late charge for Newton and the hosts went on to down the Dutch 52-24 in front of its home crowd.

“They don’t call me the team hype man for no reason,” Newton senior Jose Benitez said. “I really hate when my teammates are down so anything I can do to get things back up and exciting I want to do. I love my teammates and my coaches. I was very excited after that match. That win felt good.”

Benitez scored Newton’s third straight pin at 285 pounds to help the Cardinals go from trailing 24-18 to leading 36-24. Trevor Manka’s pin at 190 tied the dual 24-all and Nick Milburn gave Newton a six-point lead with four weights remaining with his pin at 215.

Pella never found another win the rest of the way and the Cardinals scored their first conference victory of the season.

Both LHC programs faced Lynnville-Sully later in the night. The Cardinals ended the triangular with a 60-9 victory and Pella defeated the Hawks 60-18.

“It’s fun to beat Pella, for sure,” Newton head wrestling coach RJ Brown said. “But we don’t care about results. We are a different team than we were last week, and that’s a credit to our guys having the right mindset, getting better and learning from failure.”

The Cardinals (2-1, 1-1 in the LHC) were 7-4 in contested matches against the Dutch. They also took the only two forfeits in the dual at 113 and 120. And 106 was a double forfeit.

Pella (4-9, 0-1) opened the dual with back-to-back pins at 132 and 138, but Newton got pins from Aiden Robson (144), Keary Sanger (150) and Lane Rozendaal (157) to put the hosts in front for the first time.

Two more pins from Pella at 165 and 175 pushed the Dutch back in front by six, but Newton got points in six of the final seven weights to win the dual with ease.

“It was like a pin fest. But we got the first takedown in a lot of those matches,” Brown said. “And when we mess up after that and get pinned, it can be hard to come back from those. But our guys responded well, got after it and they knew we needed those points.”

After the trio of pins from Manka, Milburn and Benitez, the two teams double forfeited at 106 and then Kent Montgomery (7-0) bumped up a weight to take a forfeit at 113. Thomas Richardson also earned a forfeit at 120.

Kaiden Rogers ended the dual with with a 13-2 major decision victory at 126.

“Their 106 pounder was sick and our 113 didn’t make weight,” Brown said. “So (the Pella coaches) wanted to get the forfeit somewhere. By rule, he had to show first at 106 so that allowed us to bump (Montgomery) up to 113 and not give them forfeit points. We just didn’t want to give him a free forfeit because our kid didn’t make weight.”

Benitez (4-4) was the only Cardinal to earn two contested wins in the triangular. He faced Lynnville-Sully’s Ben Squires in the final dual of the right and scored a 10-3 victory.

Newton was 3-2 in contested wins against Lynnville-Sully (0-5) and the Cardinals took eight forfeits.

“L-S has some good dudes,” Brown said. “They don’t have a lot of guys, but they have some tough kids.

“(Benitez) wrestled a big kid who barely made weight. He was moving bigger kids around tonight, and he’s still pretty raw having not wrestled in two years.”

Squires (5-3) and Pella heavyweight Benjamin Dothager were much heavier than Benitez. But the Cardinal senior used his quickness to his advantage.

“It’s rough, but I try to use that to my advantage because I’m quicker than most heavyweights,” Benitez said. “I believe with my explosiveness a lot of heavyweights can’t keep up with me.

“A lot of reads when into these two matches and when the perfect time to shoot was. It was more of a mental match than a physical match for both of them.”

L-S freshman Jett Kramer is not ranked in Class 1A to start the season, but that may change soon.

He gave Montgomery, who is ranked No. 3 in 3A at 106, all he could handle in their matchup at 113.

Kramer scored the first takedown, but Montgomery rallied for a 7-3 win to stay unbeaten on the season.

“I was proud of (Montgomery). That kid is a stud,” Brown said. “He’s better than I even thought he was, but (Montgomery) needed that. He hasn’t been pushed yet this year so that one should boost his confidence knowing he can wrestle a kid like that. He went up a weight and you have to have the right mindset to do that. I thought he responded really well. He understands now that he can wrestle with anyone with the right mindset.”

Both Brown and L-S head wrestling coach Cayden Johnson discussed a few days before the dual about Montgomery bumping up 113.

Both coaches wanted their wrestlers to face tough competition instead of just taking a forfeit at their weights.

“I’m glad they did that because it gives my guy a match. It gives them both a quality match, too,” Johnson said. “(Kramer) took good shots and wrestled really well on his feet. I thought he out-wrestled (Montgomery) on his feet. I expect him to make a lot of waves this year. I expect him to be a real contender at 113.”

Besides Montgomery and Benitez (4-4) winning by decision in their matches, Drew Bratland also pinned Wyatt Mathis at 175.

Lynnville-Sully’s Burt Johnson pinned Zander Robson at 132 and Matthew Mintle (7-1) scored a win by pin over Sebastian Sorenson at 138 for the Hawks’ contested wins.

Newton’s eight forfeits were taken by Aiden Robson (144), Sanger (150), Rozendaal (157), Manka (190), Milburn (215), Rogers (126), Colter Shaw (165) and Abel Aldama (120).

“The matches didn’t go great,” Coach Johnson said. “We came out slow and sluggish today. I’m not sure what was in the juice. We’ll keep working hard and improving.”

In the Hawks’ matchup with Pella, Mintle won by pin at 138 and Kramer (113) and Squires (285) accepted forfeits.

The Dutch were 2-1 in contested matches and took eight forfeits in the win. There was a double forfeit at 120.

Notes: Benitez did not wrestle last year. He feels like he’s back to his prime after a bit of a slow start. “I was rusty at the beginning. I’m starting to get back to where I can move fluidly again,” Benitez said. “There’s always going to be a lot to learn, and there’s so much I can learn from my teammates and coaches. Failure is success in disguise. I use that and live by that.” … Mintle is now 7-1 this season. His only loss was a 6-3 decision to 1A No. 6 Joel DeJong of North Mahaska. He also beat DeJong 8-3 earlier this season. … Aiden Robson is now 7-2 for Newton and Rozendaal made his season debut after sustaining a hand injury during the preseason.