PCM wrestlers split HOIAC triangular, place seventh at Fort Madison

STORY CITY — PCM’s wrestling team handled its business on the mat during a road triangular against Roland-Story and Nevada on Thursday.

But too many forfeits against the Norse were too much to overcome during a 44-31 loss. It was the first dual loss of the season for the Mustangs, who downed Nevada 47-21 in their other Heart of Iowa Athletic Conference dual.

The Mustangs were 8-2 in contested matches against Nevada and gave up the only two forfeits at 106 and 120. There were double forfeits at 113 and 126.

Seven of the eight wins by PCM against the Cubs (1-3, 1-2 in the conference) ended in first-period pins and Class 2A No. 11 Kaliber Fry (20-2) scored a 16-1 technical fall at 132. Scoring wins by fall were Bentlee Sloan (9-9) at 138, Easton Morris at 144, Zach Richards at 150, Tucker Wheeler at 165, Jeffery McDanel at 175, Kaiden Valcore at 215 and Kaden Clark at 285.

PCM (9-1, 3-1) was 6-4 in contested matches against Roland-Story  (3-3, 2-2) but gave up forfeits at 106, 113, 120 and 132.

Sloan, Wheeler (19-3) and Clark all won by first-period pin at 138, 165 and 285 and McDanel (9-6) also won by fall at 175. Harrison Brinegar won his match 14-3 at 157 and Richards (8-3) claimed a 13-8 win at 150.

Sloan, 2A No. 6 Wheeler, McDanel and Clark all were 2-0 with two pins for the night. Richards also went 2-0 at 150.

Class 2A No. 4 Clark is now 20-0 with 17 pins at 285. He’s registered 15 first-period pins and five of them have come within 45 seconds.

The Mustangs competed in the conference triangular without Sawyer Bouwkamp, who is 9-4 this season.

Mustangs finish seventh at Fort Madison

FORT MADISON — Clark and Wheeler both won titles, Fry placed third and the Mustangs came in seventh as a team at the Fort Madison Invitational on Saturday.

The 22-team tournament began with pool matches on Friday and the Mustangs used nine wrestlers to score 234.5 points in seventh.

Burlington Notre Dame won the tournament with 404 points. The rest of the top five included Benton Community (392.5), Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont (377), Clear Creek-Amana (359.5) and Dubuque Hempstead (327).

Solon (302) was sixth with 16 wrestlers, while Cedar Rapids Kennedy (228), Ottumwa (226) and Waterloo Columbus/Winfield-Mount Union (219) completed the top 10.

PCM was the only team inside the top 10 with fewer than 10 wrestlers in the field.

Both Wheeler and Clark won their brackets with 7-0 weekends.

Wheeler opened with three technical fall wins and a pin on Friday and then claimed two more technical fall victories on Saturday before defeating 2A No. 10 Kael Cook of Burlington Notre Dame, 12-5, in the 157 final.

Clark’s three wins in pool matches were 19-3, 10-2 and a 57-second pin. He had first-period pin in the quarters, won his semifinal match 4-2 and then scored a first-period fall in the 285 final.

Fry was 7-1 and finished third at 126. He won twice by pin and twice by technical fall on Friday before winning his quarterfinal match by pin in 27 seconds on Saturday. He lost to 3A No. 7 Mitchell Pins of Hempstead in the semifinals before concluding the tournament with a first-period pin and an 18-3 technical fall win.

Richards was fourth and finished 4-2 at 150. He won by fall and claimed a 16-0 technical fall in pool play and then split his final four matches, winning once by fall and once by an 11-4 decision.

One of Richards’ two losses came against 2A No. 4 Dirk Boyles of Burlington Notre Dame.

McDanel was sixth at 165. He opened with a win by fall and won another match by medical forfeit but lost four times, including twice by medical forfeit.

Two of McDanel’s four losses came against 2A No. 8 Blake Wilson of Burlington Notre Dame and 2A No. 11 Blayke Heying of Benton Community.

Sloan was eighth at 138 but had just one win by fall. Brinegar was 3-3 with two pins and placed 10th at 157, Valcore won twice by fall and placed 10th at 215 and Ayden Anderson scored two wins by pin and took 12th at 175.

One of Valcore’s losses was a 4-1 defeat in SV-1 in the ninth-place match. Another loss came against 2A No. 9 Stryker Lettington of EBF.