Colfax-Mingo downs Bolts at Baxter quintuple

BAXTER — Senior Caden Sykes is about to complete his first full season of high school wrestling.

As he approaches 40 wins, Sykes also hopes his final prep season ends at the state tournament.

The Bondurant-Farrar transfer went 4-0 for the Colfax-Mingo wrestling team, but the short-handed Tigerhawks finished 1-3 at a road quintuple hosted by Baxter on Tuesday.

Colfax-Mingo defeated the host Bolts 36-24 but couldn’t find the win column against Class 3A Des Moines East, 3A Des Moines North-Hoover or 1A Southeast Warren/Melcher-Dallas.

The Bolts had just five available wrestlers and lost all four of their duals but were 10-7 in contested matches.

“I think everyone wrestled really well today despite being short-handed,” Colfax-Mingo head boys wrestling coach Stacey Rice said.

Sykes and Cason Fitch were the only two area grapplers who finished 4-0 for the night.

Teagan Dybevik and Alex Hartson both were 3-1 for the Tigerhawks, while Jack Anderson, Alex Dille and Maddox Peters each went 3-1 for the Bolts.

“The guys wrestled well tonight,” Baxter head boys wrestling coach Dwight Gliem said. “We came out slow against a good East team. They have quality wrestlers, and that’s what we need. We don’t want to take forfeits and wrestle quick matches at this point. Districts are coming. We want quality matches.”

The two Jasper County teams battled in the final round of the night and they split a pair of matches. Colfax-Mingo’s Tanner Miller pinned Baxter’s Skyler Stoll at 150 pounds, and Baxter’s Derek Rominger bumped up to 132 and pinned C-M’s Xavier Cross.

The Tigerhawks won the dual because they had a 7-3 advantage in forfeits. There were four double forfeits. Anderson and Peters took forfeits for Baxter at 144 and 165, while Dybevik (285), Fitch (132), Willie Fitzgerald (175), Sykes (190) and Hartson (215) accepted forfeits for C-M.

Colfax-Mingo edged Des Moines North-Hoover, 3-2, in contested matches but came up short on the scoreboard, 54-30. The Tigerhawks gave up seven forfeits.

Dybevik (285), Jayden Cherveny (120), Fitch (126) and Miller (150) all won by fall. Sykes (175) and Hartson (190) each took forfeits.

“We’ve been preaching to the kids all year that we need to be physical with a purpose,” Rice said. “We need to get our hands on our opponent and move them around. We don’t want to be dirty, but we do want to be physical. I think we did that a little bit better tonight.”

Colfax-Mingo lost 54-24 to Southeast Warren/Melcher-Dallas. The two teams split their eight contested matches, but the Warhawks had a 4-1 surplus in forfeits.

Dybevik scored a 43-second pin at 285, Fitch won his match by fall in 30 seconds at 126 and Sykes claimed a first-period pin at 175. Fitzgerald accepted a forfeit at 165.

Des Moines East defeated the Tigerhawks 63-18 in their dual. Class 1A No. 10 Fitch won his match 10-0 at 126 and Sykes and Hartson scored first-period pins at 190 and 215, respectively.

Sykes (34-6) was 4-0 with two pins and two forfeits, and Fitch (35-5) was 4-0 with two pins.

“I think I’m wrestling pretty well for this being my only full high school season,” Sykes said. “I was out for a few weeks as a freshman at Bondurant-Farrar. I think I’m getting the hang of things. My technique is lacking still. It should get better by state time.”

Class 1A No. 12 Dybevik was 3-1 with two pins at 285, Hartson (16-11) went 3-1 with two forfeits, Miller was 2-2 with two pins and Fitzgerald ended up 2-2 with two forfeits.

“Our freshmen are starting to not look like freshmen, which is a good thing,” Rice said. “We were short one tonight because of poor choices, his backup is sick and our starter at 165 also was out with an illness.”

Baxter lost by 12 points to Colfax-Mingo, Des Moines North-Hoover and Southeast Warren/Melcher-Dallas.

Des Moines East downed the Bolts 82-0 and went 5-0 in contested matches.

Baxter was 5-0 in contested matches against Southeast Warren/Melcher-Dallas, but the Bolts gave up all seven forfeits. Dille (113), Rominger (132), Anderson (138), Stoll (144) and Peters (157) all won by fall in the dual.

“The five guys I have right now are coming off injuries and illnesses,” Gliem said. “It’s been tough, but we have a few weeks before districts. I think we’ll have some quality outcomes there. We just have to stay healthy and get our cardio back up.”

The Bolts gave up all five forfeits in the North-Hoover dual but again dominated the contested matches, going 4-1. Dille, Stoll, Peters and Anderson all won by fall.

Anderson (36-7), Peters (25-16) and Dille both finished 3-1 with two pins at their weights, while Rominger and Stoll were 2-2 with two pins.

Anderson battled through a knee injury during and after his loss to a wrestler from Des Moines East in the Bolts’ first dual of the night.

“It’s my senior year so we’ll push through and hopefully it ends at the state tournament,” Anderson said. “I made some mistakes last year and didn’t make it. I have to fix those mistakes, nurse my body to the finish line and give 100 percent every time I touch the mat.

“I didn’t wrestle my best tonight, but we’ll learn from it and move on. I just lost control and started to do the dumb stuff that I fixed over the years. It’s unfortunate I took a loss, but that kid is no slouch.”

Notes: Anderson has registered 74 wins the past two seasons at Baxter. He went over 100 career victories earlier this season and is approaching the school record. With a small roster that has dealt with plenty of injuries, he’s also done it without a ton of consistency in the room. “I would take these five guys to battle with me over anybody,” Anderson said. “They are all my brothers. I love those guys. I wrestle all the way around the room and try my best. I wrestle with (assistant coach and former Bolt) Cole Smith, he was a stud here.” … Sykes has some work to do to get to 40 wins. But he’s integrated himself well at Colfax-Mingo after transferring from Bondurant-Farrar before the school year. “I went out for wrestling because of the people here,” Sykes said. “Coach Bucklin and Coach Rice are some of the best people I’ve ever met in my life. They are great coaches, but more importantly, amazing people. The transition has been amazing. I wish I was here for more than one year. The hospitality here has been nothing but the best.”

Bolts fall three times in home quadrangular

BAXTER — Anderson went 3-0, but the rest of the Bolts struggled during a home quadrangular on Thursday, and Baxter couldn’t find the win column as a team.

The Bolts lost 30-18 to HLV, fell 53-12 to BGM and dropped their dual against Coon Rapids-Bayard, 43-5.

Baxter was 4-4 in contested matches against BGM and HLV combined but went 1-4 in the loss to the Bombers.

Anderson registered pins against HLV and BGM and won 15-0 against Coon Rapids-Bayard.

“He’s been able to wrestle under control, wrestle smart and he’s stuck to the game plan in the higher-level matches,” Gliem said. “The biggest thing he found out is that when you go to the next level of this sport, you can’t force moves. He’s letting things come to him and works really hard in the room. That’s shown on the mat this year.”

Stoll, Peters and Rominger all won just once and Dille was 0-2 at 113. Stoll’s win came by pin at 150 against HLV, Rominger won by fall at 132 against BGM and Peters took a forfeit against HLV.

The quadrangular featured 14 double forfeits, and the Bolts gave up 14 of the 15 forfeits.

Anderson’s title leads Bolts at Clarksville

GREENE — Baxter entered just three wrestlers into the Doug Trees Bearcat Invitational on Saturday, but Anderson won his weight and the Bolts were ninth in the 12-team field.

Three Bolts scored 37 points in ninth. Nashua-Plainfield won the tournament with 262 points, while 1A No. 7 Lake Mills finished second with 225.5. The rest of the top five featured West Hancock (129.5), North Butler/Clarksville (129) and Garner-Hayfield-Ventura (108).

Anderson was 3-0 with three wins over opponents with above .500 records. His first-place finish at 138 included two pins and two of his opponents have more than 30 wins.

Peters finished fourth at 157 after a 1-3 day. Stoll won 6-3 to open his day but lost his final two matches at 144.