Scrappy Warriors collecting pins, wins to start wrestling season
By Willis Patenaude | Times-Register
The Central boys wrestling season began at South Winneshiek last week, where the Warriors competed in three duals. This year’s squad, which now includes wrestlers from Edgewood-Colesburg, won eight matches and lost 11.
The dual against South Winn was a 43-30 loss for the Warriors, who went 3-4 in matches. One win came from Collin Jaster at 132 pounds, who pinned Matthew Donovan. At 138 pounds, Nolan Gaul defeated Steven Andera via fall in just under two minutes. Wrestling at 144 pounds this season, Braxton Bormann also won via fall over Lukas Weiss.
Mack Perrinjaquet at 150 pounds and Parker Funke at 165 both lost via fall, while Preston Kulper lost by 17-4 majority decision at 157.
“We had a couple things not go our way in some matches, but that’s how it goes and we need to roll with the punches and move on to the next dual. That being said, we came out aggressive and were pushing the pace the entire time,” said coach Joe Koehn.
The Warriors suffered a close defeat in the next dual against Clear Lake. Despite going 4-0 in matches, the Warriors lost the battle of forfeits and dropped the dual 42-40. Taking wins were Adam Kloser at 120 pounds over John Hamilton via fall, while Jaster defeated Jeseb Presholt in 41 seconds by fall. At 144 pounds, Derek Deitchler won a 13-5 major decision over Cayden Vanvochris, and Colten Hoisington defeated Cayden Campbell by fall in 32 seconds in a 165-pound match.
The dual against New Hampton/Turkey Valley was a rough one for the Warriors, who finished with one win against eight losses, while also surrendering four forfeits, giving NH/TV a 63-5 win. The lone victory for the Warriors came from Hoisington, who racked up seven takedowns in a 24-4 technical fall win over Cade Carpenter.
Kloser lost a 5-0 decision, while Zane Embretson at 126 pounds, Jaster, Gaul, Bormann, Perrinjaquet and Kulper were all pinned.
“We were scrapping on top but our bottom game was a little slow and we weren’t using our setups to our shots in the neutral,” Koehn said.
On Dec. 5, the Warriors competed against Postville and East Buchanan. Against the Pirates, the Warriors found themselves on the losing side of the score, even though they won seven of nine matches. Five forfeits helped Postville earn a 42-37 win.
Securing wins were Deitchler with a fall over Karl Peters, while Perrinjaquet earned a 13-3 majority decision over Isaiah Burns. Kulper defeated Manuel Garrido by fall after entering the second period down, and Kloser won a 4-0 decision over Michael Hill. Jaster pinned Yordi Perez and Gaul defeated Gael Torres by fall at the two-minute mark. Hoisington came up with a last second reversal to secure a fall over Landon Guese. Funke and Connor Davis, at 285 pounds, both lost via fall.
“Majority of our losses came from forfeits and a couple close matches that could’ve gone either way,” Koehn commented.
The Warriors were less successful against East Buchanan, losing the dual 34-24 while going 2-4 in matches. Central wins were achieved by Kloser, who bumped up to 126 pounds to secure a first period fall over Kaden Hepke, and Deitchler earned a fall versus Tayton Elledge. Perrinjaquet, Kulper and Hoisington all lost via decisions, and Gaul was pinned.
“We scrapped here and it was nice not seeing a lot of kids giving up falls. We had a lot of decisions at least, giving ourselves a chance to be in the match at the end, Perrinjaquet being one of them. He may have come up short, but he battled until the end and, as long as we win that last period, that means we still have better conditioning. Overall, we need to work on our confidence in taking shots and movement on bottom,” Koehn said.
This week, the Warriors headed to Washington for a quad on Dec. 10. On Dec. 14, the team will compete in the Nashua-Plainfield Tournament.
