Prairie du Chien boys wrestle at North Fayette Valley, Madison meets
Jack Simmons works towards a pin of New Hampton/Turkey Valley senior Chase Gebel during their match at 285 pounds. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Prairie du Chien freshman Gage Hrubes looks up as he pins the Chickasaws’ Colin Shatek in the last nine seconds of the dual to give the Hawks the win. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
By Derick Kelly
The Prairie du Chien boys wrestling team competed in a pair of events last week, a quadrangular dual meet at North Fayette Valley Middle School in Elgin, Iowa last Tuesday night, Dec. 16 and the Badger State Invitational at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison this past Saturday, the team’s first individual tournament of the season.
First up for the Hawks though was the quad meet at NFV alongside two other Iowa programs in Nashua-Plainfield and New Hampton/Turkey Valley. The Hawks first battled the Chickasaws of NH/TV and found themselves trailing 39-17 heading into the final four matches. A pin by sophomore Keaton Achenbach of NH/TV’s Blade Hurd in 5:08 at 113 pounds was followed by forfeit wins by freshman Tyson Fernette (120) and junior Hunter Reid (126) to make the score 39-35 with one match to go. Freshman Gage Hrubes earned the biggest win of his young career so far when he pinned NH/TV senior Colin Shatek with nine seconds remaining in the match to give the Hawks a stunning 41-39 victory. The Hawks also got wins in the dual from Mason Hird (150), Jake Kramer (175) and Jack Simmons (285).
The second dual of the night for the Hawks was against the host TigerHawks and North Fayette Valley showed their depth by soundly defeating the Hawks 50-18. A highlight of the dual was the matchup at 285 between PdC’s Simmons and NFV’s Layne Kleppe. Both wrestlers entered the match ranked in their respective state, returning state qualifiers from last year and undefeated so far this year. Kleppe defeated Simmons 4-2 during last season’s triangular meet at Waukon. This year’s meeting would be no different as the match went down to the final 30 seconds of the match tied 1-1 before Kleppe turned a takedown attempt by Simmons into one of his own, getting 3 points and earning a last second victory. The Hawks got wins from Brylee Brewer, Kramer, Payton Beinborn and Reid in the loss.
Waiting for the Hawks in the final dual of the night was the Nashua-Plainfield Huskies, a formidable opponent out of the Top of Iowa Conference. Things started out great for PdC as the Hawks won three of the first four matches before the Huskies stormed back to take the lead for good thanks to wins in seven of the final 10 matches as N-P defeated PdC 42-29. Picking up match wins for the Hawks were Porter Kossman, Hird, Kramer, Jack Simmons, Reid and Brewer.
The Hawks ended the week in Madison this past Saturday at the Badger State Invitational. Led by a first-place finish by Hird at 150 pounds, a runner-up finish at 285 pounds from Jack Simmons and a fourth place finish by Reid at 126 pounds, the Hawks scored 98 points to place 10th out of 35 boys teams. Only earning 7.5 points on the day (despite going 5-1) was Kramer, who finished his day by winning his final four matches following a 4-2 loss to Burlington’s Carson Cramer (a rematch from two weeks prior at the East Troy dual tournament) in his second match of the day. An issue with bracket types offered by the USA Bracketing software led the tournament to use a different bracket than what the tournament had used in years with only the top six wrestlers placing at each weight instead of the normal top eight wrestlers. Also wrestling for the Hawks at the tournament was Achenbach (2-2 at 113), Brady Baumgartner (1-2 at 165), Brewer (2-2 at 144), Tyson Fernette (0-2 at 120), Hrubes (2-2 at 132), Kossman (0-2 at 157), Cooper Simmons (0-2 at 190) and Landon Thiry (0-2 at 138).
The Hawks are next on the mats next Monday, Dec. 29 and Dec. 30 at the 43rd annual Bi-State Classic at the La Crosse Center.
