PITTSBURG — Iola High’s Mustangs opened up Southeast Kansas League wrestling action Thursday against the third-ranked Class 5A Pittsburg High Purple Dragons and SEK-leading Fort Scott High Tigers.
It was senior night at Pittsburg High and two of its seniors — both individually ranked — were beaten by Iola High Mustangs. The Mustangs began the only league double dual contested on the night taking on Fort Scott and losing 42-21 as a team but posting four individual victories.
Then Iola took on Pittsburg. The Mustangs lost the dual meet, 63-12 but had two stunning victories in front of the PHS home crowd.
Mustang freshman Mike Armstrong upset Class 5A’s fifth-ranked Austin Haake at 119. Armstrong came out and took Haake down quickly in the first period. Two penalty points were awarded to Armstrong when Haake used illegal holds and by the end of the period Armstrong led 5-2.
Armstrong put up another point for an escape in the second period. Haake was able to score three points in the third period. Haake had Armstrong in a pinning hold but Armstrong denied him scoring opportunity with it, winning 6-5.
Pittsburg won seven of the first eight matches — three by forfeits because Iola didn’t have wrestlers at 103, 112 and 145. Iola freshman Travis Rieske earned six points for the team with a forfeit win at 152. Pittsburg also earned team points in the 215 and 285 weight classes because Iola has no wrestlers at those weights.
Iola’s Devin Culler, a junior, moved up from 152 to wrestle at 160 and lost a 9-3 decision to Garrett Brummett. Zack Vaughn was pinned by Brendan Maxwell in the 171-pound match.
Mustang sophomore Stephen McDonald and Class 5A’s fourth-ranked Austin Winner staged a six-minute match that had the crowd on the edge of its seats just like the 119-pound match.
The two wrestlers had a scoreless first period, then Winner came from the bottom for an escape point in the second two-minute period. Winner couldn’t keep McDonald from doing the same to him in the third period.
Tied at 1-1, the wrestlers worked for a takedown which Winner finally got with less than a minute left in the match. McDonald began making a move to score a reversal and Winner locked his hands while both were down on the mat.
As McDonald was making the switch for the two-point reversal to tie it up, the referee was signaling locked hands automatically awarding McDonald a point. McDonald did get the reversal to go up 4-3, then controlled Winner the final seconds to claim the victory.
“Mike and Stephen had great wins tonight. Those were big wins against quality wrestlers from Pittsburg. Mike got the first takedown and was able to frustrate the Haake kid and wrestled him hard the rest of the way,” said Ron Schomaker, Mustang head wrestling coach.
“But overall, I was disappointed we didn’t wrestle more physical with these two teams. We have to get more physical and more aggressive, especially coming off the bottom position.”
McDonald and Armstrong went 2-0 in SEK action. Armstrong pinned sophomore Garren Lorenz of Fort Scott in 56.3 seconds, which made it 6-6 against the Tigers.
By the time the meet got to McDonald in the 189-pound match, Fort Scott was up 36-18. McDonald wasn’t able to take down junior Dane Cummings in the six-minutes of regulation action. He was able to escape twice to forge a 2-2 tie after two periods. Each wrestler scored a point in the third period forcing the match to overtime.
McDonald and Cummings tied up and went down to the mat, each grappling for the advantage. This time McDonald made the controlling move for the takedown and two points for a 5-3 win.
“Stephen just really had two gutty wins tonight. He works people hard out there,” Schomaker said.
The Mustangs have no time to rest as they go to the Burlington High Invitational tournament Saturday. They travel to Columbus for SEK duals with Columbus and Parsons Tuesday, then host archrival Chanute and Labette County in SEK action next Thursday.
Pittsburg defeated Fort Scott 49-24 to take a 2-0 dual record in the SEK while Fort Scott is 1-1 and Iola is 0-2.
Also against Fort Scott, Iola senior Lee Berg notched a win in SEK action. Berg and Race Kastl had an entertaining match at 130. Berg had the advantage, ahead 8-2 as the two wrestlers rolled through several moves but Berg never gave up control. With 32 seconds left in the match, Berg pinned Kastl.
Iola was without senior Marcus Sullivan at 160 because of illness.
Berg went 1-1 as he was pinned by second-ranked Mario Corado, a senior from Pittsburg, in 40 seconds. Junior Brent Clark was pinned by Class 5A second-ranked Aaron Seybold, a junior, in 37 seconds against Pittsburg at 135.
In the 125-pound match with Pittsburg, Iola freshman Cody Conner was pinned by junior Jacob Wools in 48 seconds. Iola sophomore Zeph Larney was pinned by Jake Cloninger, a PHS junior, in 1:11.
Against Fort Scott, the Tigers got 12 points on forfeits at 103 and 145. Conner was pinned by freshman Jacob Durossette in 1:29 at 125. Clark lost 12-4 to sophomore Victor Hughes at 135 and Larney dropped a 17-4 decision to freshman John Hughes in the 140-pound match.
Fort Scott sophomore John Metcalf pinned Iola freshman Bryce Misenhelter in 43 seconds at 160.
Vaughn lost 13-3 to junior Christian Tavernaro at 171 and Iola freshman Quinton Morrison was pinned by freshman Brendan Blackburn in 55 seconds at 215.
In junior varsity matches, Iola freshman Tristan Sigfusson lost 10-6 to Fort Scott’s Caleb Gazaway and was pinned by Pittsburg’s Braden Brown; Rieske pinned Fort Scott’s Chase Howser; Iola sophomore Chase Roettgen won 12-8 over Pittsburg’s Juan Cornelio; Morrison was pinned by Pittsburg’s Skyler McGuire.
Armstrong, McDonald stun Dragons
