Mustangs falter in SEK home duals

Iola High’s Mustangs had several individual successes on the wrestling mat Thursday.
But as a team, the Mustangs came up empty in their only home Southeast Kansas League duals of the season. Iola had an opportunity to split the double-dual but a couple of the matches didn’t go the Mustangs’ way.
The Mustangs lost 36-32 to Labette County High’s Grizzlies. Then the machine that is Chanute High wrestling went to work, defeating Labette County 53-13 and Iola 63-15.
“We wrestled very conservatively all night. We’ve talked about these matches for the past two weeks. We needed to be the aggressors and we weren’t in most of the matches tonight,” said Ron Schomaker, IHS wrestling coach.
Schomaker said the Mustangs lost to two Labette County wrestlers they had already beaten earlier this season. He said that was unacceptable because “we win those two matches and we win the dual.”
Against Kansas Class 4A’s fourth-ranked team, Chanute, Schomaker said most of his wrestlers “wrestled scared and I felt that the majority of our wrestlers did nothing on the mat tonight.
“After looking at film, I might change my mind on that point but right now it appeared we just didn’t execute anything well,” he said. “That’s disappointing because we were here at home.”
Iola fans saw sophomore Stephen McDonald and freshman Mike Armstrong improve to 4-0 in SEK action. Also senior Marcus Sullivan wrestled his first league matches, winning both, of the year.
The Mustangs went up against Labette County to open the night’s action. Labette County was up 6-0 winning the 112-pound match by a forfeit.
Armstrong tied the team score up with a pin of Trent Walker in 2 minutes, 41 seconds of their 119-pound match.
The heartbreaker of the night came in the 125-pound match. Iola freshman Cody Conner had a 19-5 lead over Lane Whitt after two periods. Whitt turned Conner and pinned him with 56.3 seconds remaining in the match.
Iola senior Lee Berg won by forfeit at 130 as the dual was tied at 12-12. Junior Brent Clark put Iola in front 18-12 with a pin of Dalton Wiley in 2:39 at 135. It was Clark’s first SEK win of the season.
Iola’s Zeph Larney, a sophomore recorded his first league win via a forfeit at 140. Labette County’s Jon Kelly got a forfeit at 145. Iola led 24-18.
Colton Grant worked an 11-5 decision over Iola junior Devin Culler at 152. Sullivan, who had been ill last week as SEK action began, nabbed a 13-2 decision over Caleb Journot to put Iola up 27-21.
In the 171-pound match, Iola junior Zack Vaughn lost a 10-5 decision to Joel Norris. McDonald posted an 11-0 win over Preston Rash as Iola was up 32-24.
Unfortunately, Labette County scored 12 team points because Iola does not have wrestlers at 215 and 285. The Grizzlies did and they won the dual 36-32.
Chanute was docked a team point against Labette County, although the team competition was decided.
In the 285-pound match, Labette County’s Spencer Gatewood was awarded a takedown in the overtime period against Chanute’s Jacob Reed. Reed confronted Gatewood while the officials conferred on the takedown. Gatewood won the match by three points. Reed was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty point which also came off Chanute’s total.
Iola won three matches against the defending SEK Chanute Blue Comets. Armstrong won by forfeit at 119.
Sullivan outlasted Tyler Kidwell at 160 for a 9-5 decision. McDonald pinned Karter Krokstrom in 19 seconds for the 189-pound match.
Chanute recorded four straight pins and won eight of the first nine matches — three by forfeits.
Class 4A top-ranked Tim Wrestler pinned Iola’s Conner in 52 seconds at 125. Third-ranked Jared Fiscus pinned Berg in 2:49 at 130 then Troy Clark, ranked third at 135, pinned Iola’s Brent Clark in 4:56.
Chanute’s Olle Reberg pinned Larney in 2:29 in the 140-pound match. Chad Klauman won by forfeit at 145 as did A.J. LaRocca at 103 and Dillon Wolverton at 112.
In the 152-pound match, Culler went the distance against second-ranked Sam Son of Chanute. Son won 18-7. After Sullivan won, Chanute’s Skylar McKinnis won by a 10-5 decision over Vaughn at 171.
Chanute picked up 12 more points by forfeits at 215 and 285.
“I’ve told our kids I don’t care about the score and I don’t care about wins and losses. Right now, it is about getting better each time we wrestle. We didn’t have a good night on the mat for the most part,” Schomaker said.
“We don’t teach our kids to do nothing on the mat, to be defensive. We have to be more aggressive overall.”
In junior varsity matches Thursday, Iola freshman Tristan Sigfusson lost 13-3 to Labette County’s Mitchell Kelly and 10-1 to Chanute’s Robert Klauman in 130-pound matches.
Iola freshman Travis Rieske was pinned by Labette County’s Ty Gatton  in a 152-pound match.
Chase Roettgen, an Iola sophomore who wrestles at 171, went up against Chanute’s Alec Brill at 215. Brill beat Roettgen 15-10.
Iola’s varsity is off until the Eureka High Invitational tournament Jan. 22. The SEK double dual at Columbus, postponed Tuesday, has been rescheduled for Feb. 1.
The Mustang junior varsity wrestlers are at Saturday’s Labette County High JV Invitational.