Mustangs pull home top finishes at Fredonia

FREDONIA — Saturday featured some good, bad and everything in between for Iola High’s wrestling team.
First the good:
The Mustangs brought home three top-three finishes at the 31st annual Fredonia Invitational Tournament.
Senior Chase Roettgen and junior Bryce Misenhelter claimed third place in the 195- and 182-pound divisions, respectively.
Senior Stephen McDonald did them one better, claiming second place at 220 pounds in his first action in a month.
Unfortunately, McDonald also re-aggravated a shoulder injury that had kept him sidelined since Jan. 3 and will almost certainly keep him out of action for the immediate future.
The injury occurred early in McDonald’s championship match against Burlington High’s Gus Farthing.
“The other kid tried a collar jerk move, and Stephen was able to get away from it,” Iola wrestling coach Brad Carson said.
But McDonald immediately began favoring the shoulder, and time was called.
“He was in some pain, so we stopped the match,” Carson said. “It really put a damper on what had been a pretty good day.”
Prior to the championship match, McDonald pinned Tyrel Saunders of Wichita West High, then downed Kyle Loy of Frontenac 5-0 to secure his berth in the championship.
“The first match was a pretty tough match,” Carson said.
The pair were tied at 1-1 when Saunders attempted a move and found himself slightly out of position. That was the opening McDonald needed to get points for the takedown and very quickly the pin.
In his semifinal victory, McDonald recorded a pair of takedowns and an escape, while preventing Loy from as much as an escape point.
Then the injury occurred.
“It’s tough because it would have been nice to have him for Thursday,” Carson said.
Iola will host its only wrestling competition of the season Thursday with a double-dual against West Elk and Osawatomie. “This competition will be the last chance our seniors have to wrestle in front of their home fans.”
Carson said he likely will keep McDonald sidelined until the Class 4A Regional competition Feb. 15-16 in Pittsburg.
“I debated resting him one more week, and then this,” Carsons said. “Wrestling just has so many explosive movements, you can’t predict when this might happen. We don’t think his shoulder popped out or anything, but he was in some pain.”

ROETTGEN’S third-place finish, meanwhile, left Carson exuberant.
“Chase is such a great kid, and he works so hard,” Carson said. “I think he may have turned a corner with his performance.”
Carson was most encouraged with how Roettgen ended the competition.
He lost a semifinal match against Jacob Radford of Putnam City, 10-2, sending him into the consolation bracket, where he pinned Wyatt Goodlin of Wichita Independent.
In the third-place match, Roettgen took home a 9-2 win over Isaiah Yeubanks-Murdock of Wichita South.
Carson noted Yeubanks-Murdock opened the match aggressively: perhaps too much so.
Roettgen earned a penalty point when his opponent punched his leg, then twice more for similar penalties later in the match.
“Chase really kept control of the match,” Carson said. “He got points for a couple of takedowns, then again late in the match. I think that was the best match I’ve seen Chase wrestle.”

MISENHELTER ALSO continued his impressive romp through the 2012-13 season
He rolled over Brabender Cabrera of Andover, then pinned Yancy Wade of Wst Elk in 30 seconds.
He dropped his semifinal match to Rakim Dean of Wichita South by pin, but responded by pinning Cabrera in the consolation semifinal.
Misenhelter was awarded third place by forfeit when his opponent, Jacob Hendricks of Maize South, had to pull out because he had already wrestled the maximum five matches on the day.
“The thing about Bryce is that he always wrestles hard from start to finish, regardless of what the score is,” Carson said. “When you do that, good things happen.”

CODY CONNER, junior, took home fifth place at 145 pounds. He opened with a major decision over Isaiah Kemps of Maize South, 15-5, then pinned Coby Carter of Valley Center in 30 seconds.
Conner’s troubles started in the semifinals when he was pinned by ReShean Tipton of Wichita South. He then lost his consolation match to Ethan Hess of Frontenac 4-2.
“Cody had some bad luck in that loss,” Carson said.
Conner was adjusting his head gear when the referee blew his whistle to start the third and final round.
Hess took full advantage with a two-point takedown, enough for the decisive points.
Conner was awarded fifth place by forfeit over Carter.
“Cody struggled a little bit,” Carson said.
Brice Aiello took seventh at 152 pounds. He pinned Clay Hokr of Leon-Blusetem, before being pinned by Jared Brown of Andover in his quarterfinal match. He responded by defeating Kyle Dean of Erie by pin, but lost to Sharif Jones of Wichita East, 5-1.
 Aiello won seventh by forfeit over Logan Kressly of Rose Hill.
“Brice continues to get better and better,” Carson said. “As a freshman, he still makes some mistakes, but he’s improving every day.”
Travis Rieske, meanwhile, dropped his two matches. He went up against top-seeded Jesse Oliver of Wichita West by pin. He also was pinned by John Engelmeyer of Rose HIll in consolation action.
“Travis had a couple of tough opponents to deal with,” Carson said.

THURSDAY’S double dual against West Elk and Osawatomie will offer an opportunity for local wrestling fans to see the Mustangs in action.
Carson said special recognition would be given to the seniors as well.
Thursday’s matches begin at 5:30 p.m.
The wrestlers will travel to the Silver Lake Invitational next Saturday.