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‘New guys,’ returning grapplers take 4
by Gregory R. Norfleet · Sports · December 07, 2017
A trip to Cascade ended with two wins by returning starters and two by new wrestlers in the opening meet of the season against Durant, Cascade and the ranked West Liberty team.
And Head Coach Cody Krumwiede said he and the coaching staff saw many mistakes, but nothing difficult to fix, and every wrestler fought hard at the Nov. 30 contest.
“There’s good and bad, obviously,” the coach said after the quad against Cascade, No. 7 West Liberty and Durant. “We’d have like to have won a few more matches. We had quite a few new guys, so there’s a little bit of a technique gap. But we didn’t lose a single match because we didn’t fight hard enough.”
The team needs more experience, he said, and mat time in the coming weeks will bring that.
“Some of our guys didn’t know exactly what to do in some situations, but we get a week or two into the season and those things will be cleaned up,” he said. “I was very happy with their fight tonight.”
Returning starters Tyler Siemen and Jacob Graves recorded wins that night, as did newcomers Morgan Hartz and Jacob Barnhart.
West Branch gave up a lot of points with open weight classes where opponents had someone to wrestle. The Bears forfeited seven matches — half the weight classes — to Cascade and West Liberty, putting them at a 42-point disadvantage in each dual. Durant had the largest disadvantage, wrestling in only two weight classes.
However, Krumwiede said West Branch added a couple of new wrestlers since practices got under way. The coaches held them out to give them more time to prepare.
Graves wrestled at 152 pounds against Austin Beaver, with the Comet taking a 13-1 major decision; and then faced Cascade’s Brady Graff, whom Graves pinned at the 1:11 mark.
Graves took Graff down quickly, let him go voluntarily, then took him down again before pinning the Cougar freshman.
“That first match, you could tell he was a little tight,” Krumwiede said. “He wasn’t moving the best because of that and he ended up getting caught a few times because of a hold.”
The coach said he saw improvement in Graves’ next time out.
“The second match went a lot better,” the coach said. “We had talked to him about opening up some things and he ended up doing a lot better.”
Siemen opened his season with a close battle against West Liberty 106-pounder Sam Gingerich. The Comet scored a takedown in the first period, and Siemen returned the favor in the second after opting to start with a neutral stance. With the score tied at two, Gingerich chose neutral to begin the third yet Siemen scored the next takedown.
The referee awarded a point to Gingerich on a West Branch holding violation, but neither scored further and Siemen took a 4-3 victory.
“I feel like he did a pretty good job in there,” Krumwiede said.
He said the coaches talked to him about finding opportunities even when not readily apparent.
“He’s looking for the perfect shot, the perfect reversal or the perfect turn, but sometimes you’ve got to take what’s available,” the coach said. “After we get a little further into the year, we’ll open him up on offense. It’s the first night, so kids are going to be a little closed.”
Barnhart fell in his first two outings against West Liberty’s Andy Lopez and Cascade’s Quentin Recker, and seemed to struggle against Durant’s Mason Bird. That is, until Bird opted for the down position in the second period.
Bird had scored four points in the first period, two on a takedown and two on a near fall. Barnhart managed to avoid a pin, but his position was uncertain.
At the whistle, Barnhart exploded, and 12 seconds later, Bird was pinned.
Krumwiede said Barnhart excels when the opponent is in the down position.
“He showed his meanness on top and we’ve just got to translate that to all the other positions,” the coach said. “He did a very good job, though, in that last match-up.”
In the match against Lopez, Krumwiede said Barnhart looked like he would pull off the win.
“I thought he was going to beat that kid,” the coach said.
Freshman Morgan Hartz appeared to struggle against West Liberty’s AJ Lenz in the 170-pound match. Lenz took him down three times in the first period to take a 6-2 lead and leave Hartz nursing a bloody nose. Hartz won the flip but deferred his choice and Lenz signaled for a neutral stance. The Comet took Hartz down again and nearly pinned him twice, keeping the Bear down until the period’s end.
Hartz signaled for a neutral stance to open the third, the whistle blew and suddenly Lenz was on his back, with the referee awarding Hartz with a pin three seconds into the final period in a stunning come-from-behind victory.
Junior Drake Bloem stepped on the mat on the smaller end of the most lopsided weight battle for West Branch.
With the Bear in the process of cutting weight to the 220 class, he strapped on the ankle band across from a 280-pound junior from Cascade, Parker Wright.
West Branch started Jacob Barnhart in the varsity heavyweight class, so Bloem and Wright faced off for what the announcer called a junior varsity “exhibition” match.
Wright took Bloem down and the pair rolled out of bounds, and Bloem escaped soon after the reset. Score: 2-1 Wright, at the end of one.
Wright deferred and Bloem chose down to start the second and managed a reversal. Wright matched that to retake the lead at the end of two, 4-3.
Wright signaled for a neutral stance in the third, and this time Bloem scored the takedown with Wright earning an escape. With more than 500 pounds of wrestlers pushing, pulling, turning and twisting out there for three periods, the two appeared gassed, time ran out and the score stood tied at 5.
During that third period, fans of the two teams shouted their excitement — and plenty of suggestions — at the two and the match started drawing lots of eyes from Durant and Cascade fans.
The exhibition match turned into a spotlight match.
With triple overtime.
One minute of a neutral stance led to no scoring. Thirty seconds with Bloem down ended with no points. But Wright earned a point in the third overtime when Bloem locked hands in an effort to prevent Wright’s escape. Wright would escape and then take Bloem down, earning a 9-5 decision.
“I was very happy with the effort Drake put in throughout that match,” Krumwiede said. “He was definitely outsized. Hopefully in about two weeks he’ll be our 220-pounder, but he has to get down there, first.”
Senior Trevor Thein, brand new this season to the sport of wrestling, started the night for West Branch in an exhibition match against West Liberty 138-pounder Erik Estrada. He did not win, but avoided getting pinned while racking up 12 points — six on reversals — in the high-scoring 28-12 final.
He battled in another junior varsity match against Cascade’s John Gadient in a 152-pound match, hanging in there until the 3:30 mark when Gadient earned a pin.
“I’m very happy with Trevor,” the coach said. “He fought through … and at this point he just needs a little more mat time. There were a few situations out there where it wasn’t exactly like he’s (seen in practice) and because of that he wasn’t adjusting quite right. We’ll work on those in practice … and he’ll know what he needs to do next time. It’s really easy mistakes at this point.”
Krumwiede said that was true for the whole team.
“Nobody had any huge, hard-to-fix mistakes,” he said. “It’s just the little things we’ve got to clear up and get some of those newer guys some exposure time.”
Against West Liberty, the Comets won 64-9.
106: Tyler Siemen (WEBR) over Sam Gingerich (WELI) (Dec 4-3) 113: Brian Collins (WELI) over (WEBR) (For.) 120: Double Forfeit 126: Talen Dengler (WELI) over Joe Seydel (WEBR) (Fall 1:01) 132: Will Esmoil (WELI) over (WEBR) (For.) 138: Coy Ruess (WELI) over (WEBR) (For.) 145: Justis Dengler (WELI) over (WEBR) (For.) 152: Austin Beaver (WELI) over Jacob Graves (WEBR) (MD 13-1) 160: Joe Kelly (WELI) over John Yates (WEBR) (Fall 0:09) 170: Morgan Hartz (WEBR) over AJ Lenz (WELI) (Fall 4:03) 182: Jackson Gingerich (WELI) over (WEBR) (For.) 195: Bryce Esmoil (WELI) over (WEBR) (For.) 220: Kobe Simon (WELI) over (WEBR) (For.) 285: Andy Lopez (WELI) over Jacob Barnhart (WEBR) (Fall 2:28)
Against Cascade, the Cougars won 66-12.
Individual results: 132: Derick Koppes (CASC) over (WEBR) (For.) 138: Cody Kremer (CASC) over (WEBR) (For.) 145: Ted Weber (CASC) over (WEBR) (For.) 152: Jacob Graves (WEBR) over Brady Graff (CASC) (Fall 1:11) 160: John Yates (WEBR) over (CASC) (For.) 170: Zach Ries (CASC) over Morgan Hartz (WEBR) (Fall 1:15) 182: Angel Nunez (CASC) over (WEBR) (For.) 195: Carlos Vega (CASC) over (WEBR) (For.) 220: Jacob Rosso (CASC) over (WEBR) (For.) 285: Quentin Recker (CASC) over Jacob Barnhart (WEBR) (Fall 0:29) 106: Aidan Noonan (CASC) over Tyler Siemen (WEBR) (Fall 0:48) 113: Carson Staner (CASC) over (WEBR) (For.) 120: Double Forfeit 126: Nolan Noonan (CASC) over Joe Seydel (WEBR) (Fall 0:57)
Against Durant, West Branch won 30-4.
160: Cameron Ruggerio (DUR) over John Yates (WEBR) (MD 16-5); 170 Double forfeit; 182 Double forfeit; 195 Double forfeit; 220 Double forfeit; 285 Jacob Barnhart (WEBR) over Mason Bird (DUR) (Fall 2:12); 106 Tyler Siemen over (DUR) (For.); 113 Double forfeit; 120 Double forfeit; 126 Joe Seydel over (DUR) (For.); 132 Double forfeit; 145 Double forfeit; 152 Jacob Graves over (DUR) (For.)
Jesup Varsity tournament
At Saturday’s Jesup Varsity tournament, West Branch’s Tyler Siemen took second place at 106 pounds, Joe Seydel took fourth place at 126 pounds, Jacob Graves took first place at 152 pounds, John Yates took fourth place at 160 pounds, Morgan Hartz took second at 170 pounds and Jacob Barnhart took fourth place at 285 pounds.
Team scores: 1. NHTV 235; 2. Jesup 203, 3. Postville 198, 4. Riceville 177, 5. AGWSR 120, 6. West Branch 102, 7. Central Elkader 48
106: Tyler Siemen pinned Postville’s Riley Rankin, 3:24; Siemen fell to Jesup’s Carter Littlefield, 1:59; Siemen won by 9-3 decision over AGWSR’s Ali Gerbracht
126: Joe Seydel fell to Central Elkader’s Andrey Shirbroun, 4:33; Seydel fell to Postville’s Tony Vazquez, 1:45; Seydel fell to NHTV’s Cade Murry, 0:32
152: Jacob Graves won by a 6-4 decision over Riceville’s Chad Eastman; Graves pinned Postville’s Carrie Turner in 36 seconds; Graves pinned NHTV’s Aden Zwanziger, 1:18
160: John Yates fell to NHTV’s Mitchell Pickar, 0:35; Yates fell to Jesup’s Tristen Reyes, 1:07; Yates fell to AGWSR’s Dayton Haley, 3:04
170: Morgan Hartz wins by 11-7 decision over AGWSR’s Jacob Haley; Hartz pins Postville’s Brayan Silva, 1:47; Hartz wins by 9-6 decision over Jesup’s Hunter Thoma; Hartz falls to NHTV’s Jacob Reicks, 3:23
285: Jacob Barnhart fell to Postville’s Roberto Lopez, 2:34; Barnhart pinned Centra Elkader’s Mat Whittle, 2:30; Barnhart fell to Jesup’s Brian Sadler, 1:31; Barnhart fell to Riceville’s Chris Eastman, 4:40
Jesup JV
tournament
In the junior varsity tournament, the weight classes were broken up into smaller ranges suited to the competitors. Instead of 14 weight classes from up to 106 through a 285 maximum, 17 weight classes started at 110 and ended at a maximum of 265, with some weight classes overlapping.
West Branch’s Harold Blakey took fourth place at 140-150, Dylan Butler took third place in 170-173, Drake Bloem took second place at 258-265
140-150: Harold Blakey fell to Independence’s Reid Lewin, 0:43; Blakey fell to Linn-Mar’s Hikaru, 2:26; Blakey lost by major decision to NHTV’s Colton Rochford
170-173: Dylan Butler fell to NHTV’s Dani Tinajero, 0:59; Butler fell to Linn-Mar’s Chris Smith, 1:19; Butler was granted a bye over Osage’s Keaton Muller
258-265: Drake Bloem pinned Linn-Mar’s Cleo Gehrls, 3:18
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