Second-place day marks a first

COUNCIL BLUFFS — For the first time in coach Darrell Frain's 19 years as coach of the Creston/Orient-Macksburg wrestling team, the Panthers do not boast a Hawkeye 10 individual champion.

And yet, the Panthers turned a day of satisfying victories in placing matches into second place as a team, 36.5 points behind conference champion Glenwood, which won its first Hawkeye 10 tournament title since 2006.

Glenwood ended the day with 237.5 points, while the Panthers ended at 201, just ahead of Lewis Central (196).

Senior Cade Vicker (138 pounds) led the way with a second-place finish, while freshmen Kaden Bolton (113) and Kolby Hulett (126)) fell in their respective finals.

Vicker defeated Lewis Central's Kyle Kuckta in the semifinals 8-4 for his 100th career win, and his second victory of the day after a quarterfinal pin. Vicker then ran into the buzzsaw that was two-time defending Hawkeye 10 champ Austin Gutknecht of Clarinda, but still competed in a low-action 4-1 loss.

“Cade started the year, probably wasn’t doing as swell as he should have and the last two weeks has really picked it up and had a really good finish," Creston/O-M coach Darrell Frain said.

Bolton and Hulett had to overcome deficits in their semifinal matches to make the finals.

Bolton trailed Atlantic's Kole Hansen 3-2 late in the third of their semis match, before securing a takedown with just under a minute left, and riding the rest of the period out for the 4-3 victory.

He then fell to LC's Taber Dominguez in the final.

Hulett grinded out a 2-1 semis win against LC's Tanner Higgins. He remained scoreless until the final moments, as coaches Frain and Jeff Sand became as animated as they were all day. Hulett then in the final seconds, took advantage of the best opening he was presented with, scoring a two-point reversal just before the clock hit zero for the victory.

Hulett then fell to Atlantic's Kole Hansen in the final, 7-3.

“Both Bolton and Hulett were underdogs and got beat ... and fought through it," Frain said. "It’s one of those things where they just battled. That’s what they do. They may not wrestle pretty matches, but they fought through.”

Other strong performances came from Blake Sevier (285) and Beau Barncastle (170), who led a posse of Panthers, five in all, who earned third place. Trevor Kinyon (220) recovered after being bounced from the winner's bracket quickly by Isaac Bales. He competed in two fierce matches and notched pins in the third period of each.

“Blake and Beau probably did the best. They took care of business," Frain said. "Beau was probably a bit more of an underdog than Blake was. Just the fact they took care of business and did what they were supposed to do.”

Freshman Garon Wurster (120), who was ousted from the tournament by eventual champ Ethan Lemon of Harlan, and senior Mitchel Swank (145) took third as well.

The Panthers set the tone for the day early. Creston/O-M won by fall in seven of their first eight matches, several of which didn't even last a minute.

Creston/O-M was aggressive on its feet through much of the early portion of the day, giving the large swath of Panther fans behind the scorekeeper's table plenty to cheer about early.

“We’ve been really stressing how we want to prepare for next week and once we get to tournament time and we talked about it a lot and did some changed some of the warm up stuff and maybe it’s going to get us ready when it matters," Frain said.

UP NEXT — The Panther JV competes in a tournament at Atlantic Thursday. The varsity competes at sectionals Saturday at Winterset.

Team scores — 1. Glenwood 237.5; 2. Creston/O-M 201; 3. Lewis Central 196; 4. Atlantic 176.5; 5. Red Oak 129; 6. Harlan 117; 7. Clarinda 100; 8. Kuemper Catholic 69.5; 9. Shenandoahh 62; 10. Denison-Schleswig 28; 11. St. Albert 0.

Hawkeye 10 individual championship matches

106: Benjamin Schmitz (KC) dec. Tanner Wink (LC) 7-4; 113: Taber Dominguez (LC) pinned Kaden Bolton (C/O-M) 3:55; 120: Ethan Lemon (Har) dec. Steele McLaren (Atl) 4-1; 126: Kole Hansen (Atl) dec. Kolby Hulett (C/O-M) 7-3; 132: Chase McLaren (Atl) pinned Cam Vanderhoof (RO) 3:38; 138: Austin Gutknecht (Clar) dec. Cade Vicker (C/O-M) 4-1; 145: Trevor Anderson (Glen) dec. Gabe Kjeldgaard (LC) 5-4; 152: Caleb Kingery (LC) dec. Justin McCunn (RO) 5-1; 160: Willy Waugh (LC) pinned Brett Mower (Glen) 1:28; 170: Carter Maynes (RO) pinned Kyle Owens (Shen) 3:46; 182: Anthony Sherry (Glen) pinned Thomas Bentley (RO) 0:35; 195: Nick Foss (Har) pinned Brock Bortolotti (LC) 0:34; 220: Isaac Bales (Glen) pinned Jaden Heiden (D-S) 1:01; 285: John McConkey (Atl) dec. Caleb Sanders (Glen) SV-1 2-1.

Creston/O-M places/matches

6th place — 106: Joe Weaver (Atl) pinned Ethan Freeman (C/O-M) 0:59; Jonathon Erp (RO) pinned Freeman (C/O-M) 0:41; Dalton Bell (Glen) pinned Freeman (C/O-M) 0:56.

2nd place — 113: Kaden Bolton (C/O-M) pinned Hugo Medina (D-S) 0:27; Bolton (C/O-M) dec. Aybren Moore (Atl) 4-3; Taber Dominguez (LC) pinned Bolton (C/O-M) 3:55.

3rd place — 120: Garon Wurster (C/O-M) pinned Jesse Espinosa (Clar) 1:21; Ethan Lemon (Har) dec. Wurster (C/O-M) 9-3; Wurster (C/O-M) dec. Ryker Case (Glen) 4-2; Wurster (C/O-M) pinned Brian Paul (LC) 1:24.

2nd place — 126: Kolby Hulett (C/O-M) dec. Tanner Higgins (LC) 2-1; Kole Hansen (Atl) dec. Hulett (C/O-M) 7-3.

6th place — 132: Kelby Luther (C/O-M) pinned Nick Wolf (LC) 3:42. (Lost next two by injury default).

2nd place — 138: Cade Vicker (C/O-M) pinned Leo Araujo (D-S) 1:36; Vicker (C/O-M) dec. Kyle Kuckta (LC) 8-4; Austin Gutknecht (Clar) dec. Vicker (C/O-M) 4-1.

3rd place — 145: Mitchel Swank (C/O-M) tech fall Bruce Lukehart (RO) 19-3; Gabe Kjeldgaard (LC) dec. Swank (C/O-M) 3-2; Swank (C/O-M) pinned Cole Ridnour (Clar) 0:49; Swank (C/O-M) tech fall Oscar Olmos (Har) 17-2.

5th place — 152: Connor Pellett (Atl) pinned Rylan Luther (C/O-M) 0:25; Luther (C/O-M) pinned Anthony Knowles (Har) 1:15; Jordan Renshaw (Glen) pinned Luther (C/O-M) 3:56; Luther (C/O-M) pinned Zach Daniel (KC) 1:56.

4th place — 160: Kolby Tomas (C/O-M) pinned Clayton Carson (Clar) 0:25; Brett Mower (Glen) pinnede Tomas (C/O-M) 2:33; Tomas (C/O-M) pinned Kenny Jimmerson (Atl) 1:53; Zak Hulsing (KC) pinned Tomas (C/O-M) 3:29.

3rd place — 170: Beau Barncastle (C/O-M) pinned Cael McLaren (St. A) 0:20; Barncastle (C/O-M) pinned Chad Martin (KC) 4:46; Kyle Owens (Shen) pinned Barncastle (C/O-M) 2:51; Barncastle (C/O-M) dec. Jace Morgenstern (Clar) 8-4; Barncastle (C/O-M) pinned Cale Roller (Atl) 2:16.

5th place — 182: Jakob Childs (Clar) dec. Sam Chapman (C/O-M) 11-9; Chapman (C/O-M) dec. Dylan Koch (LC) 14-7; Nick Dickerson (Shen) pinned Chapman (C/O-M) 1:20; Chapman (C/O-M) pinned Marcus Duranceau (Atl) 2:49.

3rd place — 220 Jaden Heiden (D-S) dec. Trevor Kinyon (C/O-M) 9-3; Kinyon (C/O-M) pinned Hayden Hatcher (LC) 5:35; Kinyon (C/O-M) pinned Colton Kinnison (RO) 5:13.

3rd place — 285: Blake Sevier (C/O-M) pinned Storm Howard (Clar) 0:51; Caleb Sanders (Glen) pinned Sevier (C/O-M) 3:25; Sevier (C/O-M) pinned Jacob Stenzel (Shen) 3:21; Sevier (C/O-M) dec. Daniel Soll (Har) 3-1.