Creston/O-M wrestling takes eighth at state duals

DES MOINES – Seventh-seeded Creston/O-M wrestling placed eighth in Class 2A at the Iowa High School State Dual Wrestling Tournament Wednesday.

The Panthers, sitting all their traditional state qualifiers (Lincoln Keeler, Triston Barncastle, Kaden Bolton, Keaton Street and Jackson Kinsella), battled hard against the fourth-ranked Davenport, Assumption Knights in the final match of the day for seventh place. Ultimately, the Panthers fell 48-25.

The decision to give junior varsity and underclassmen the chance to wrestle at state, some getting their first varsity experience all season, was a decision Creston/O-M head coach Cody Downing said he decided on doing a few hours before the 4:30 p.m. dual.

“We knew for a couple hours. We plan on being here in the future and wanted to get some guys some experience,” said Downing. “... We wanted to make sure our qualifiers for tomorrow were healthy, and it was kind of their idea to make sure [to] get everybody a match if they can. ... They were all for it.”

A few new faces making appearances in the varsity lineup were Brennan Hayes (138), Aidan Anderson (145), Chris Aragon (152), Jagger Luther (182) and Owen Richards (285). Despite a number of JV wrestlers not getting match wins, Downing said he feels it’s important and a meaningful experience nonetheless.

“I think we showed that we belonged here. I think we’re probably a little better than where we finished (Wednesday),” Downing said. “Not having our heavyweight hurt, and there’s a few matches where we were ahead and ended up giving bonus points. My takeaways are we belonged here and maybe if we take a few steps forward [we can improve].”

The heavyweight in question, Chris Wilson at 285, did not wrestle Wednesday due to concussion protocol.

Winning matches against Assumption were Justin Parsons (106) and Austin Evans (120), both of which came as first-period pins. Christian Ahrens (113) also got a match win by forfeit.

Trey Chesnut battled Sydney Park to an 11-0 major decision win at 132. Despite having several chances to pin Park across the three periods, Chesnut worked Park to his first match win since Jan. 30′s Aubudon Invitational.

At 195, Andy Weis as the lone senior, ended his career with a match win in a 7-5 decision win over Chase Diaz.

“Now we can say they wrestled in (state) duals. They know how it works, ... I think that part of it was huge. With the win and loss, that last dual wasn’t on my mind,” Downing said. “(Assumption) wrestled all their state qualifiers and I’m sitting there thinking, ‘man, if we wrestled them [in full] I think we’d beat them fairly handily.’”

On if the whole team will return for today’s (Thursday’s) first day of the traditional tournament, Downing said some will do what they can to show up and support their friends and teammates.

All five Panthers that qualified, Keeler, Barncastle, Bolton, Street and Kinsella, will wrestle in session three. The first round of the Class 2A traditional tournament will kick off at 6 p.m. today.

Battling back

To open the day, the Panthers took on second-ranked Crestwood, Cresco, falling 47-23 to move into consolation.

With the day getting started at 138, Garon Wurster took on Class 2A No. 4 Chase Thomas, but was out-muscled in a 20-8 major decision loss.

The loss was answered back by Keaton Street, who pinned Bryce Shea to get the Panthers their first points of the day to make the dual 6-4, Creston/O-M leading.

The lead was short lived as Clay Schemmel (152) and Hunter Bye (160) got an 11-5 decision win and a pin, respectively, over Bolton and Kaden Street.

Creston/O-M answered back at 170 with Briley Hayes pinning Brandon Dixon to make the dual score 13-12.

The Panthers and Cadets traded points at 182 and 195, with Andy Weis falling in a 7-1 decision and Class 2A No. 2 Jackson Kinsella getting a pin.

Wyatt Barber and Max Chapman were sent out to bookend the heavyweights at 220 and 285, but couldn’t score any points. Both were pinned, leading to Crestwood to pull away as the weights flipped at 28-18.

Justin Parsons (106) and Lincoln Keeler (113) were pinned by sixth-ranked Nate Bigalk and third-ranked Anders Kittelson (respectively) to put a potential comeback unlikely for the Panthers.

Now trailing 40-18, Creston/O-M finally got an answer in the form of an Austin Evans (120) third-period pin, but a major decision loss from Brandon Briley (126) and a decision loss by Triston Barncastle (132) rounded out the dual for the Panthers.

The initial score was 47-24, but one point was subtracted from Creston/O-M’s score due to an unsportsmanlike penalty.

A stop-and-go dual where the clock management had problems, Downing said he felt a lot of things needed to align for the Panthers to have a chance of advancing against the eventual runner-up in Class 2A.

“We would have had to have a lot of things go our way to win that dual,” said Downing. “Not having (Chris Wilson) hurt us. ... Stop-and-go maybe takes you out of the rhythm a little bit. That’s a good team. I felt we worked really hard.”

Panthers fall to Winterset

The dual struggles followed Creston/O-M into consolation as the Panthers fell to Winterset 41-30.

The Panthers had five matches wrestled go their way and one forfeit to cap the dual. Three matches ended in pins, by Barncastle, Kinsella and Chapman. Keaton Street had a 9-3 decision on Eduardo Garcia to open the dual.

The forfeit went to the benefit of Garon Wurster at 138.

“They’ve got better. I think we’ve both got better through the year,” said Downing on comparing the matchup from early in the season to Wednesday. “We had opportunities probably to win the dual. ... That’s just not our fault. ... We just can’t give up those bonus points.”

Link to Creston/O-M vs. Crestwood results

Link to Creston/O-M vs. Winterset results

Link to Creston/O-M vs. Assumption, Davenport results