March 29, 2024

Cardinal grapplers have good Senior Night

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NEWTON — Senior Night was a success for Newton Senior High School’s wrestling team. Sure, the Cardinals wanted to win both duals in their final home regular-season action.

It was supposed to have been a Little Hawkeye Conference dual with Grinnell’s Tigers. Things changed. Boone was added as a non-conference opponent.

Falling behind 18-0, the Cardinals weren’t able to make up the ground against Grinnell. Newton dropped the LHC dual, 46-30, to the Tigers. Grinnell defeated Boone 41-31.

Newton recognized senior cheerleaders, mat maids and its eight senior wrestlers. The wresters are Ray Schroder, Joey Wright, Koby Hull, Cale Hunter, Sean Cook, Early Kimmel, Mac Icenbice and Jeremy Williams.

Newton did the same thing to Boone that Grinnell did to it. The Cardinals won the first four matches for a 21-0 lead. Newton sent their seniors off the mat with a final dual win at home, 48-26.

Schroder had the quickest pin of the night for the Cardinal varsity. Schroder, ranked No. 7 in Class 3A at 195, pinned Boone’s Jake Stecker in 15 seconds. Schroder had beaten Grinnell’s Jared Keenan, 6-2.

“The Grinnell guy and I have had good matches in the past and that was a good one tonight,” Schroder said. “For me, tonight was a big confidence booster after having a tougher time last Saturday. I got to wins to help going into Thursday’s matches.”

Schroder said his teammates came ready to wrestle at home. He said overall the Cardinals wrestled well “and we wrestled aggressively. We have a few things we need to work on.”

Hull, who is ranked fifth at 106, pinned Grinnell’s Lane Milner in 1 minute, 41 seconds. He stepped up into the 113-pound slot against Boone and pinned Cade Burma in 4:20.

“The first dual was slow, I thought, then we came out and wrestled our best against Boone,” Hull said. “For the most part it was a good Senior Night but for some of the guys I wished hit had gone better.”

Wright was back on the mat after being sidelined since before Christmas. Wright had a back-and-forth match with Grinnell’s Anthony Clayton at 220 before getting caught in a pin at the 5:47 mark. Wright lost by a fall to Mason Frost of Boone.

Williams suffered a season-ending dislocated shoulder a week ago. He has wrestled at 220 and 285 for the Cardinals this season. Icenbice is also sidelined. Hunter, Cook and Kimmel wrestled in junior varsity matches for the Cardinals Tuesday.

“We have a great group of seniors. They are great leaders for our team,” said Andy Swedenhjelm, NHS head coach. “Our seniors wrestled well tonight. Ray continues to work well on the mat. Koby had a great night and it was great to see Joey back out on the mat for us.”

Swedenhjelm said he was pleased with how the Cardinal wrestlers performed on the night. He said the Cardinals could have had the dual with Grinnell “if a couple different things went our way. Our kids wrestled hard all night.”

Down 18-0 against Grinnell, Newton had back-to-back wins by falls by Dakota Dawson at 138 and Brett Wolf at 145. It was 28-12 when J.T. Thongvanh recorded a 3-1 decision over Bryce Lidtka.

Grinnell had wrapped up the team win but there were two more matches to be contested. Hull won then Hunter Versteegh pinned Kaiden Gosselink in 3:36 to end the competition on a strong note for the Cardinals.

Bryce Tish opened the dual with Boone with a pin of Tory Borsh in 1:16 in the 132- pound match followed by Dawson, 138, pinning Boone’s Jack Lohman in 1:52. Wolf won by forfeit at 145.

Peyton Patterson had to work overtime for Newton’s next win. Patterson and Tanner Frost wrestled to a 2-2 tie at the end of the regulation six minutes. In the first overtime period, which is one minute, neither wrestler scored a takedown.

Patterson and Frost went to two 30-second periods to break the tie. In the first one, Patterson was able to turn Frost for a two-point near fall. Patterson scored a reversal in the second 30-second period to claim a 6-2 decision.

Boone got on the scoreboard with a 20-5 technical fall over Duncan Lee. Thongvanh faced Kane Springis, who is ranked 10th in Class 3A, in the 170-pound match and lost 5-2. Brice Wilson pinned Newton’s Jordan Henning in 5:43 for the 182-pound match.

“J.T. is wrestling lights out right now. Peyton has turned the corner and wrestling really well,” Swedenhjelm said.

Schroder won at 195 then Wright lost at 220 and Boone recorded a forfeit win at 285. Newton finished the night with four victories, starting with Jonathon Lawton taking a forfeit at 106 the Hull winning at 113.

Cole Peters pulled out a 2-0 victory over Boone’s Albert Meier at 120. Parker Schuster pinned Milo Davis in 1:34.

Swedenhjelm said the Cardinals will face two good teams Thursday. Newton takes on Des Moines Roosevelt and host Indianola.

Newton (N) 48, Boone (B) 26
132 Bryce Tish, N, pinned Troy Borsh, B, 1:16 138 Dakota Dawson, N, pinned Jack Lohman, B, 1:52 145 Brett Wolf, N, forf. 152 Peyton Patterson, N, OT dec. Tanner Frost, B, 7-2 160 Dillon Calkins, B, tech. fall Duncan Lee, N, 4:00 20-5 170 Kane Springis, B, dec. Jeffrey Thongvanh, N, 5-2 182 Brice Wilson, B, pinned Jordan Henning, N, 5:43 195 Ray Schroder, N, pinned Jake Stecher, B, 0:15 220 Mason Frost, B, pinned Joey Wright, N, 2:15 285 Kyle Springis, B, forf. 106 Jonathon Lawton, N, forf. 113 Koby Hull, N, pinned Cade Burma, B, 4:20 120 Cole Peters, N, dec. Albert Meier, B, 2-0 126 Parker Schuster, N, pinned Milo Davis, B, 1:34

Grinnell (G) 46, Newton (N) 30
120 Jevin Wyatt, G, pinned Cole Peters, N, 3:47 126 Dalton Kies, G, pinned Parker Schuster, N, 1:17 132 Kyle Sadler, G, pinned Bryce Tish, N, 4:34 138 Dakota Dawson, N, pinned Jake Simon, G, 0:47 145 Brett Wolf, N, pinned Griffin Reding, G, 3:16 152 Garrett Jay, G, maj. dec. Peyton Patterson, N, 12-4 160 Brody Beck, G, pinned Duncan Lee, N, 3:02 170 Jeffrey Thongvanh, N, dec. Bryce Lidtka, G, 3-1 182 Julio Sanchez, G, pinned Jordan Henning, N, 3:34 195 Ray Schroder, N, dec. Jared Keenan, G, 6-2 220 Anthony Clayton, G, pinned Joey Wright, N, 5:47 285 Tanner Hoffstetter, G, forf. 106 Koby Hull, N, pinned Lane Milner, G, 1:41 113 Hunter Versteegh, N, pinned Kaiden Gosselink, G, 3:36