PCM pulls out two narrow home victories

MONROE — Prairie City-Monroe’s Trent Malone had the key match in both of the Mustangs’ duals against Collins-Maxwell/Baxter and Pleasantville on Thursday.

The senior heavyweight needed a win against CMB to force a criteria tiebreaker and then he couldn’t get pinned against Pleasantville’s James Haberling in the final contested match of the night.

And it was Malone’s efforts in both matches that secured PCM’s two home wins. Malone rallied to beat CMB’s Archer McFadden in the final seconds to force a 39-all tie and the Mustangs won the match by the H criteria. Against Pleasantville, Malone lost 2-0 to Haberling but the Mustangs held on to win the dual 42-39.

Leading the way for the Mustangs on the night was the trio of Xavier Miller, Tristan Clark and Ron Marshall, who all went 2-0 with two pins. Caleb Peter also was handed two forfeits at 106 and the final one pushed the Mustangs in front of Pleasantville by three.

CMB left immediately after its loss to PCM due to poor road conditions and did not wrestle Pleasantville.

“It was good to get some wins,” PCM coach Cody Waddell said. “We needed it. The conference win was big, too. I have great respect for CMB. They always come to wrestle.”

The Mustangs grabbed an early advantage of CMB thanks to a trio of pins by Miller, Clark and Lane Raske and Peter’s forfeit at 106. Skyler Koder also got a forfeit at 160 and Marshall put the Mustangs up 36-21 with his win by fall at 170.

But CMB rallied behind success from its heavier weights.

Blake Coughenour (182), Logan Mitchell (195) and Charles Robertson (220) scored pins in succession to catapult the Raiders into the lead at 39-36.

Archer McFadden and Malone had split their first two meetings earlier in the year. McFadden scored a second-period escape to take a 1-0 lead into the final period, and then rode out Malone for nearly the entire third frame. But he spent a little too much time watching the clock and Malone capitalized, scoring a late reversal in the final seconds to make it 39-all.

PCM eventually won the match on the H criteria, which was most first points scored. The Mustangs had an 8-4 advantage in that category.

“I think it was safe to say that Archer outworked him for most of the match,” CMB coach Mike Leslie said. “But you have to keep going for six minutes. You don’t stop wrestling until the referee blows his whistle.”

Waddell credited Malone for finishing a match he very easily could have lost.

“I was going to tell (Malone) to go neutral in the third period, but he looked at me and said he was going to go down,” Waddell said. “He’s a senior so I let him make the decision. I just expect him to score at that point. I didn’t expect it to come in the final second, but I think the CMB wrestler let up just enough and we took advantage. That’s all it takes sometimes.”

CMB also got pins from Tate Ewing and Lincoln Brown at 113 and 132, respectively. Ethan Cozad was handed a forfeit at 145 and Evan Bianchi won an 8-1 decision over Luke Kramer.

Ewing and Brown both trailed their matches 2-1 after one period, but each found a way to win. Coughenour also trailed Jaret Maggard early in the match at 182 before the Raider sophomore turned the tables for the pin.

“That was a big win for Blake,” Leslie said. “He had lost to (Maggard) before. Hopefully that win will boost his confidence a little bit.”

Waddell said on paper, he projected the Pleasantville match to be 42-all.

The Mustangs though got an impressive win by fall from Leevi Telfer at 220 that maybe wasn’t expected and that helped PCM (5-11 overall, 2-3 in HOIAC) secure the non-conference victory.

“That one was a swing match,” Waddell said. “I didn’t expect that match to go the way it did, but it was a big win for us.”

The Mustangs jumped out to an 18-0 lead following a forfeit win by Jakeb Fenton at 113 and consecutive pins from Miller and Clark.

Pleasantville though rallied behind a trio of pins and a pair of forfeits. Griffin McBride (132), Hunter Drake (138) and Sawyer Phillips (152) all got six-point pins, while PCM forfeited at 145 and 160.

Marshall and Maggard’s back-to-back pins tied the match at 30-all and it stayed even following pins from Pleasantville’s Joe Kauffman at 195 and Telfer at 220.

Malone lost 2-0 to Halberling, but the final match of the night was a Pleasantville forfeit to Peter at 106.

That final six points pushed the Mustangs in front and they went on to win by three. PCM was the only team to field a 106-pounder Thursday.

“If you can bring 14 kids to a dual meet and have a few hammers, that’s a big deal. We have a few hammers and we are really close to having a full lineup,” Waddell said.

Clark, who is now ranked No. 7 at Class 2A 126, improved to 20-2 on the season, while Miller is 18-2.

Miller cracked the Predicament rankings at No. 10 at 120 on Thursday. Marshall also has just two losses and is 14-2 on the season.

It took a while before Miller became a ranked wrestler. But Waddell said that’s not too big of a deal anyway.

“We want to use not being ranked as motivation, but being ranked isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” said the PCM coach. “There is a target on your back then.”

CMB’s Jake Hennick was pinned by Clark late in the second period.

Hennick is now 13-3 on the season with all three losses coming against Clark.

Mitchell improved to 13-3 for CMB (4-5, 2-4), while Robertson moved up to 11-2. McFadden’s loss to Malone was just the fourth defeat of the year but two have come against the PCM senior.

The Mustangs host their own 13-team invitational on Saturday. Action begins at 9 a.m.

CMB heads to the BCLUW-South Hardin tournament in Conrad with action there kicking off at 10 a.m.