PCM crowns three champs, finish third at HOIC tourney

NEVADA — With five wrestlers in championship matches, the Prairie City-Monroe wrestling team put itself in the mix for a Heart of Iowa Conference tournament title Saturday.

Even though the Mustangs fell too far behind following a subpar performance in the consolation semifinal round, PCM coach Cory Waddell was still able to find some perspective.

“We were in the mix all day, but that consolation semifinal round cost us a chance to win,” Waddell said. “But the more I look at it, it is what it is. We had five in the finals, I’ll take that.”

Freshmen Lucas Roland and Jarron Trausch and junior Xavier Miller each won a conference championship, junior Jakeb Fenton and freshman Wes Cummings claimed runner-up finishes and freshman Chance Palm finished third for the Mustangs.

That was good enough to propel PCM to third on the day. The Mustangs scored 143.5 points. They trailed runner-up Gilbert (160.5) by 17 points and were 30.5 points behind champion Roland-Story.

Host Nevada was the biggest surprise of the day. The Cubs claimed fourth with 126 points, while Saydel (106) edged Collins-Maxwell/Baxter (105) by a point. South Hamilton (102), Greene County (101) and North Polk (75.5) rounded out the nine-team field.

The Raiders’ best finisher was junior Archer McFadden, who was second at 285 pounds. Charles Robertson (195) and Logan Mitchell (182) were both third and Caleb Fullerton (126), Evan Bianchi (160) and Dylan Williams (220) all finished in fourth.

“I wasn’t happy with much of our day today. I was disappointed overall. My expectations are always high though,” CMB coach Mike Leslie said. “There were a lot of matches we should have won in the first two rounds, that we didn’t win, and it cost us.”

PCM’s three titles were the most by any team in the field. Roland-Story, Gilbert, South Hamilton and Greene County each had two individual titles. The Norse won the tournament because they had five second-place tallies.

Roland (30-2) continued to shine at 138. The freshman had three first-period pins on the day. He is still undefeated against wrestlers in Class 2A this year.

“I am feeling really good, and it feels good to win a title in my first year,” Roland said. “We did pretty good as a team, too. We still have some things to work on though. We could have gotten some more people in the finals and could have won some more finals. We did pretty well though.”

Miller improved to 32-4 on the year after another 3-0 day. He had two pins and won his championship match over Roland-Story’s Will Halstead, 18-1. He has 98 wins in his high school career.

“It was a pretty good day,” said Miller, who won a HOIC title his freshman year and was second last season. “I just wanted to try new stuff today. I pinned these guys in tourneys before. I can still get better though. That’s the goal.”

Trausch (28-5) only had two matches at 170 pounds. He won his first match by fall and then rallied in the championship to defeat Nevada’s Alex Peebles, 4-2. Peebles had a 2-1 advantage in the third before Trausch scored back points in the final minute.

“I wasn’t mentally prepared and didn’t warm up very well. I could have wrestled better,” Trausch said of his championship match. “This feels great though. I’m a freshman and lighter than most of the guys, too.”

Waddell said Trausch, who weighs around 164 pounds, won the match because he wrestled hard for the entire six minutes.

“Jarron Trausch never stops working,” Waddell said. “He’ll go for six minutes and he can put you on your back from anywhere. He kept working for six minutes and it paid off.”

Fenton had one match at 106 pounds. There were only two wrestlers in the weight bracket. Gilbert’s Stephen Shuka won the title after a win by fall.

Cummings (25-2) earned a win by fall in his first-round match. He defeated Saydel’s Devon Van Houten for the third time this season in the semifinals and then lost to second-ranked Tommy Bradshaw of Greene County, 6-2, in the title bout.

Bradshaw is the only wrestler to defeat Cummings this season.

Palm went 2-1 on the day and earned a pin over CMB’s Tate Ewing along the way. He took third at 120 pounds when he defeated Nevada’s Nick Walleser, 13-3.

CMB’s McFadden reached the title bout at 285 when he broke through a barrier in the semifinals. He scored his first-ever win over Gilbert’s Eli Harris, winning in the ultimate tiebreaker.

McFadden (20-8) wound up losing by fall to South Hamilton’s Zachary Lutter in the finals.

“We have gone toe to toe a lot of times in our careers,” McFadden said. “That was a big deal by itself being able to finally beat him. He’s a tough kid.”

Leslie added, “That was good for him. He needed to get passed that. It’s always a close match. That was a good boost for his morale.”

Robertson (25-3) and Mitchell both took third and went 2-1 at 195 and 182, respectively. Both wrestlers each had two pins on the day. Mitchell pinned PCM’s Nathan Trausch in the third-place match.

Fullerton and Bianchi (19-8) were both 2-2 at 126 and 160, respectively.

PCM travels to Moravia on Tuesday and then hosts a quadrangular against Colfax-Mingo, BGM and Tri-County/Montezuma at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

CMB travels to Southeast Warren at 6 p.m. Thursday.