Warriors hold off Cardinals on the mat

Newton High’s Cardinals faced a 10-point deficit with two matches remaining in Thursday’s Little Hawkeye Conference dual with visiting Norwalk. The Warriors used a forfeit by Newton at 106 pounds to go up 34-24.

The Cardinals had sophomores Blake Cockerton and Blake Iske at 113 and 120 pounds left to get on the mat. They needed two pins to win the dual. Newton got one and Norwalk won the dual 37-30.

Cockerton faced Norwalk’s Ethan Froehlich at 113 and quickly pushed a 6-1 lead by the end of the first period. He continued to pile up points for a 13-2 advantage heading into the third period.

Cockerton had Froehlich on his back three times in the first two periods. He finally wrapped a pin with 1 minute, 34 seconds remaining in the match.

It gave Newton six team points to pull the Cardinals to within four of the Warriors, 34-30.

Iske and Norwalk’s Alex Hoover went scoreless in the first period of the 120-pound match, which was the finale of the night. Iske had a reversal to take a 2-0 lead to open the second period then Hoover escaped for one point.

Iske was up 2-1 going into the third period. Each wrestler was awarded a point for stalling on Hoover and locked hands on Iske. Hoover tied the match at 3-all with another escape. Hoover claimed a 5-3 lead on a takedown, which won him the match and Norwalk the dual.

“We competed really well. Norwalk is one of the top teams in our conference. Indianola is at another level, but Norwalk is in the next tier,” Newton head coach Andy Swedenhjelm said. “We were right there with them tonight.”

Swedenhjelm said his wrestlers will keep battling and working. He said the Cardinals will work to see if by the time of the Little Hawkeye Conference tournament if they can get past Norwalk.

The Warriors took the first two matches of the night at 126 and 132 with pins. Newton freshman Zane Kohlmeyer stepped into his first varsity match at 138 pounds. He was trailing 4-2 late in the second period to Norwalk’s Chris Adams when Kohlmeyer put Adams in a cradle for the fall at the 3:26 mark.

“Zane’s a great wrestler, who has been in our youth and middle school programs,” Swedenhjelm said. “He’s been a little banged up this season. It’s exciting to see what he can do when he’s out on the mat. He’s a big-move guy and we saw that tonight.”

Newton senior Jon Lawton faced Norwalk’s Tyler Hirl, who is ranked No. 10 in Class 3A, in the 145-pound match. Hirl won by a major decision, 16-2, to push Norwalk’s team score to 16-6.

Logan Zibert controlled his 152-pound match against Norwalk’s Tyler Gearhart, leading 6-2 after one period. Following an escape, Zibert took Gearhart down and pinned him with 1:27 left in the second period.

Newton trailed 16-12 when Alan Moore caught Newton’s Tristin Langmaid for a late pin in their 160-pound bout. Norwalk’s Jack Livingston scored three points in the third period to hand Newton’s Tanner Petro a 5-2 setback at 170.

Newton’s Brady Smith and Blayden Rhone recorded back-to-back 8-3 decisions at 182 and 195 to close the gap to 25-18. Jaise Gulling lost an 8-4 decision to Norwalk’s Drake Leek in the 220-pound match.

At 285, Newton’s Alex Miller pulled the Cardinals to within four points, 28-24, of the Warriors. Miller pinned Norwalk’s Bryce Kohls at the 2:33 mark. Norwalk’s lead went back to 10 points as Travis McCombs got a forfeit win at 106.

Newton needed to win the final two matches to catch Norwalk. With the dual loss, Newton dropped to 1-2 in LHC action and 4-2 overall in dual action.

The Cardinals won the junior varsity dual, winning 10 of 16 matches. Destin Schroder had two wins while Coltin Whitten went 1-1. Other victories for Newton came from Aren Sorensen, Bobby Yarges, Joseph Carolus, Austin Romberg, Isaac Bebout, Landon Hansen and Gage Linahon.

On Saturday, Newton’s varsity is at the Fort Dodge Invitational starting at 10 a.m. and the Newton JV competes at 8 a.m. in the North Polk JV Invitational. Newton concludes the first semester of competition at home Tuesday against Prairie City-Monroe.

Varsity

Norwalk 37, Newton 30

126: Ethan Vetterick (Nor) over Ross Hull (New) (Fall 4:54) 132: Carter Schmidt (Nor) over Noah Cook (New) (Fall 3:52) 138: Zane Kohlmeyer (New) over Chris Adams (Nor) (Fall 3:26) 145: Tyler Hirl (Nor) over Jon Lawton (New) (MD 16-2) 152: Logan Zibert (New) over Tyler Gearhart (Nor) (Fall 2:34) 160: Alan Moore (Nor) over Tristin Langmaid (New) (Fall 5:08) 170: Jack Livingston (Nor) over Tanner Petro (New) (Dec 5-2) 182: Brady Smith (New) over Nick Foster (Nor) (Dec 8-3) 195: Blayden Rhone (New) over Nate Heckart (Nor) (Dec 8-3) 220: Drake Leek (Nor) over Jaise Gulling (New) (Dec 8-4) 285: Alex Miller (New) over Bryce Kohls (Nor) (Fall 2:33) 106: Travis McCombs (Nor) (For.) 113: Blake Cockerton (New) over Ethan Froehlich (Nor) (Fall 4:24) 120: Alex Hoover (Nor) over Blake Iske (New) (Dec 5-3)

Junior Varsity

Newton 53, Nowralk 32

113: Aren Sorensen (New) over Keaton Moret (Nor) (Fall 0:59) 120: Bobby Yarges (New) over Nolan Ridout (Nor) (Dec 9-7) 132: Joseph Carolus (New) over Seth Turner (Nor) (Fall 1:12) 145: Anthony Huse (Nor) over Coltin Whitten (New) (Dec 7-0) 145: Cale Voitel (Nor) over Ethan Braaksma (New) (Fall 4:52) 152: Coltin Whitten (New) over Nate Spurr (Nor) (Fall 3:48) 160: Destin Schroder (New) over Isaiah Guzman (Nor) (Fall 3:32) 160: Destin Schroder (New) over Nico Schreck (Nor) (TF 17-2 3:04) 170: Jack Palen (Nor) over Damir Gumera (New) (TF 19-2 5:27) 182: Gavin King (Nor) over Sonny Swank (New) (Fall 3:47) 182: Zach Dye (Nor) over Thomas Cox (New) (Fall 4:37) 182: Austin Romberg (New) over Cameron Brock (Nor) (Dec 10-5) 195: Jordan Hansen (Nor) over Reed Shepard (New) (Fall 1:03) 220: Isaac Bebout (New) over Garrett Westvold (Nor) (Fall 0:30) 285: Landon Hansen (New) over Austin Jones (Nor) (Fall 0:58) 285: Gage Linahon (New) over Austin Jones (Nor) (Fall 2:17)

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com