L-S, C-M claim one title each at SICL tourney

NEW SHARON — Lynnville-Sully senior Caden Dunsbergen hasn’t intimidated any of his opponents with a fancy ranking or an impressive record.

In fact, he entered the South Iowa Cedar League tournament with 20 losses. He’s had a lot of tough-luck defeats and just couldn’t get over the hump.

All of that changed Saturday.

Dunsbergen made sure he didn’t leave his performances to bad luck. He won all three of his matches by fall and claimed the 138-pound championship.

“This year has been brutal. I have lost a lot of close matches this year,” Dunsbergen said. “Today, things went my way. I have been practicing pretty hard. I was tired of losing so I stepped it up. This feels awesome. I hope I can continue the momentum into next week.”

Colfax-Mingo sophomore Cauy Fitch also earned his first conference championship, winning the 113-pound title and improving his season record to 33-1 after two victories Saturday.

“The biggest thing I want Cauy to know is that he’s a good wrestler,” Colfax-Mingo coach Erin Hume said. “There are a lot of people that believe in him. He just needs to get his young mind to believe it, too.”

Cauy Fitch said he has been motivated by the fact he was unable to finish the season a year ago. Hume has been pushing him to be at his best the entire way this year.

“It feels pretty good. I missed out on this last year,” Cauy Fitch said. “Coach Hume reminded me every day last year that I missed out on a conference title and maybe a state berth last year. He pushed me through this today, too. It helps me a lot.”

Lynnville-Sully brought nine wrestlers to the tournament all nine did no worse than fifth place. That, as well as three finalists, helped the Hawks place fourth in team standings.

Sigourney-Keota won the team title easily with 199.5 points. The next four schools were separated by only 18 points.

Iowa Valley came in second with 147 points followed by English Valleys in third with 141 points. Lynnville-Sully scored 132.5 points in fourth, while Colfax-Mingo finished fifth with 129 points.

Host North Mahaska was the only other SICL school to eclipse the 100-point mark. The Warhawks finished sixth with 107 points. Montezuma (77), Belle Plaine (76), HLV (57), BGM (56) and Tri-County (10) rounded out the 11-team field.

“Everything is starting to roll, and the team is starting to come together,” Lynnville-Sully coach Jason Walston said. “We are hitting our stride at the right time. We just need to keep doing what we are doing.”

Several area wrestlers advanced to the finals, but only Dunsbergen and Fitch were victorious.

Colfax-Mingo junior Colton Lourens (220) and freshmen Zack Barnes (106) and Cyden Fitch (120) joined Cauy Fitch in the finals for the Tigerhawks.

Lynnville-Sully’s finalists were Caden Dunsbergen (138), junior Carson Dunsbergen and junior Sage Zylstra (160).

“Today was special to my parents. It’s pretty cool to be in back-to-back finals with my brother,” Caden Dunsbergen said about being joined in the finals by his brother. “I will always remember playing sports with him. It will be the best memory we have in our lives I think.”

Caden Dunsbergen is now 24-20 after three wins Saturday. He pinned Colfax-Mingo senior Adam Teed in the semifianls to advance. Teed (26-14) went on to place third with a 3-1 day.

“A lot of his matches early in the year were close and could have gone either way,” Walston said. “The last three weeks though, there’s been a shift. Everything is coming together. It’s starting to gel with him and the team.”

Carson Dunsbergen missed most of the season with an injury, but he was back in the lineup and made the most of it Saturday. He is now 12-6 on the season after winning his first two matches.

Zylstra (21-7) was another Hawk wrestler who was forced out of the lineup for multiple meets because of an illness. He won his first match by fall and then advanced to the finals with a 9-6 win over second-seeded Alex Schuster of Sigourney-Keota. Zylstra lost by fall to Iowa Valley’s Jacob Krakow, who is ranked second in Class 1A at 160 pounds.

Two other Hawk wrestlers finished third on the day in their weight classes. Both Josh Dunsbergen and Cayden Johnson went 3-1 on the day. Josh Dunsbergen is now 27-13 on the season, while Johnson is 31-10.

The four other L-S wrestlers finished at least fourth or fifth.

Freshman Jacob DeHoedt (106) and sophomore Ty Breeden (126) were both fourth, while senior Bryson Barnett (170) and Aaron Van Der Krol (220) each finished fifth.

“This is my first tournament champion ever. This is awesome,” Walston said. “This was a fantastic tournament. We came here ready to wrestle. Everybody here scored team points for us.”

Colfax-Mingo was a bit short-handed, too. The Tigerhawks did not have a 160-pounder and senior heavyweight Ben Mead (27-5) also wasn’t available due to an illness.

Hume conceded early in the day that not having his varsity heavyweight in the lineup probably meant doom in regards to earning a top-three finish.

“It’s not what I wanted, but it was a good day,” Hume said. “We have a week left of learning before sectionals. I am disappointed that we didn’t have a full lineup. It would have made a huge difference.”

Barnes defeated DeHoedt, 12-8, in a 106-pound semifinal. He was 2-1 on the day and now has 28 wins on the season, which sets a new freshman victory record.

Cyden and Cauy Fitch both wrestled only twice on the day for the Tigerhawks. Cyden split his two matches and is now 26-20 on the season.

Lourens (32-5) also advanced to the 220-pound title bout. He won his first match over Montezuma’s Hunter Foubert, who qualified for last year’s state tournament. Lourens lost to 1A No. 5 Noah Boender in the finals.

Freshman Trystin Ross split his four matches on the day at 145 pounds. He wound up finshing fourth overall.

Junior Nick Barnes (195) and Judd Pierce (285) both went winless on the day and still took home fifth-place finishes. Tim Carroll (132) started the day 0-2 before placing fifth with a win by fall in his final match.

Senior Will Dunsbergen, sophomore Mollie Greve and freshman Isaace Couse all finished the night 0-2.

Another head-to-head matchup went in favor of Lynnville-Sully. Bryson Barnett battled former teammate Trent Jones in the 170-pound fifth place match. Barnett pinned Jones in the second period.

Hume came into the season with the hopes of finishing in the top two of the SICL tournament. He didn’t anticipate an open weight at 160 and expected Mead to be in the lineup.

Mead would have been one of five heavyweights in the field. He defeated three of the four other wrestlers in the field.

“I thought we did a good job,” Hume said. “We are still under the weather. There is still room for improvement, and I am glad that we didn’t perform the way we wanted to today so we can do it next week.

“We had some guys underperform, too. We always want to wrestle better than your seed, but sometimes that doesn’t happen.”

Both area schools return to action at noon Saturday. Lynnville-Sully competes in a 1A sectional in Montezuma, while Colfax-Mingo battles in another 1A sectional in Truro.