March 19, 2024

Podium goals still alive for PCM trio

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DES MOINES — Prairie City-Monroe’s wrestling team brought three Mustangs to the Iowa High School State Wrestling Championships.

And after the first day, all three PCM grapplers are still alive for state-tournament medals.

Senior Xavier Miller and sophomore Jarron Trausch stayed in the championship side of their brackets with first-round victories, while sophomore Lucas Roland lost his opening match but recovered and stayed alive with a win by fall in wrestleback.

Now, they turn their attention to Friday where the Mustang trio needs one more win each to earn a spot on the medal podium.

“Overall, we won three out of four matches. It’s good that we are all still alive,” PCM coach Cory Waddell said. “That’s what this tournament is all about, making it to the next day.”

Trausch avenged one of his five losses from earlier this season with a dominating 12-3 major decision victory over Solon’s Mike Hoyle, while third-ranked Miller scored first and last in a 10-8 overtime win over No. 7 Tate Battani of Ballard.

Roland jumped out to a 2-0 lead in his match 160 but gave up four points in the final 15 seconds to lose 6-3.

Trausch got an early takedown against Hoyle to grab a lead, and then threw Hoyle to his back early in the second period. The five-point move gave Trausch a 7-0 lead and he went on to win by a 12-3 major decision.

“I waited for his pressure, and then I just waited for the right moment. It turned out good,” Trausch said of the hip toss. “After I put him on his back, I felt comfortable. I thought I had the pin, too.”

Trausch (44-5) got put on his back twice in the first meeting against Hoyle (38-17) in December. Hoyle won that match 11-6, but the second meeting was a much different story.

“He looked like Jarron Trausch. He had good sectional and district tournaments, but we haven’t seen Jarron looked that good in a while,” Waddell said. “He has built himself back up since having a little bit of a lull in the middle of the season. That kid he beat is no joke, and he went out and took it to him.”

Miller (46-2) jumped out to a 2-0 lead with a takedown on Battani (32-11) in the first 15 seconds of the match.

Battani rallied to tie the score at 3-all after the first period. Battani escaped to gain the lead early in the second, but Miller scored a takedown in the final 30 seconds to jump back in front.

Miller’s lead grew to 7-4 in the third following an escape and an illegal hold called on Battani. The Bomber junior rallied though to force overtime. In the first overtime session, Miller quickly got in on Battani’s leg for the match-winning takedown.

“The first match is always the toughest. He got this one out of the way, and now we get some scouting done and get ready to come back tomorrow,” Waddell said.

Two years ago, PCM’s Tristan Clark won his first match in overtime and still reached the title match later in the weekend. Miller, who is one of the favorites to reach the 145-pound final, will look to follow a similar path during his championship run.

“I would have liked to have won by more, but a win is a win down here,” Miller said. “You just take it and move on to the next one. I wrestled not to lose instead of to win, and once it got to overtime, I kind of refocused and told myself I needed to take him down or my run at the title was over.”

Roland (33-3) had big goals for himself this season but with his ultimate goal out of reach, the Mustang sophomore will try to work his way through the consolation bracket and into the third-place match later this week.

Roland, who is wrestling with torn ligaments in each of his thumbs, led 2-1 after one period and 3-1 after the second. In third, No. 7 Kolton Bartow of Dubuque Wahlert rallied for the 6-3 victory.

“I just lost my goal that I have had for the last year in six minutes,” Roland said. “I got comfortable. I have been wrestling for a long time, and I should know better, but sometimes you just mess up.

“The goal now is to come back and get third. I want to do the best I possibly can and finish the tournament strong.”

Waddell said coming back after losing your first match at state is the toughest thing to do at the state tournament. Roland came back with a vengence, winning by fall over Osage’s Zach Williams (35-25).

“I loved to see him come back,” Waddell said. “That consolation wrestleback after you just lost at the state tournament is the toughest match to wrestle in. He’s a ranked kid that has big goals so it would have been easy to lose focus. He didn’t do that. Now, we’ll go home, take care of his thumb and come back ready to go.”

After going 0-2 at state last year, Trausch moves on to Friday’s quarterfinals where he will face No. 10 Noah Glaser of New Hampton. Glaser (51-8) defeated Tyler Zieman, 9-6, is his first-round match.

“This one feels good, but now I just want more,” Trausch said.

Miller won his first-round match last year but bowed out after two straight losses on Friday. This season, he moves on to the quarterfinals where he meets Mount Vernon’s Paul Ryan. Miller has now 36 straight matches.

Roland, the only Mustang to medal last year, will wrestle in another elimination match Friday after the quarterfinal round is over.

The quarterfinals begin in 2A and 3A at 2:30 p.m. Friday. The semifinal round begins at 8:45 p.m. Friday.