COLFAX — Colfax-Mingo wrestling coach Erin Hume anticipated several forfeit wins before the Tigerhawks faced Baxter and Coon Rapids-Bayard in a non-conference home triangular on Thursday night.
To make sure his team didn’t waste the day, he put his team through a hard practice a few hours before.
On the mats, the Tigerhawks are now 13-1 overall after a pair of wins. Colfax-Mingo opened the night with a 60-22 win over CR-B and then ended it with a 72-6 triumph over the Bolts. In between, Coon Rapids-Bayard defeated Baxter 54-9.
“They want mat time,” Hume said of his wrestlers. “But when we know we are going to have a night with a lot of forfeits, we go through a hard practice beforehand. We practiced hard for 30 minutes before the duals tonight. We had a light night on Tuesday, too. We go harder those weeks because we don’t get a lot of work on the mat in duals.
“We have 10 duals this week. And if we wrestled 10 duals against teams with full lineups, practices would look a little different.”
Colfax-Mingo received four forfeits against the Crusaders and won six of the nine contested matches. The Tigerhawks took eight forfeits and went 4-1 in contested matches against the Bolts.
With just five wrestlers, Baxter forfeited six matches to CR-B. They got two wins in the dual though as junior Austin Good won a 10-5 decision and senior Derek Flaucher took a forfeit.
The Bolts are trying to build from the ground up after becoming their own program in the offseason. Good’s win over CR-B’s Garrett Petersen was the team’s first match win of the season.
Brad Matthews scored his first career win with a pin against Colfax-Mingo later in the night.
“Our common theme is to get better every day,” Baxter coach Richard Beeler said. “I think we have gotten better each time out. We have improved. It was pretty exciting tonight because we got our first wins on the mat.”
Nine Tigerhawks finished 2-0 on the night. Senior Nathan Evans and junior Damir Gumerov won both of their matches by fall.
Evans faced Good in the dual against Baxter in what turned out to be the best battle of the night. Evans took an early lead, but Good rallied to go up 5-4 in the second.
Evans took a 9-5 lead into the third and eventually pinned Good with an 11-9 advantage on the scoreboard.
Colfax-Mingo got pins from sophomore Trystin Ross, Gumerov, junior Skyler Aikin and Evans in the win over Baxter. Gumerov needed only 12 seconds and Ross’ pin was clocked at 15 seconds.
Matthews’ pin for Baxter came at 195 pounds.
“He’s never wrestled before this year, and he pinned a kid tonight,” Beeler said of Matthews. “We are building a foundation for the program, and building it with kids who have never wrestled. So it’s going to be a process.”
Hume gave some of his JV wrestlers mat time against the Bolts. It made for better matches for the fans in the stands.
“We have run across several teams so far that don’t have full lineups so our JV kids struggle to get mat time,” Hume said. “Personally, if we were in that position I wouldn’t want them to take advantage of the situation so I tried to put in some different kids to get them some mat time.”
Colfax-Mingo opened the night with a win over the Crusaders (3-9). Evans (145), Gumerov (12-4 at 182), senior Nick Barnes (11-4 at 195), freshman Noah Strohmeyer (12-5 at 106), junior Cauy Fitch (17-1 at 120) and sophomore Cyden Fitch (15-3 at 126) all got wins by fall in the dual. Ross (16-5 at 152), senior Chance Rice (18-1 at 170), senior Colton Lourens, sophomore Zack Barnes (113) all took forfeits.
Lourens jumped into the rankings this week at seventh at 285 pounds. He won both of his matches by forfeit Thursday and is now 16-1 on the year with all nine of his wins on the mat coming by first-period pin.
“I don’t like preseason rankings. It is what it is, but I think you should have to earn a ranking,” Lourens said. “It makes me feel better that they chose to rank me after I had wrestled some matches. I have never been ranked before. So I feel like I have earned this.”
Lourens won his 100th match Tuesday. Those wins have come at 145 as a freshman, 182 as a sophomore, 220 as a junior and 285 as a senior. He now has 103 career victories.
“There was a little bit of pressure, but I am glad it’s over,” Lourens said. “Now I will just try to get as many wins as I can.”
Colfax-Mingo’s other ranked wrestler is Rice, who moved up to fourth at 160 pounds in the latest rankings. He took two forfeits Thursday to improve to 18-1 on the year. Rice now has 98 career victories.
Hume doesn’t care about the rankings but likes that some of his wrestlers are getting some respect. That’s something he still feels like his team is fighting for.
“I don’t like the target, but I like the respect. I like that Colton and Chance are getting some recognition,” Hume said. “Sometimes I feel like we don’t get a whole lot of respect because we were down for a few years there. Now we are up but folks still think we are down, and we are not.”
Ross, Strohmeyer, Zack Barnes, Cauy Fitch and Cyden Fitch also were 2-0 on the night. Ross, Strohmeyer, and the Fitch brothers all won one match by fall and one by forfeit.
Good opened up Baxter’s dual with the Crusaders with a 10-5 win at 145. The Bolts (0-7) also got a forfeit from Flaucher at 152 to go up 9-0. CR-B scored the next 54 points in the dual win.
“Austin’s our only returner this year,” Beeler said. “It was good to see him get a win. And he had chances to win that second one, too.”
Colfax-Mingo 60, Coon Rapids-Bayard 22
138: Garrett Petersen (CRB) over Andrew Meinhart (COMI) (Fall 3:49) 145: Nathan Evans (COMI) over Carson Hilgenberg (CRB) (Fall 1:37) 152: Trystin Ross (COMI) over (CRB) (For.) 160: Jared Smouse (CRB) over (COMI) (For.) 170: Chance Rice (COMI) over (CRB) (For.) 182: Damir Gumerov (COMI) over Kale Pevestorf (CRB) (Fall 1:37) 195: Nick Barnes (COMI) over Zach Lee (CRB) (Fall 0:34) 220: Dalton Arnold (CRB) over Skyler Aikin (COMI) (Fall 2:26) 285: Colton Lourens (COMI) over (CRB) (For.) 106: Noah Strohmeyer (COMI) over Alex Duran (CRB) (Fall 1:23) 113: Zack Barnes (COMI) over (CRB) (For.) 120: Cauy Fitch (COMI) over Peyton Clipperton (CRB) (Fall 4:31) 126: Cyden Fitch (COMI) over Keagan Cilliers (CRB) (Fall 2:24) 132: Austin Snyder (CRB) over Tim Carroll (COMI) (MD 12-0)
Coon Rapids-Bayard 54, Baxter 9
145: Austin Good (BAXT) over Garrett Petersen (CRB) (Dec 10-5) 152: Derek Flaucher (BAXT) over (CRB) (For.) 160: Jared Smouse (CRB) over (BAXT) (For.) 170: Double Forfeit 182: Kale Pevestorf (CRB) over Shane Beougher (BAXT) (Fall 0:46) 195: Zach Lee (CRB) over Brad Matthews (BAXT) (Fall 0:47) 220: Dalton Arnold (CRB) over Micah Kearns (BAXT) (Fall 0:44) 285: Double Forfeit 106: Alex Duran (CRB) over (BAXT) (For.) 113: Double Forfeit 120: Peyton Clipperton (CRB) over (BAXT) (For.) 126: Keagan Cilliers (CRB) over (BAXT) (For.) 132: Austin Snyder (CRB) over (BAXT) (For.) 138: Carson Hilgenberg (CRB) over (BAXT) (For.)
Colfax-Mingo 72, Baxter 6
152: Trystin Ross (COMI) over Derek Flaucher (BAXT) (Fall 0:15) 160: Double Forfeit 170: Chance Rice (COMI) over (BAXT) (For.) 182: Damir Gumerov (COMI) over Shane Beougher (BAXT) (Fall 0:12) 195: Brad Matthews (BAXT) over Will Thornton (COMI) (Fall 1:58) 220: Skyler Aikin (COMI) over Micah Kearns (BAXT) (Fall 1:07) 285: Colton Lourens (COMI) over (BAXT) (For.) 106: Noah Strohmeyer (COMI) over (BAXT) (For.) 113: Zack Barnes (COMI) over (BAXT) (For.) 120: Cauy Fitch (COMI) over (BAXT) (For.) 126: Cyden Fitch (COMI) over (BAXT) (For.) 132: Tim Carroll (COMI) over (BAXT) (For.) 138: Andrew Meinhart (COMI) over (BAXT) (For.) 145: Nathan Evans (COMI) over Austin Good (BAXT) (Fall 4:50)