Mustangs sit third, keep three on front side after day one

DES MOINES — It wasn’t a perfect day. And there will be plenty of obstacles to overcome.

But in the end, Prairie City-Monroe’s top-ranked wrestling team pushed three grapplers through to the championship side of the bracket, have five still alive in all and sit third in Class 2A after the opening day of the Iowa High School State Wrestling Championships at Wells Fargo Arena.

Seniors Wes Cummings and Jarron Trausch both won their first-round matches by fall, sophomore Colby Tool kept his winning streak alive with a major decision and PCM scored 15.5 points on the day.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is defending state champion Lucas Roland and junior Payton Drake both dropped their first-round matches by close decisions and fifth-ranked sophomore Landon Fenton is out of the tournament due to an upper body injury.

“It’s unfortunate for Landon, but we can win with the guys we have going still,” PCM coach Jeff Nicholson said.

“The guys we have just need to make deep runs and we’ll be fine.

PCM also lost senior Cody Wallace and junior Jace Smith, who were both 0-2 on the day.

The Mustangs are third in a tight 2A team race.

Third-ranked West Delaware leads the way with 19 points and sixth-ranked Solon is second with 18 points.
PCM holds a half-point lead on Independence and a one-point advantage on second-ranked Union.

“We have faced adversity all year and still come through. I definitely think this team still has a shot,” Cummings said.

There are 16 teams who scored at least 10 points on day one.

Second-ranked Tool (44-1) was the first Mustang to stay on the championship side of the bracket when he dominated Van Meter/Earlham’s Quinn Corcoran 11-1 at 145 pounds.

“It was nice to win the first one this year. That’s way better than last year,” said Tool, who lost his first match at state last year but went on to finish fourth. “I felt really good about the match after the first minute. I was too cautious early, but it’s the state tournament, and I will fix that as I go through.”

Second-ranked Cummings (39-2) was the next first-round winner at 160. He spent 1:21 on the mat, pinning Dubuque Wahlert’s Connor Dehn in the first period.

Cummings was under the weather earlier in the week and missed PCM’s appearance in the state duals on Wednesday. He was better on Thursday but tried his best to get the match over with quick.

He also experience a first-round win for the first time in his career.

“Going six minutes today did not sound fun after the past few days,” Cummings said. “I am trying to take it one match at a time. I have laser focus and trying not to let the nerves get to me.”

Sixth-ranked Trausch (41-5) followed up Cummings’ pin with a fall of his own at 170. He finished off his match with Burlington Notre Dame’s Tucker Moore in the second period.

“I felt good about it. I wish I would have had more offense in the first period, but it was a good start,” Trausch said.

The shocker of the day may have come at 182 where fourth-ranked Roland (26-4) was put to his back twice and lost 13-10. He was able to stay alive though after a 14-5 major-decision win.

“It’s 10 times harder to win a state title after winning the year before. He’s faced a lot of adversity this year and that makes things even tougher,” Nicholson said of Roland’s loss. “He bounced back and he could have packed it in. He just needs to take it one match at a time. He can still score a lot of points on the back side.”

The fifth surviving Mustang was Drake, who dropped a 2-1 decision to second-ranked Nathaniel Genobana of Centerville in the opening round. Drake (34-9) continues his quest for a state medal Friday after a 16-0 technical fall victory in a first-round consolation match.

“I know that if I can be right with the No. 1 and No. 2 kids in the state, that I am right there,” Drake said. “I just need to take it to the next step. The best I can do is third, and I believe I can still do that.”

Roland and Drake will have to wait until Friday afternoon to find out who their second-round consolation opponent will be.

Tool’s quarterfinal foe at 145 is ninth-ranked Oscar Olmos of Harlan. Tool defeated Olmos 3-0 at the regional dual earlier this season.

Cummings’ next opponent is eighth-ranked Caleb Swalla (36-5) of Van Meter/Earlham. Trausch gets a rematch with second-ranked and undefeated Sage Walker of Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont.

Fenton was trailing 2-0 in his first-round match when an injury on the mat forced him to retire early. He was unable to compete in an elimination wrestleback, thus ending his run at the state tournament.

Wallace started his tournament with a major-decision loss to fourth-ranked Zack Bevans of Solon. In the consolation wrestleback, Wallace (36-13) rallied from a 4-0 deficit after two periods to tie the score at 7-all at the very end of regulation.

Gilbert’s Carson Johnson won the match 9-7 in SV-1 to eliminate the PCM senior.

Smith (29-20) lost his first match by second-period pin and then was eliminated when he was pinned in the first period.

The 2A quarterfinals and second-round consolations begin at 2:30 p.m. The semifinals are third-round consolations start at 8:45 p.m.