June 08, 2025

Forfeits plague PCM in double dual losses

By Troy Hyde
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Prairie City-Monroe freshman Lucas Roland, top, had little trouble with Gilbert’s Jake Larimore on Thursday during a Heart of Iowa Conference double dual in Monroe. Roland pinned Larimore in the first period after defeated Roland-Story’s Tyson Manzer 8-5 in the opening dual. Roland is 12-0 on the season at 138 pounds. (Troy Hyde)

MONROE — The latest high school wrestling rankings have members of the Prairie City-Monroe wrestling team a bit frustrated.

Rankings at the end of the season are the only ones that matter.

Junior Xavier Miller dropped out of the rankings this week, and a wrestler he defeated 13-7 a few weeks ago came into the rankings at No. 10.

Miller is confused but not discouraged. He picked up two more wins by fall Thursday during home double dual losses to Heart of Iowa Conference rivals Roland-Story and Gilbert.

Freshmen Lucas Roland and Wes Cummings both stayed unbeaten with two wins by fall, and freshman Jarron Trausch and juniors Jakeb Fenton and James Maggard also had two pins each, but forfeits continued to hamper the Mustangs on the scoreboard.

PCM (3-10 overall, 1-3 in the HOIC) won six of the nine contested matches in both duals, but several forfeits prevented the Mustangs from claiming a victory.

Roland-Story (8-5, 4-0) stayed unbeaten in Heart of Iowa Conference action after recording a sweep on the night. The Norse defeated PCM, 40-39, in the opener and then took down Gilbert 41-30.

PCM gave five forfeits to Gilbert (6-5, 3-1) in the final dual of the night, and the Tigers returned home with a 47-36 victory.

“I expected both duals to be within a match. On paper, I expected to win six matches in each dual and that’s what we did,” PCM coach Cory Waddell said. “I thought we needed to win a couple toss-up matches to win the duals.”

The Mustangs were unable to win those toss-up matches. And that proved to be ultimately be the difference in both duals.

“I was pretty confident from 138 to 170 in both duals,” Waddell said. “That’s not enough when you give up four forfeits. You have to get an upset and we didn’t.”

At 138, Roland improved to 12-0 on the year. He pinned Gilbert’s Jake Larimore in 1 minute, 46 seconds. His other win was an 8-5 decision over Roland-Story’s Tyson Manzer, a state qualifier last season.

Cummings is 7-0 following is two pins, and Trausch jumped to 10-2 with six pins after a pair of falls Thursday.

Miller claimed two pins on the night and is 14-2 on the season. He has more than 80 wins in his career yet is nowhere to be found when it comes to the rankings.

“It’s a little frustrating because one of the guys (Creston/OM’s Mitchell Swank) ranked ahead of me I already beat 13-7 a few weeks ago,” Miller said. “It doesn’t make sense to me. It bothers me, but at the same time, it doesn’t really matter until the end of the year anyway.”

It doesn’t bother Waddell. He prefers his wrestlers fly under the radar as long as possible. He wasn’t shocked to see no one ranked this week but was a bit surprised.

“It seems to me that the Eastern side of the state has a stranglehold on the rankings,” Waddell said. “I send in our numbers and they do what they want with them. It is what it is.”

Maggard is the most improved PCM wrestler from last year, according to Waddell. He improved to 4-1 on the year with two first-period pins at 160 Thursday. Fenton won both of his matches at 106 by fall, too.

“That’s huge for us. James has turned the corner for us this year compared to where he was at last year,” Waddell said of Maggard. “He’s by far our most improved wrestler on the team, and you could see that tonight. He probably loses both of those matches last year.”

The Mustangs won’t be fully healthy until after the holiday break. Leevi Telfer (195) is out with a shoulder injury, Brysen Rogers (126) is recovering from mononucleosis and Nathan Trausch (182) is missing time because of impetego.

“It was frustrating last week, but we won six of the nine contested matches tonight so I can’t be upset about that,” Waddell said. “I told the guys tonight that I can’t wait until Saturday. We are probably taking eight guys to North Polk, and I think we can get six in the finals. That will be fun.”

The North Polk Invitational kicks off at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.

Roland-Story 40, PCM 39

120: Zach Anderson (R-S) over Chance Palm (PCM) (TF 20-5) 126: Koby Hassebrock (R-S) over Kaeden VanSoelen (PCM) (Fall 1:47) 132: Bill Joslin (R-S) over Drew Johnson (PCM) (TF 16-0) 138: Lucas Roland (PCM) over Tyson Manzer (R-S) (Dec 8-5) 145: Xavier Miller (PCM) over Will Halstead (R-S) (Fall 4:29) 152: Wes Cummings (PCM) over William Clark (R-S) (Fall 3:10) 160: James Maggard (PCM) over Liam Schevermann (R-S) (Fall 1:48) 170: Jarron Trausch (PCM) over Nicholas Stole (R-S) (Fall 0:43) 182: Sam Mathis (R-S) over PCM (Forfeit) 195: Reynaldo Torres (R-S) over PCM (Forfeit) 220: Calvin Bright (R-S) over PCM (Forfeit) 285: Joshua Engelby (R-S) over PCM (Forfeit) 106: Jakeb Fenton (PCM) over Max Halstead (R-S) (Fall 2:35) 113: Chace Palm (PCM) over R-S (Forfeit).

Gilbert 47, PCM 36

132: Brock Harris (G) over Drew Johnson (PCM) (TF 16-0) 138: Lucas Roland (PCM) over Jake Larimore (G) (Fall 1:46) 145: Xavier Miller (PCM) over Eric Swart (G) (Fall 2:40) 152: Wes Cummings (PCM) over Reldon Miller (G) (Fall 3:24) 160: James Maggard (PCM) over Russell Jennett (G) (Fall 2:59) 170: Jarron Trausch (PCM) over Noah Antle (G) (Fall 2:59) 182: Jack Currans (G) over PCM (Forfeit) 195: Christopher McGuire (G) over PCM (Forfeit) 220: Christian Harder (G) over PCM (Forfeit) 285: Eli Harris (G) over PCM (Forfeit) 106: Jakeb Fenton (PCM) over Grant Gardner (G) (Fall 0:30) 113: Eric Davis (G) over PCM (Forfeit) 120: Sinjin Briggs (G) over Chance Palm (PCM) (Fall 1:40) 126: Garrison Holck (G) over Kaeden VanSoelen (PCM) (Fall 3:18).