Cardinals pin down Toreadors

BOONE — In the first varsity wrestling match of the 2019-20 season, Newton High’s Cardinals had some firsts for the program. The Cardinals claimed a 39-34 dual victory over host Boone on Monday.

Two wrestlers made history for Newton High wrestling. Freshman Kinzie Hardin and sophomore Emma Fox were the first girls to wrestle for the Cardinal varsity. Hardin won by forfeit at 106 pounds and Fox was pinned in 33 seconds by Boone’s Gage Smith at 126 pounds.

Newton has six girls on the roster for this season. It also has three ranked wrestlers as The Predicament — an Iowa wrestling online service — announced its preseason high school wrestling rankings late Monday afternoon.

Senior Gage Linahon is ranked No. 2 at 220 pounds in Class 3A. Senior Destin Schroder is fifth at 182 pounds and sophomore Brennan Amos is ranked eighth at 132. All three competed in the 2019 Iowa Class 3A state tournament.

Linahon wrestled up a weight — 285 — Monday against the Toreadors. It was a rematch from a year ago with Linahon pinning Hector Garcia in 3 minutes, 49 seconds.

That win came in the third match of the night and put Newton in front 9-4. Boone’s Tanner Harvey, who is ranked No. 5, posted a 12-2 major decision over senior Gabe Hoen at 195 to open the dual.

Newton junior Owen Sanger defeated Boone’s Brevin Bennett 6-2 in the 220 match. After Linahon’s win, Hardin had her forfeit win at 106.

Junior Anthony Bestell began his season with a pin of Boone’s Trent Overturf at 113.The win came at the 2:49 mark of the match.

Newton led 21-3 but Boone won the next five matches to climb into the lead, 31-21.

Newton freshman Avery White lost by a 15-0 technical fall to Boone’s Carter Fry at 120. Fox was pinned by Smith and Boone’s Seth Morris won by forfeit at 132.

Sophomore Damien Bayles dropped a 12-1 major decision to Boone’s Kyle Sharp at 138. Wyatt Oppedahl’s forfeit win at 145 put Boone up by 10 points.

Newton battled back with a first-period pin by senior Canaan Terpstra at 152 over Dylan Pestotnik. Senior Blake Iske got the forfeit win at 160 for the Cardinals and moved his team to a 33-31 advantage.

Senior Zane Kohlmeyer lost 9-5 to Boone’s Jayden Angle in the 170-pound match. The Toreadors were up 34-33.

It came down to the final match. Schroder faced Boone’s McGuire Bryant in the 182-pound bout. Schroder put the hammer down with a pin in 1:37 to lift Newton to victory.

In two junior varsity matches at 170 pounds, sophomore Austin Brady lost 17-2 to Boone’s Collin Mitchell and Mitchell pinned Newton junior AJ Holdefer in 1:18.

Newton (1-0) opens Little Hawkeye Conference action Thursday at home. The Cardinals host Indianola at 6:30 p.m. at the NHS gym.

The Cardinals have their annual Cardinal Invitational on Saturday. Matches begin at 10 a.m.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com