Cardinals close gap against state-ranked Indianola

The scoreboard won’t necessarily show it, but compared to the last few seasons, the Newton boys wrestling team made huge progress against Indianola during their Little Hawkeye Conference dual on Thursday.

The 24th-ranked Cardinals won three of the first four matches and held an early lead but fell to No. 16 Indianola 56-13 during the team’s season and home opener.

“I like having this tough dual early because we can really build from this one,” Newton head boys wrestling coach RJ Brown said. “This is a top-five dual team, and we competed really hard even though the scoreboard doesn’t show it.”

The Indians start the season with five ranked wrestlers. Four of them were in uniform against Newton on Thursday.

Class 3A No. 1 Mac Crosson took a forfeit at 165 pounds and No. 9 Rylan Hilton did not wrestle at 157.

Trevor Van Kley lost in his varsity debut at 106 pounds, but the Cardinals won the next three matches to take an early lead.

Wyatt Archibald won his varsity debut 10-5 at 113. He was supposed to face Indianola’s Jasper Reisinger in a junior varsity match, but the two coaching staffs moved it to varsity after the Indians’ regular starter at 113 did not make weight.

“He wrestled really well and didn’t know he was going to be in a varsity match until noon (on Thursday),” Brown said. “But he got his first varsity win. That was really cool.”

Kent Montgomery scored the Cardinals’ only victories in Newton’s last two duals against Indianola. He won again against the Indians in the latest meeting, this time winning by fall at 120.

It wasn’t the perfect match for Montgomery, who starts the season ranked 10th in his weight class. He scored the first takedown of the match but gave up points on a reversal shortly after.

“He got caught in a weird position early and got reversed. He’s a sponge and was asking after that the match about what went wrong there,” Brown said. “He’s doing a lot of good things. He transitioned well to different moves, he’s good in every position on the mat and his neutral has elevated him this year. That makes him dangerous.”

Montgomery’s partner in the room, Abel Aldama, also won his match at 126. He posted a 15-5 win by major decision to put the Cardinals in front 13-5.

That was the final win of the night though as Indianola rattled off 10 straight victories and scored bonus points in nine of them.

“He won’t kill you with crazy technique, but he’s on you for six minutes,” Brown said about Aldama. “Cross country was a great thing for him because he came into the season already in shape. He also wrestles (Montgomery) every day.”

Aiden Robson lost his match, 6-4, at 157. He was credited with a takedown in the final few seconds that would have shifted the match to his favor, but the official quickly reversed his decision and took the points off the board though.

Kolten Slycord’s debut on varsity resulted in a loss by fall against No. 3 Stoney Wood at 144.

Second-ranked Elijah Blewitt also won by fall over Zaine Robson at 150 and No. 9 Tegen Anderson pinned Zach Sheffield in the second period at 190.

“We built this team from my freshman year when we’d get our butts kicked every night,” Montgomery said. “Every single match felt closer than normal. There was no match that was out of range.”

Newton’s other two ranked wrestlers lost in their matches though. Class 3A No. 12 Lane Rozendaal was defeated 13-3 at 175 and fifth-ranked Nick Milburn lost by fall at 215.

Indianola posted five pins, one technical fall, three major decisions and one decision in its 10 wins.

“We knew early they had the heart of their lineup still to come and those points were there for them,” Brown said about the early lead. “But even in those matches we competed really hard and like we were supposed to be there. That’s a huge step up from seasons past.

“We were in most of those matches tonight, and that makes me super happy. Our experience is starting to show up.”

Notes: Indianola defeated Newton 70-5 last year and 74-6 two seasons ago. … While the Indians are ranked 16th in the 3A dual rankings, they are No. 7 in the tournament rankings.

Montgomery, Rozendaal lead Newton to fourth at Cardinal Classic

Rozendaal and Montgomery cruised through their brackets at the team’s home tournament on Saturday.

The Cardinal duo each went 6-0 and claimed the tournament championships, which helped the Cardinals finish fourth in the 10-team field.

Mount Vernon won the tournament championship with 277 points. Ballard (187) and Oskaloosa (183) edged Newton (179) in second and third, respectively, and Grinnell (139), Centerville (100.5), Des Moines Roosevelt (97.5), Norwalk (62.5), Des Moines Lincoln (59.5) and Des Moines North/Hoover (3) completed the field.

Montgomery, who’s ranked 10th in 3A at 120, was 6-0 with five pins and one technical fall. Three of his pins came in 1 minute, 13 seconds or less.

Class 3A No. 12 Rozendaal opened with a 15-4 major decision and then he posted three straight pins in 57 seconds or less, took a medical forfeit in the semifinals and then won by fall to win the 175 title.

Aiden Robson (150) and Milburn (215) both were second at their weights, and Sebastian Sorenson (144) and Coleby Revell (285) finished third.

Aiden Robson was 5-1 at 150. His first four wins came by pin and then he scored a win by 16-0 technical fall in the semifinals. His lone loss was 17-9 to Mount Vernon’s Avery Paustian in the finals.

Class 3A No. 5 Milburn won his first match of the day, 4-3. He then scored back-to-back pins to reach the finals where he lost to 3A No. 3 Parker Jordan of Oskaloosa.

Sorenson was one of two Cardinals who wrestled at 144. He was 3-2 with three pins. One of those wins came against teammate Slycord, who was sixth after picking up his first career varsity win.

Sorenson won his third-place match by fall despite trailing 7-4 at the time of the pin.

Revell was 5-1 for the day with four pins. His first win was a 12-second pin and he also had pins in 27 and 23 seconds and won his final match 10-3.

Aldama was fourth at 126. He was 4-2 with wins of 20-3, 9-6 and 8-7 before winning by fall. He lost by fall in the semifinals and then dropped a 4-2 match in the third-place bout.

Sheffield was fifth at 190 after a 3-3 day. He won twice by fall and once by medical forfeit. One of his wins by pin came after trailing 7-5.

Van Kley earned his first varsity win by forfeit but was 1-3 and placed fifth at 106.

Zander Robson was the final Cardinal in the field. He placed sixth with a 2-3 day at 132. He won his first two matches 12-6 and 20-3.