The Mid-Prairie wrestling team hosted it’s second meet this week on Thursday night and sent fans home happy with three exciting wins. Mid-Prairie opened up the meet with their first River Valley Conference dual of the year, taking on Tipton. Starting at 285 Mid-Prairie fell behind 9-0. Following a Tipton forfeit at 113, Blake Murphy came up big for the Hawks at 120 scoring a pin to put Mid-Prairie on top 12-9. The Tigers regained control of the matchup in the next four weight classes earning two falls and a forfeit to build a 27-18 lead.
Visouth Peterschmidt gave Mid-Prairie the momentum back scoring a pin at 152 making it 27-24 Tipton. Miguel Sanchez tied it for the Hawks at 27 with his hard fought 12-8 win at 160lbs. Tipton would not go away. The Tigers scored a decision at 170 and a tech fall at 182 to push their lead to 35-27. A Tipton forfeit at 195 left the Hawks trailing 35-33 with Ben Fiordelise coming to the mat in the final match, and Fiordelise delivered. Late in the second period Fiordelise came up with the fall to give Mid-Prairie the match 39-35. Fiordelise talked about the sequence that ended with the pin.
“He tried cradling me, and it was kind of off balance, so I just kind of rolled back and found him flat, so I just put pressure on him and it worked,” Fiordleise said.
In the second dual of the night Mid-Prairie squared off with area school Lone Tree. Following three forfeits by the Lions at the lower weights Lone Tree rebounded to take the next four bouts and a 21-18 lead on pins by Levi Tripses at 126 and Alex Yedlik at 145, a 6-0 win at 132 by Drake Hotz, and a forfeit at 138. Mid-Prairie answered at 152 when Visouth Peterschmidt collected his second fall of the night to put the Hawks back on top 24-21. Keaton Kane continued the see-saw battle with a pin for Lone Tree at 160 to make it 27-24 Lions. The match up turned back to the Hawks at 170 when Cameron Tolander put Garrett Boxwell on his back for the fall and a 30-27 lead. Following a Lone Tree forfeit at 182, two state qualifiers from last year battled at 195 lbs as Phirom Peterschmidt took on Ty Robertson. The match up was all Peterschmidt in an 11-0 major decision to ice the dual. The Hawks took it by a final score of 46-33.
In the nightcap Mid-Prairie faced rival Iowa City Regina. The dual started with six forfeits leaving Mid-Prairie up 24-12 going into the first contested match at 152. Visouth Peterschmidt continued to be a machine with his third pin of the night in 1:54. Miguel Sanchez followed that with a pin of his own at 160 in 5:29. Regina got back within 36-24 with pins at 170 and 182 but Mid-Prairie put it away late. Following Regal forfeits at 192 and 220 Ben Fiordelise wrestled up at 285 and put Regina heavyweight Reagen Ries (Reese) on his back in 1:26 to make it 48-30. The Hawks put on the exclamation point at 106 when Duncan McCain scored a fall giving Mid-Prairie a 54-30 win. Mid-Prairie Head Coach Justin Garvey talked about his teams performance.
“We had a really good night tonight,” Garvey said. “You know the guys came out and they battled and all the way up and down the lineup the guys fought and fought and we won matches we shouldn’t have won and maybe we lost a couple here or there that we shouldn’t have lost, but overall we fought hard, and I couldn’t be prouder tonight with how they wrestled.”
Mid-Prairie is now 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the River Valley Conference. The Hawks will be at the New London Invitational Saturday.