Two area teams were in action Tuesday night in a Quadrangular wrestling meet in Wellman. Mid-Prairie posted a 1-2 record on the night. In the first rotation the Hawks were matched up with the Columbus Wildcats. Columbus took the area battle 60-18. The dual started at 132 where Johnny Quinn scored a fall in 1:19 to put the Wildcats up 6-0. Following a forfeit at 138 the Wildcats increased their lead to 15-0 at 145 with Austin Edwards scoring an 8-2 decision over Visouth Peterschmidt. Following another Golden Hawk forfeit at 152, Mid-Prairie got on the board with a Miguel Sanchez pin at 160. The Wildcats took the momentum back at 170 when Tucker Morrison recorded the fall in 3:48 to make the score 27-6 Columbus. The pin parade continued as Phirom Peterschmidt manhandled his opponent at 182 grabbing the fall in just 28 seconds.
With the score at 27-12 in favor of Columbus Mid-Prairie forfeits from 195 up put the dual out of reach. In a battle of ranked wrestlers at 106 Mid-Prairie’s Duncan McCain fell to Josh Keller of Columbus 5-1. Josh Murphy got the pin for Mid-Prairie at 113 and Columbus answered with an Armando Quiroz pin at 120. Columbus also received a forfeit at 126.
In the second dual of the night the Golden Hawks beat Iowa City Regina 34-33 on the second tie-breaking criteria. The dual started at 138 and a pair of Mid-Prairie forfeits put Regina up 12-0. At 152 Visouth Peterschmidt got the Hawks on the board with a 3-0 decision. Miguel Sanchez followed that at 160 with his second fall of the night to make the score 12-9 Regina. A Regina pin put the Regals back in control when Phirom Peterschmidt stepped to that mat. Peterschmidt stuck his opponent in just 1:07. The pin is the 81st of his Golden Hawk career establishing a new Mid-Prairie school record. The previous record was held by Adam Greiner, a multiple state championship winner from 1990 to 1993. The final contested match of the dual was at 106 where Regina’s TJ Schott beat Mid-Prairie’s Duncan McCain with a take down in sudden victory. Both teams racked up points on forfeits but after the 33 all tie Mid-Prairie took the match up on the overall wins criteria to move to 1-1 on the night.
In Mid-Prairie’s final dual of the night they faced off with perennial power Iowa Valley. Mid-Prairie fell to the Tigers 54-27. The Golden Hawks got pins from Josh Murphy at 113, Miguel Sanchez at 160 and Phirom Peterschmidt at 182. Visouth Peterschmidt took a decision at 145 by a 7-1 score. Following the meet Mid-Prairie Head Coach Justin Garvey talked about his team trying to fill up a line up, and the performance of his guys that did see the mat Tuesday night.
“I can’t say enough about the guys that showed up tonight and were able to wrestle, we’ve got a couple of guys who are injured and weren’t able to wrestle tonight, but Josh Murphy wrestled amazing tonight, Phirom wrestled great tonight, Miguel Sanchez wrestled great tonight. The guys, they showed up, they battled and we have some other guys that need a little bit of work, but we’ll get there, it’s still early in January and we’ve got time,” Garvey said.
Mid-Prairie is now 9-5 on the season
Following their win over the Golden Hawks, Columbus finished the night with a sweep. In the marquee match up of the night Columbus handled Iowa Valley 42-37. The two teams took turns with the lead through the first four bouts with Columbus holding a slim 12-10 advantage. Columbus took over in the upper weights building a 30-19 lead going into the 106lb match. The Wildcats finished at the lower weights also stretching the lead as far as 42-19 which was enough to withstand a frantic Tiger comeback. Recording falls for Columbus were Mitchell Griffin at 113, Austin Edwards at 145, Mauricio Ramirez at 160, Tucker Morrison at 170, Mark Ramirez at 195 and Kyle Davis at 220.
Columbus closed out the night with a 51-24 win over Iowa City Regina. The Regals jumped out to a 12-3 lead and led 18-9 but Columbus rallied to take the win. Recording falls for the Wildcats were Mauricio Ramirez at 160, Tucker Morrison at 170, Mark Ramirez at 195, and Kyle Davis at 220 as the Wildcats upper weights did the heavy lifting in the win. Columbus is now 12-1 on the season.