Creston/O-M earns seventh straight State Duals trip

The Creston/O-M wrestling team tends to turn into a runaway freight train when it wrestles in the Creston High School gymnasium.

All it takes is one pin to set the train in motion, until it’s eventually speeding down the tracks, gaining velocity with each pin until it becomes unstoppable.

That’s exactly what happened here Tuesday night in the Class 2A Regional Duals, as Creston/O-M steamrolled past Perry 64-13 in the semifinals and then topped Atlantic 40-21 to earn the program’s seventh straight trip to the State Dual Team Tournament.

Atlantic head coach Tim Duff threw everything he had at Creston/O-M in the finals, but the Panthers took Atlantic’s best shot and still survived.

Atlantic took a 21-15 lead on the Panthers through nine weight classes when Colby Sorensen pinned Panther freshman Tristan Travis. But those were the last points Atlantic would score.

The Panthers won the final five matches of the dual, including three by pins to come away with the 40-21 victory. From the point Atlantic took a 15-9 lead with Chase McLaren’s 4-2 decision over Kelby Luther at 120 pounds, Creston/O-M won six of the final seven matches, with four of those wins coming by pins.

Trevor Marlin’s pin at 126 pounds set the freight train in motion. Marlin tilted Colton Mudd and pinned his shoulders to the mat in 1:39 to knot the score at 15-15.

Second-ranked Wyatt Thompson got the Panthers back on track and tied the score at 21-21 with his pin in 1:08 over Kenny Jimerson. Mitchel Swank won by decision at 145 pounds and Joey Huntington won a major decision at 152 pounds, before seventh-ranked Cameron Leith (160) and top-ranked Chase Shiltz (170) closed out the night with back-to-back first-period pins.

“It’s exactly what I thought it was coming in. Every match actually went like I thought it would. I thought it could easily come down to the last two matches of the day, and it almost did,” Creston/O-M head coach Darrell Frain said. “Atlantic is pretty dang good. When I thought they were going to go to Albia, I thought we’d see them at state. But when they got put back with us, it becomes what it is and you just deal with it.”

Perfect start

After both Creston/O-M and Atlantic breezed through their semifinal matchups — Creston/O-M won eight matches by fall and two more by forfeit, while Atlantic won six matches by fall in a 44-31 win over Glenwood — the final dual started with one of the most important matches of the dual at 182 pounds.

Panther junior Jackson Mikkelsen won a 2-1 decision in overtime against eighth-ranked Zac Stork at Saturday’s sectional tournament.

It was a match that could go either way, and could play a vital role in winning the dual.

Leading 1-0 in the second period after getting an escape, Mikkelsen snuck out of a single-leg takedown attempt by Stork near the edge of the mat and powered through for a takedown of his own to take a commanding 3-0 lead.

“We just fought out of a takedown right into our own,” Frain said. “It was right on the edge, so I was concerned, but he exploded through it. It was a great takedown. He can do that, he just has to trust himself.”

Mikkelsen went on to win the match by a 3-2 decision, to a thunderous roar from the Panther faithful.

“What a better way to start the whole dual?” Frain said. “Even though we won, he probably was a little bit of an underdog, still. He’s (Stork) a state-ranked kid. We got that takedown on the edge of the mat in the second period and I knew he would have to wrestle a great match to beat us at that point. That set the tone. The crowd was into it, the kids were into it. We kind of just fed off of it the rest of the way.”

The Panthers survived scares at 195 and 220, where third-ranked Seth Maitlen and third-ranked Kadon Hulett each held on to win one-point decisions.

Key to the victory for the Panthers were Cody Tanner (285), Jacob Goodson (113) and Luther (120) all keeping their losses to decisions, rather than giving up bonus points.

“Those are what did it, because if we didn’t do that, then it’s a really close dual and you start panicking a little bit,” Frain said. “We didn’t have to do that, thank goodness.”

Creston/O-M withstood what was possibly the team’s toughest challenge in a dual all season.

“I’d say that’s the team that came out ready to wrestle and wanted to beat us the worst out of all the duals we’ve wrestled,” said Thompson, who picked up two wins by fall Tuesday. “So it really made for an interesting dual.”

Seven straight

Creston/O-M, which slipped to No. 3 in the latest dual rankings, will be the 3-seed on Feb. 17 at the Class 2A State Dual Team Tournament.

“We dropped in the rankings today, so we went to third,” Frain said. “We’ll see where we’re at. I imagine we’ll see Sergeant Bluff, which they’re undefeated. Hopefully we wrestle well.”

Frain guessed correctly, as the Panthers open with 6-seed Sergeant Bluff-Luton at 9 a.m. on Feb. 17 at Wells Fargo Arena. Creston/O-M will meet either 2-seed Davenport Assumption or 7-seed Washington in the semifinals or the consolation semifinals.

Top-seeded New Hampton, coached by former Panther assistant Nick Hemann, opens with 8-seed Albia. Also on the top half of the bracket are 4-seed Clarion-Goldfield-Dows and 5-seed Independence.

“It’s a great accomplishment,” Thompson said about qualifying for state duals for the seventh straight year. “Here, some people take it for granted, but you really have to work hard all year. It builds up. You have to come out and perform great, because obviously the other teams are good, too.”

Frain said his team wrestled Tuesday for the four wrestlers who did not make it out of sectionals — Cade Vicker, Luther, Travis and Tanner, along with the rest of the team.

“That’s the important thing out of the whole deal — everyone on the team is going to get a state medal,” he said. “Like I told them, it’s no different than football or basketball or any other team sport. You’re doing it for each other.”

“There’s four guys who didn’t make it to districts and they’re part of the team,” Thompson said. “They busted their butts all year and they deserve the same amount as all of us. Here at the duals, you have to put the selfishness aside and wrestle for them, not only yourself, and get the team there, because that’s their chance to win a state championship.”

The 10 Panthers who qualified for districts return to the mat at noon Saturday in Atlantic at the Class 2A District 2 Tournament.

Creston/O-M 64, Perry 13

170 — Chase Shiltz (COM) won by forfeit; 182 — Jackson Mikkelsen (COM) major dec. Adam Medina (Perry), 14-2; 195 — Seth Maitlen (COM) pinned Alonzo Zarate (Perry), 1:33; 220 — Kadon Hulett (COM) pinned Juan Campos (Perry), :58; 285 — Cody Tanner (COM) pinned Tyler Soll (Perry), 1:41; 106 — Cade Vicker (COM) won by forfeit; 113 — Jacob Goodson (COM) pinned Mana Martinez (Perry), 1:48.

120 — Zach Thompson (Perry) pinned Kelby Luther (COM), 1:04; 126 — Trevor Marlin (COM) pinned Fernando Catalan (Perry), 2:18; 132 — Gisaveri Niyibizi (Perry) major dec. Tristan Travis (COM), 14-4; 138 — Wyatt Thompson (COM) pinned Zach Stewart (Perry), 1:31; 145 — Jacob Thompson (Perry) dec. Mitchel Swank (COM), 5-2; 152 — Joey Huntington (COM) pinned Troy Jahnke (Perry), :43; 160 — Cameron Leith (COM) pinned Tanner Darr (Perry), :38.

Atlantic 44, Glenwood 31

Creston/O-M 40, Atlantic 21

182 — Jackson Mikkelsen (COM) dec. Zac Stork (Atl), 3-2; 195 — Seth Maitlen (COM) dec. Drake Roller (Atl), 7-6; 220 — Kadon Hulett (COM) dec. Keagan Hosfelt (Atl), 5-4; 285 — John McConkey (Atl) dec. Cody Tanner (COM), 9-5; 106 — Kole Hansen (Atl) pinned Cade Vicker (COM), 3:15; 113 — Carter Cox (Atl) dec. Kelby Luther (COM), 4-2; 120 — Chase McLaren (Atl) dec. Kelby Luther (COM), 4-2.

126 — Trevor Marlin (COM) pinned Colton Mudd (Atl), 1:39; 132 — Colby Sorensen (Atl) pinned Tristan Travis (COM), 2:39; 138 — Wyatt Thompson (COM) pinned Kenny Jimerson (Atl), 1:08; 145 — Mitchel Swank (COM) major dec. Connor Pellett (Atl), 18-6; 160 — Cameron Leith (COM) pinned Mitchell Williamson (Atl), 1:58; 170 — Chase Shiltz (COM) pinned Clayton West (Atl), :33.