Panthers tested in home dual split

To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best, so the saying goes.

It may sound simple, but the Creston/Orient-Macksburg wrestling saw some of the best the state of Iowa has to offer in its home duals with Underwood and Glenwood.

They didn’t get the upper hand.

The Panthers went toe-to-toe with Glenwood and lost 42-28 thanks to the dominance of the 182 through 285 pound weight classes and a scintillating ultimate tiebreaker victory for 152-pounder Jordan Renshaw over Mitchel Swank, who had bumped up from 145.

“We felt we were big underdogs at 152 and I thought Mitchel maybe even might have been a bit of an underdog at 145. I thought we could split them,” coach Darrell Frain said.

Renshaw took the first point of the first period and fought not to get taken down the rest of the way, with occasional shots taken for the sake of balance, and kept Swank at bay.

That first period point gave Renshaw the opportunity to take the down position for the ultimate

tiebreaker period of 30 seconds, in which Renshaw escaped after about 15 hard-fought seconds to win against Swank for the second time. He also defeated Swank at 145 a year ago.

Jackson Kinsella, who could have wrestled at 152 and 160, was held out due to recent injury.

The Panthers had a number of matches against the defending Hawkeye 10 champion Rams that could have swung in their favor or just in different results so as to swing their way.

“We’ve got kids who want to fight but we’re just not getting over the hump on close matches. We’ve got to make that happen soon,” Frain said.

Creston/O-M won matches at weights 113 through 138 in the Glenwood dual, while Kolby Hulett (126) and Kaden Bolton (113), won by major decision in Glenwood dual and pin in Underwood dual) both won matches against the Rams.

Beau Thompson took a highly competitive match over Tyler Huey of Glenwood with a third-period pin.

“It was a tough match, I just kept fighting the whole way through, fighting the way I wanted to,” Thompson said.

Hueltt had the task of fighting Class 1A’s top ranked 126-pounder, Alex Thomsen of Underwood, who was coming off his first varsity loss in his career (to Fort Dodge’s Brody Teske).

Hulett fought hard, and worked to not give ground before getting tech falled by Thomsen 22-7.

The freshman grappler did get a shot in and notched a near takedown of Thomsen, who escaped out of bounds.

“I thought I was going to get that one but he threw a whizzer in on me. It was pretty tight. If it was in the middle of the mat I might have got it,” Hulett said.

Even knowing how difficult a task it would be to take on Thomsen, Hulett gave no ground against the future Nebraska Cornhusker.

“It doesn’t change the mentality or my warmup,” Hulett said. “Everything is the same. I went out there with the same mentality and kept going at my pace and he’s tough. really tough.”

UP NEXT — Creston/O-M gets to practice the rest of this week before heading to the Kansas City Stampede (Platte County Tournament) in Hale Arena Friday and Saturday.

Every Panther wrestler is likely to face an opponent who is nationally ranked or of near that caliber.

“Our goal is to get to the gold bracket,” Frain said. “If we get to the gold bracket, that’s a big accomplishment. (Want to) fight every match. I don’t care if we get beat by 15. We better be going hard until the end.”

Creston/O-M 52, Underwood 23

220 — Chris Gardner (Und) maj. dec. Kendall Crawford (220); 285 — Blake Sevier (C/O-M) forfeit; 106 — Ethan Freeman (C/O-M) forfeit; 113 — Kaden Bolton (C/O-M) pinned Noah Whittington (Und); 120 — Blake Thomsen (Und) pinned Garon Wurster (C/O-M) 1:16; 126 — Alex Thomsen (Und) tech fall Kolby Hulett (C/O-M) 22-7; 132 — Logan James (Und) tech fall Kelby Luther (C/O-M) 21-6; 138 — Riley Stafford (Und) dec. Cade Vicker (C/O-M) 7-5; 145 — Mitchel Swank (C/O-M) pinned Kyler Rodenburg (Und) 0:40; 152 — Rylan Luther (C/O-M) pinned Cameron Clawson (Und) 0:44; 160 — Jackson Kinsella (C/O-M) forfeit; 170 — Kolby Tomas (C/O-M) forfeit; 182 — Dale Boyer (C/O-M) forfeit; 195 — Sam Chapman (C/O-M) forfeit.

Glenwood 42, Creston/O-M 28

285 — Caleb Sanders (Glen) pinned Blake Sevier (C/O-M) 1:06; 106 — Dalton Bell (Glen) pinned Ethan Freeman (C/O-M) 0:16; 113 — Kaden Bolton (C/O-M) maj. dec. Ryker Case (Glen) 12-0; 120 — Beau Thompson (C/O-M) pinned Tyler Huey (Glen) 5:21; 126 — Kolby Hulett (C/O-M) pinned Abby McIntyre (Glen) 1:17; 132 — Kelby Luther (C/O-M) pinned Michael Radford (Glen) 3:38; 138 — Cade Vicker (C/O-M) dec. Tanner Maxwell (Glen) 7-1; 145 — Trevor Anderson (Glen) pinned Hayden Green (C/O-M) 2:44; 152 — Jordan Renshaw (Glen) UTB 2-2; 160 — Cole Fuoss (Glen) dec. Rylan Luther (C/O-M) 7-5; 170 — Kolby Tomas (C/O-M) dec. Nick Gill (Glen) 13-7; 182 — Anthony Sherry (Glen) pinned Dale Boyer (C/O-M) 1:15; 195 — Noah Carter (Glen) pinned Sam Chapman (C/O-M) 2:30; 220 — Isaac Bales (Glen) pinned Kendall Crawford (C/O-M) 0:14.