Panthers fourth at Centerville

CENTERVILLE — Mitchel Swank keeps vying for a spot in the Panther wrestling record books.

He added another notch any wrestler would take pride in, crossing the 100-pin threshold at Saturday’s Centerville Big Red Invite, where he took first place by defeating Tiger Terpstra of Centerville by pin in 3:15.

Panther coach Darrell Frain believed Swank controlled the match even more than he did when he pinned Terpstra in less time (2:34) to win the Dan Christensen Invite in Leon on Dec. 8.

“Right now he’s in a pretty good place,” Frain said about his 145-pounder.

Despite good performances from an individual array of Panther wrestlers, the fourth place finish as a team left Frain with a feeling he has had after many events this season.

Panther wrestlers have shown promise, but promise that isn’t nearly fully realized yet.

“It’s pretty much the same story every time. It’s time we’ve got to start making signature wins,” Frain said.

Kaden Bolton (113 pounds), Garon Wurster (120) and Rylan Luther (152) all won their pools. Each took fourth place after falling in their third place matches.

Each was impressive in their own way to Frain.

“All were probably the five seed, so they had to knock off a guy who were a higher seed,” Frain said.

Frain made personal notes about several wrestlers, stating that Kolby Hulett pretty much dominated,” at times in his matches at 126 after going 3-1 and taking third place.

Kelby Luther (132) finished strong with a major decision win to take fifth place. “He had a pretty good day,” Frain said.

Jackson Kinsella (160) lost a match, only to move on to take fifth.

“After coming out really sluggish in the first half of the day, he won the rest of them.” Frain noted with a sense of definitiveness.

With a double dual coming up with Denison-Schleswig and Shenandoah Thursday, which will also act as Creston/O-M’s senior night, the Panthers will ratchet up the intensity to prep for the Hawkeye 10 meet and the rapidly approaching postseason.

“The weight training will pick up, the conditioning will pick up in practice,” Frain said.

“The people who aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do, it should be noticeable.”

Creston/O-M will see high quality competiton this weekend as well at the John J. Harris Invitational in Corning on Friday and Saturday.

Team standings — 1. Iowa City 229.5; 2. PCM 174; 3. Centerville 166; 4. Creston/O-M 158; 5. Interstate 35 137; 6. Mount Pleasant 126; 7. Knoxville 116; 8. Winterset 102; 9. St. Joe Benton 91; 10. Bondurant-Farrar 85; 11. Ottumwa 82.5; 12. Kirksville 80; 13. Fairfield 79; 14. Chariton 75; 15. Columbus Community 52.5; 16. St. Joe Lafayette 23.

Panther placing matches (record and method of victories)

10th place — 106: Emma Cochran (Chariton) inj. time Ethan Freeman (C/O-M) (1-3, 1 pin).

4th place — 113: Riley Anderson (B-F) dec. Kaden Bolton (C/O-M) 5-2 (1-2, 1 pin).

4th place — 120: Michael Santero (Iowa City) dec. Garon Wurster (C/O-M) 3-2 (2-1, 2 pins).

5th place — 126: Kolby Hulett (C/O-M) pinned Brody Nelson (I-35) 5:38 (3-1, 3 pins).

4th place — 132: Kelby Luther (C/O-M) maj. dec. Kaeden Lozano (B-F) 12-3 (3-2, 1 pin, 1 dec., 1 maj. dec).

10th place — 138: Hunter Armstrong (Benton) pinned Cade Vicker (C/O-M) 2:39 (2-3, 1 pin, 1 dec.).

1st place — 145: Mitchel Swank (C/O-M) pinned Tiger Terpstra (Centerville) 3:15 (4-0, 4 pins).

4th place — 152: Jaden Davis (MP) pinned Rylan Luther (C/O-M) 5:01 (2-2, 2 pins).

5th place — 160: Jackson Kinsella (C/O-M) pinned Eli Hamilton (Knox) 4:54 (4-1, 2 pins, 1 maj. dec, 1 dec.).

7th place — 170: Kolby Tomas pinned Vin Krieghauser (Kirksville) 3:16 (3-2, 3 pins).

10th place — 182: Parker Maynes (Wint) dec. Beau Barncastle (C/O-M) 6-2 (2-3, 2 pins).

5th place — 195: Sam Chapman (C/O-M) dec. Reid Walters (Chariton) 4-2 (3-1, 2 pins, 1 dec.)

7th place — 220: Trevor Kinyon (C/O-M) (2-2, 1 pin, 1 dec.)

285: Blake Sevier (C/O-M) dec. Jacob Brownlee (Ottumwa) 3-1 (3-1, 3 pins, 1 dec.)