Grapplers achieving at a high level early in the season

Nodaway Valley/O-M’s boys wrestlers were off to a spotless start in team duals and the team aspect of the sport was bleeding over into their success in tournaments coming into this week.

The Wolverines beat Wayne and Martensdale-St. Marys in a home triangular Thursday, Dec. 8, then won the Lenox Invitational Saturday, Dec. 10 in impressive fashion, breaking away from a logjam of good teams at the top going into the final round.

“I couldn’t be more proud of these boys. Our motto this year is to start unknown and finish unforgettable. It’s so exciting that these boys have bought into it. They’re going out, competing hard,” co-head coach Brad Honnold said. “We don’t have any big names, we’re just going out and getting it done.”

After a strong first couple of rounds that put eight into the semifinals for NV/O-M, the team faltered in that round, putting only two into the championships. Proving that it’s not how you start but how you finish that matters, the Wolverines came back and finished strong in the placing rounds.

Freshmen Keyin Steeve (113 pounds) and Ashton Honnold (220) were the two champs on the day. Steeve pinned West Central Valley’s Andrew Carol in the semis and Maryville’s Cash Dew in the championship while Honnold pinned his way into the championship, against Lenox’s Kolten Marter and Chariton’s Dane Dyer, where he defeated West Central Valley’s Ayden Phippen by 6-3 decision.

Sophomore heavyweight Trenton Warner was runner-up. Third place finishes were earned by Carmine Shaw (145), Matt Nelson (138), Bradley Gebbie (132) and Zackery Gebbie (126). Brandon Raasch (182) took fourth while Ayden Goetz (195), Aidan Kuster (152) and Eli Harris (120) were fifth place finishers.

“We went into the tournament knowing it was a tournament we could compete in and came into the seeding meeting knowing we had a chance to have a lot of kids on the medal stand. We took it round by round,” Honnold said. “We won a bunch of matches in a row in that first round. Keyin won a big match to start the semifinals, then we went on a downward spiral that round, losing some matches we knew were going to be key matches.”

Honnold said he was most pleased by the resolve his team showed in the end.

West Central Valley was second (163.5) in the team standings, led by a championship from Braiden Beane (160) and runner-up finishes by Kaedon Lindsay (182) and Ayden Phippen (220).

Rounding out the top five teams were Lenox (161.5), Southwest Valley (158) and Chariton (124.5).

“After each kid that lost came off the mat in the semifinals, we told them they needed to go for the next best thing. We had gone from first to fourth in that round,” Honnold said. “It would’ve been easy for them to lay down and say it’s no good, but we told them this is where it’s at, dig it out and grind it out, so they did. Going into that final round, it was basically a four-team race. We told everybody to go out, do your job, and we’ll let the chips fall where they may.”

In a close 42-37 win over Martensdale-St. Marys at home, the Wolverines clawed back from an early 16-0 deficit with head-to-head wins from Warner (285), Steeve (113), Harris (126), Zackery Gebbie (132) and Bradley Gebbie (138), all on pins.

The Wolverines defeated Wayne 48-18 in the first dual of the night, getting wins from Shaw (145), Honnold (195) and Bradley Gebbie (132), all by fall.

Honnold said an understanding of how a team operates in wrestling is translating from duals to tournaments, and it has been fun to see.

" We tell our guys that sometimes your job on a team is that even if you’re out-matched, every point counts. If you can keep from getting pinned, that saves the team points. If you catch a kid, put him on his back and can pin him, that scores more team points. Sometimes it’s cutting a kid in the last 40 seconds of a match and taking him down again for a major decision,” Honnold said. “I don’t think a lot of the kids understood that last year, but they understand it now and are doing it. It truly is a team sport because everybody’s gotta pick each other up and do their job.”

The Wolverines had a big week scheduled. They were to wrestle Tuesday, Dec. 13 against Underwood, Missouri Valley and Griswold, then Thursday at East Union against the Eagles, Mount Ayr and Wayne. Friday is the Pride of Iowa Conference Tournament at Southeast Warren.