BOYS WRESTLING: Wolverines capture POI gold for first time since 2008

The Nodaway Valley/OM boys wrestlers captured their first Pride of Iowa Conference Tournament championship since the 2008-09 season Saturday when they took team gold in Corning.

The Wolverines scored 199 points to get the job done, emerging from what had once been a tight team race. Martensdale-St. Marys ended up in a distant second place with 179.5 points. Central Decatur (144), Southwest Valley (134) and Southeast Warren/Melcher-Dallas (126) rounded out the top five.

NV/OM put five on the championship mat and four came out on top with gold.

The Wolverines met as a team after each round, taking the night round-by-round, and were glad to accomplish their goal of coming away with a team win.

“You walk into gyms and you always look up at banners. I think kids take pride in those banners. As a coach, I look up, and I know the tradition of Nodaway Valley Wrestling pretty well. In the three years I’ve been here, one thing that has burned at me is that we’ve been undefeated in conference duals but there’s not anything up there that lays claim to [that hard work],” NV/OM head coach Brad Honnold said. He added that will now change.

The Wolverines took a few unexpected setbacks earlier on in the tournament but bounced back nicely.

Individual champions were Keyin Steeve at 120 pounds, Carmine Shaw at 144, Ashton Honnold at 215 and Trent Warner at 285.

Steeve (15-3 on the season) beat Sam Leibach of SEW/MD with a first-period fall in his first live match and defeated Elijah Wheeldon of Martensdale-St. Marys with a fall in 1:57 in the third round to secure his win.

Shaw (15-5) stuck Lenox’s Daysen Gregg in 1:24 in the quarterfinals before winning by 12-5 decision against SEW/MD’s Colton Halterman in the next match. In the championship, he pinned Haydn Walters of East Union in just 55 seconds.

Receiving two byes to start the tournament, Honnold (19-1) pinned Martensdale-St. Marys’ Noah Sheridan in 1:46 in the semifinals, then pinned Tate Dierking of SEW/MD in the finals in 3:10.

Warner (20-1) pinned his way through the tournament never seeing the second period of a match and never seeing an opponent with a winning record. In the finals, Warner pinned Jace Smith of Lenox in 20 seconds.

Bradley Gebbie (16-5) finished second, losing to Wayne’s Tully Wood (17-1) in the finals by 8-2 decision, but it was two pins that helped Gebbie reach the championship. He pinned Mount Ayr’s Tate Schaefer in 1:27 and Kael Caikoski of SEW/MD in 2:14.

Jett Christensen (6-5) beat East Union’s Ty Tallmon in the third place match at 106 with a pin in 2:15. Christensen opened with a quick pin before losing a close match in the semis to Central Decatur’s Braeden Thomas.

At 190, Charles Rudolf (11-9) was third. He lost his first match and was pinned in his second match by Southwest Valley’s Tate Haffner in 50 seconds. He emerged a winner in the third match of the night, beating Connor Rauch of SEW/MD in sudden victory.

Ty Strode (16-5) took fourth at 113, nearly going the distance with Mount Ayr’s Brock Shaha, but lost by fall in 5:23. He bounced back to pin East Union’s Justice Norman in 2:23. Jensen Dyer of Martensdale-St. Marys pinned Strode in 3:33 in the third place match.

Several fifth place finishers for NV/OM included Kasen Hansen (19-5) at 138, Caleb Christensen (16-8) at 165 and Ayden Goetz (10-11) at 175. Eli Harris (15-11) was sixth at 150.

“We took it round-by-round, as opposed to big picture. Our lead dwindled quite rapidly in the consolation semis and I think it was a 3 1/2 points difference between us and Martensdale going into the final round,” coach Honnold said. “We went to the locker room and said that if we can all go do our job this round, we will have done everything we could do. I think we were like 10-of-12 in the final round. We took care of what we had to take care of.”

Steeve said that the best part of the POI meet was coming out on top as a team.

“We hadn’t won it in awhile, and after finishing second last year to Martensdale, I feel it really put us up to [wanting to make a statement this year],” Steeve said.

Shaw commented that the team’s success goes far beyond its efforts in meets.

“Everybody’s pushing each other hard. We’re trying to not take any days off. We’re [doing big things] in duals, sometimes bumping kids up a weight class,” Shaw said. “It takes a lot of teamwork to come together and be successful like we are right now.”

The Wolverines have nine wrestlers with at least 15 wins this season. Last year, the team had 10 kids who finished with at least that many wins all season. Ashton Honnold said the Wolverines have a good culture of making each other better in the practice room.

“All the kids who have experience in the sport are coming together to help some of the guys who are pretty new to wrestling,” he said. “Coaches can’t always help, so it’s helping our teammates, showing them what to do in certain positions, and everybody getting better in those aspects.”

Wolverines compete well in duals

NV/OM went 3-0 in a home quad dual meet Thursday, Dec. 14 agaisnt East Union, Mount Ayr and Wayne.

The Wolverines won against East Union 57-24, Mount Ayr 64-12 and Wayne 54-28.

Strode and Shaw were winners of live matches against East Union. Bram Dahl, Harris, Mason Payne and Caleb Christensen were winners against Mount Ayr. Hansen, Shaw, Caleb Christensen and Warner all won against Wayne.

Two days earlier, the Wolverines went 2-1 in a meet at Missouri Valley, suffering their first dual loss of the season against the host Big Reds.

NV/OM beat AHSTW 54-27, Audubon 64-21 and lost to Missouri Valley 36-33.

Against AHSTW, the Wolverines captured wins in live matches from Shaw, Honnold and Warner. Against Audubon, winners were Rudolf, Honnold, Warner, Dahl, Hansen, Rudolf and Lawson Jackson.

Starting at 138 against Missouri Valley, the Wolverines picked up the first two weights with a major decision by Hansen and pin by Harris. The Big Reds then reeled off four straight wins, leading 24-10 going into the match at 215, where Honnold picked up a fall, and Warner followed suit at 285 to tie the dual.

Going to the lighter weights, winners for the Wolverines were Strode by fall at 113 and Gebbie by 6-5 decision at 132. Missouri Valley earned pins at 120 and 126.