Panthers shake off rust in opening tournament

GRIMES -— The Panthers opened their 2023-24 wrestling season Saturday at the Andy Davidson DCG Mustangs Invite where they took second to Johnston.

“I thought maybe not having a dual Tuesday showed a little bit, we had some rust,” Coach Cody Downing said. “Thinking for the future, I think we’ll continue to have a dual before this. There’s a lot of tough competition here, some bigger schools.”

The Panthers placed wrestlers in 11 of the 14 weight classes including a win by senior Quinten Fuller at 215.

Championship Matches

Going undefeated throughout the bracket to qualify for the championship match were seniors Christian Ahrens (120), Austin Evans (150) and Fuller.

Ahrens won his semi-finals bout against Isaiah Madison of Johnston with a 15-0 technical fall after a takedown, a reversal and four nearfalls.

In the finals, Ahrens was ahead 2-0 against Kaden Weber of Nevada at the end of the first period. Weber deferred in the second, Ahrens choosing to be down. Weber caught him out of position, getting a pin to take first.

“Christian was so close there,” Downing said. “He was ahead and got caught. If he stays out of that, he wins that match.”

In a big bracket, Evans won three in a row to advance to the finals.

He pinned Jacob Hughell of Urbandale in the first period of round one. In his second match, he won in a 10-4 decision against Kinnick Thompson of Johnston.

In the semi-finals, Evans took a 9-1 major decision over Cole Hemmingsen of Dallas Center-Grimes.

In the finals, Evans faced Cooper Ludwig of Carroll. It was a close bout, Ludwig getting two takedowns in the first period, Evans escaping from both.

Evans chose to go down to start the second period and escaped to cut the lead, but couldn’t score additional points, falling 5-3.

“We’ll have another shot with Austin,” Downing said. “That’s a winnable matchup, Austin will tell you that too.”

Fuller was undefeated on the day, earning the Panthers’ only win.

He won his first three bouts in pins, defeating Max Murray of DCG in 1:39; Rhett Boston of ADM in 2:26 and Gavin Holt of Carroll in 2:11.

In the finals, Fuller wrestled Mason Roethler of Johnston, winning in a 5-2 decision.

“Q might be the highlight of the day. He was in position the whole time, he controlled the pace the whole time,” Downing said. “If you came into our practice, you would see the three guys right now that it matters the most to – Christian, Austin and Q. Not to say anything bad about anyone else, but right now they are on a tear. They have some big goals they want to hit.”

Third-place matches

With losses in the semi-finals, Lincoln Keeler (132), Milo Staver (157), Will Bolinger (165) and Max Chapman (285) battled for third in their final bouts.

Keeler won his first two bouts in a decision and a major decision, but fell in the semi-finals to Nick Esser of DCG.

In the third place bout, Keeler faced Levi Dirkx of Carroll.

Late in the second period, Keeler was pinned to take fourth place.

Staver had only one loss on the day, falling to Hunter Bagby of Urbandale in a 5:24 pin in the semi-finals.

Prior to the loss, Staver pinned both of his opponents.

In the third-place match, Staver took control early, going up 16-2 before pinning Sawyer Bouwkamp of Prairie City-Monroe in the second period to take third place.

Bolinger and Chapman had similar stories, both getting caught out of position in the semi-finals for early pins.

“You get caught out of position, It’s really hard to fight out of it,” Downing said. “Maybe it will be a good thing for us moving forward, for some of our guys to get beat. You’ve got to show up, do the work.”

They also both came back to dominate their third-place bouts.

Bolinger was up 4-0 in the final round against Chase Ragaller of Carroll when he pinned him in the second period to earn third.

Chapman pinned Kaden Clark of Prairie City-Monroe in 25 seconds to take third place.

Fifth-place matches

With early losses, three of the Panthers were forced to battle back for a shot at placing. Lane Travis (113), Brodrick Phelps (126) and Brandon Briley (135), each won their matches to compete for fifth place.

In an unfortunate bracket location, Travis’ first bout was against Linden Phetxoumphone of Webster City who went on to win the bracket.

Phetxoumphone defeated Travis in a technical fall, but Travis came back to win his remaining bouts and take fifth.

The fifth place matchup was against Carson Tedrow of Carroll where he won in a 10-0 major decision.

In the same scenario, Phelps wrestled Carson Doolittle of Webster City in round one, Doolittle advancing to win the bracket.

Phelps won his next three matches to earn fifth. In the final bout, he defeated Landon Moorhead of ADM in a 6-4 decision.

Briley won his first match but lost his second after having a lead heading into the final round.

In the consolation bracket, he battled back to wrestle for fifth, but fell to Dayne Rew of Urbandale in a major decision.

“There’s some work to do there,” Downing said. “Not with Brandon so much. I think with a dual Tuesday, Brandon could have won that.”

Seventh place match

Kal Barber (175) fell in his second bout to Braden Blackorby who went on to win the bracket.

Barber won with a pin in his first consolation match, but followed with a loss to wrestle for seventh. A loss to Ethan Miller of Urbandale gave Barber eighth place.

The Panthers return to action 5:30 p.m., Thursday at a triangular in Atlantic with Red Oak.