Area wrestling update

Sigourney-Keota

Sigourney-Keota’s Savages have had a strong start to the 2019-2020 wrestling season. Six grapplers for Cory VanDenHeuvel’s club have notched double-digit wins before Christmas, led by Mason Dye’s 12-1 mark.

Dye, fresh off a fifth-place finish at the state wrestling tournament a season ago, is back to his usual dominant ways on the mat. Wrestling at 126 instead of his state-tournament weight of 113 hasn’t stopped him from piling up the wins. Dye picked up a second-place finish at the Willard Howell Invitational in Wapello on Dec. 7. A week later at the Mt. Vernon Invitational, Dye claimed a first-place finish. All eight of Dye’s contested wins have been collected via fall.

S-K’s Jack Clarahan and D.J. Hammes are tied for second on the team with 11 wins apiece. Clarahan (11-3), wrestling primarily at 152, garnered a first-place finish at the Willard Howell Invitational. Hammes (11-6) came away with a sixth-place finish at 113 in that same tournament on Dec. 7.

Dan McLaughlin (120 pounds), Aiden Schuster (182), and Cade Streigle (195) are the other Savages with at least 10 wins on the young season. McLaughlin has a sixth-place tournament finish under his belt this year. Schuster has third- and sixth-place finishes. And Streigle notched a fifth-place finish as well.

Pekin

Five wrestlers for Al Chapman’s Pekin Panthers collected at least eight wins prior to the holidays. Michael Jones leads the Panthers in wins with 15, to just two losses so far this season.

10 of Jones’ 15 wins have come via pin. The 138 pounder captured a fifth-place finish at the Riverside Invitational on Dec. 14. He bested that with a first-place medal at the Regina Invitational on Dec. 21.

Mason Juhl is next in line for Pekin with a 12-1 record. Wrestling at 285, Juhl has been a force to be reckoned with this season. He has seven wins by fall, two by decision, and three by forfeit. Juhl grabbed a second-place distinction at Riverside, then, like Jones, also came away with a first-place medal at the Regina Invitational on Dec. 21, pinning Clayton Broderson of Davenport West in two minutes and 53 seconds.

Bailey Frescoln (10-3), Kaden Pollock (9-5), and Cael Baker (8-6) are the other Panthers with at least eight wins. Frescoln nabbed a seventh-place finish at Riverside on Dec. 14. Baker has three top-four finishes in tournaments this year so far. And Pollock had a first-place finish at the Pekin Invite on Dec. 7 and an eighth-place finish at Riverside.

Results from latest meet at Burlington, Notre Dame on Jan. 3 (Just contested match winners for Pekin listed.):

Highland, Riverside 42, Pekin 30

220: Mason Juhl (Pekin) over Justin Sosa (Highland) (Fall 1:01)

285: Kaden Pollock (Pekin) over Kyle Whestine (Highland) (Fall 1:54)

138: Michael Jones (Pekin) over Brogan Carolan (Highland) (Fall 2:26)

Pekin 40, Louisa-Muscatine 30

220: Mason Juhl (Pekin) over Spencer Kessel (L-M) (Fall 1:06)

145: Cael Baker (Pekin) over Kendal Pugh (L-M) (MD 10-0)

Pekin 45, Mount Pleasant 36

170: Blake Juhl (Pekin) over Chayse Irving (Mount Pleasant) (Fall 1:30)

195: Ryan Doud (Pekin) over Isaac Jerrel (Mount Pleasant) (Fall 3:02)

220: Mason Juhl (Pekin) over Samuel Carrasco (Mount Pleasant) (Fall 2:52)

113: Logan Baker (Pekin) over Bowen Davis (Mount Pleasant) (Dec. 5-2)

138: Michael Jones (Pekin) over Gannon McNamee (Mount Pleasant) (Fall 1:49)

Burlington, Notre Dame 51, Pekin 30

220: Mason Juhl (Pekin) over Lachlan Kirk (BND) (Fall 0:50)

120: Gavyn Brown (Pekin) over Taylor Sankus (BND) (Fall 4:58)

English Valleys-Tri-County

Three different wrestlers have 12 wins before Christmas for Steve Hester’s English Valleys-Tri-County Bears — and a fourth has 10 wins.

Tanner Mihal, Eli Molyneux, and Cael Hester have each reached the 12-win plateau already this season. Mihal is 12-3, Molyneux is 12-7, and Hester is an almost-pristine 12-1.

Mihal, wrestling at 126 primarily, has second- and first-place tourney finishes to his credit already this season. He narrowly missed a first-place medal at the Willard Howell Invitational on Dec. 7, finishing in second. However, he did earn the top overall spot at the Tri-County Invite on Dec. 14.

The freshman Molyneux has shown he belongs at the varsity level, with nine of his 12 wins coming at that level. He garnered sixth place at the Willard Howell Invitational at the 145-pound weight class, before finishing second at the TC Invite.

Hester has dominated so far during his senior wrestling season, suffering just one loss to this point. The 170 pounder has two tournament wins already this season — at the Willard Howell Invite and TC Invite.

The fourth wrestler with double-digit victories for Hester’s club so far is Daniel Tapken. Sitting at 10-3, the 285-pound senior has performed very well as a leader for the Bears. He, along with Mihal and Hester, also garnered a first-place finish for the host Bears at the Tri-County Invite on Dec. 14.

Results from latest meet at Williamsburg on Jan. 4 (Just contested match winners for EV-TC listed.):

Grinnell 67, EV-TC 11

170: Cael Hester (EV-TC) over Gabe Gilman (Grinnell) (TF 19-2 5:20)

Williamsburg 83, EV-TC 0

Iowa Valley 48, EV-TC 21

132: Tanner Mihal (EV-TC) over Khain Thiessen (Iowa Valley) (Fall 0:16)

170: Cael Hester (EV-TC) over Brody Hoyt (Iowa Valley) (Dec. 3-2)

EV-TC 54, Lone Tree 24

138: Joshua Osborne (EV-TC) over Mathew Hemsted (Lone Tree) (Fall 5:12)