Area coaches ponder state meet after dual tussle

CLARKSVILLE – Had it not been for seven wins via forfeit, the Bulldog wrestling team could have walked out of Clarksville High School’s gymnasium with a dual loss to North Butler-Clarksville.

Coach Patrick Hansen’s team lost 6-of-7 bouts that were wrestled, however, emerged with a 42-27 dual win over the Bearcats and swept the night, taking 10 matches against Nevada to win their opener, 59-17.

With coach Adam Holm’s team missing quite a few weights due to quarantine with COVID-19 exposure, the Bearcats will be a force to be reckoned with at full strength.

“We should be full force on Thursday (against Nashua-Plainfield),” Holm said. “We’re getting healed back up from sickness and be ready to go. We were a little short-handed today.

“Those open weights were kind of hurting us today. Everybody would have been here, it would have been different, but the kids who were here, battled and battled hard, can’t be more proud of them.”

Coach Hansen was displeased with how his team wrestled against NB-C.

“We’ve got to come out better than that,” Hansen said. “We didn’t wrestle well at all.”

A couple of really good marquee matches included the 126-pound bout between freshman Tanner Arjes and Class 2A No. 7-ranked Jack Showalter. Showalter never led after an initial takedown by Arjes in the first period en route to a hard-fought 8-4 decision for the freshman, including a late third period takedown.

“He’s a good wrestler, and we knew it would be a good test to see where he’s at and he prevailed,” Holm said of Arjes. “Kudos to him, but yeah, Showalter is a solid kid. It’s a nice feather in his cap to get that win.”

In fact, the only win for the Bulldogs in matches wrestled was Class 2A No. 9 160-pounder Carl Barkema, who pinned Dawson Testroet in 3 minutes, 40 seconds.

In another featured bout, Kolben Miller was injured early, fell behind Bryan Flores 5-3 in the second period only to come back and win by a 9-8 decision at 182 pounds. Miller later said that his chin bounced off his chest.

“He chipped a tooth and cut his tongue, his chest was really tight,” Holm said. “He got in a weird predicament. He couldn’t get his breath right away. He must have hit pretty hard when he came down maybe, it tightened up. But he recovered after that and wrestled a really good match. That kid for Hampton is a solid wrestler, too. We knew that would be a close one.”

Clarksville lost to Nevada 42-34.

“Nevada the same situation,” Holm said. “We got the majority of the wins, just a little short-handed. Nothing we can do about that. We told the kids, wrestle each match like it’s the state final. Go out and give it your all and I think they did that.”

Speaking of state finals, both coach Holm and Hansen gave their thoughts on a leak of a potential one-day-per-class state meet in Des Moines next month.

“As long as we can have a state tournament, we’ll make do with whatever they decide to do,” Holm said. “I’m just glad we’re having a season and the kids get to wrestle. Whatever needs to be done, that’s what we’ll have to do this year.”

Coach Hansen didn’t like the idea of one day for a tournament.

“I don’t like it,” coach Hansen said. “You can’t have a state tournament wrestling seven matches in one day. And if you only go five matches, that doesn’t work, how can you say you won the state tournament or finished third, fifth, seventh if you didn’t wrestle everybody? I don’t think it is what is going to happen. Someone just saw a scenario, took a screen shot and leaked it.

“I think there is a way to do it different than that. We’ll see what is decided.”

Nevada 42

North Butler-Clarksville 34

195– Logan Ott (NBC) won by forfeit; 220– David Crow (NBC) pinned Gage Bielenberg 0:30; 285– Chet Buss (NBC) pinned Camdan Vincent 1:14; 106– Kaden Weber (Nev) won by forfeit; 113– No match; 120– Tanner Arjes (NBC) major dec. Matthew Sallee 19-5; 126– Drew Robinson (Nev) won by forfeit; 132– Daniel Landeros (Nev) won by forfeit; 138– Luis Lopez (Nev) won by forfeit; 145– Sam Steele (Nev) won by forfeit; 152– Rowan Steele (Nev) won by forfeit; 160– Holden Fry (Nev) pinned Dawson Testroet 1:29; 170– Cole Negen (NBC) pinned Caiden Woten 1:22; 182– Kolben Miller (NBC) won by forfeit.

Hampton-Dumont 59

Nevada 19

220– Isaac Heilskov (H-D) pinned Everett Bridgemann 0:31; 285– Camdan Vincent (Nev) pinned Carter Heilksov 1:01; 106– Jayson Stevens (H-D) pinned Kaden Weber 5:35; 113– No match; 120– Jack Showalter (H-D) pinned Matthew Sallee 1:51; 126– Drew Robinson (Nev) won by tech fall over Tomas Cavazos 5:33; 132– Jakyb Kapp (H-D) pinned Luis Lopez 2:45; 138– Gage Plagge (H-D) won by forfeit; 145– Sam Steele (Nev) pinned Carter Hobson 3:09; 152– Cael Burmester (H-D) pinned Rowan Steele 0:56; 160– Carl Barkema (H-D) won by tech fall over Holden Fry, 19-4, 2:39; 170– Braden Hansen (H-D) pinned Caiden Woten 0:35; 182– Bryan Flores (H-D) won by forfeit; 195– Zach DeVries (H-D) won by forfeit.

Hampton-Dumont 42

North Butler-Clarksville 27

106– Jayson Stevens (H-D) won by forfeit; 113– No match; 120– Tanner Arjes (NBC) dec. Jack Showalter 8-4; 126– Tomas Cavazos (H-D) won by forfeit; 132– Jakyb Kapp (H-D) won by forfeit; 138– Gage Plagge (H-D) won by forfeit; 145– Carter Hobson (H-D) won by forfeit; 152– Cael Burmester (H-D) won by forfeit; 160– Carl Barkema (H-D) pinned Dawson Testroet 2:37; 170– Cole Negen (NBC) dec. Braden Hansen 9-2; 182– Kolben Miller (NBC) dec. Bryan Flores 9-8; 195– Logan Ott (NBC) pinned Zach DeVries 5:29; 220– David Crow (NBC) pinned Isaac Heilskov 0:43; 285– Chet Buss (NBC) pinned Carter Heilskov 1:14.