Bulldog Wrestlers Finish Runner-up at Jim Kinyon Invite with Four Champs

The Bulldogs weathered the storm of tough early season tournaments, but could not beat mother nature. The Bulldogs were supposed to have a NCC conference dual with the Algona Bulldogs and Humboldt Wildcats plus the Ballard Bombers as a non-conference opponent for all the teams. This dual has been postponed until after winter break. Coach Hansen believes the tough early schedule is paying off for the Bulldog wrestlers saying, “The guys are starting to see success as we wrestle schools more our size. Our early season records don’t reflect the skill level of our kids.”

The Bulldogs would still compete this past week in the Jim Kinyon invitational at Roland-Story High School. The Hampton-Dumont-CAL Bulldogs won the tournament the previous season and would look to bounce back with a strong performance. Some Bulldogs would have good seeds, but some would be seeded much lower based on their records. Coach Hansen wanted the boys to go out and wrestle, look to prove everybody wrong. Jayson Stevens, the Bulldog 106 pounder, would not have the chance to out wrestle his seed, because he would be the one seed in the tournament.

He would wrestle to his seed and win the tournament with 2 pins and looked dominate on the mat. Jaymes Stevens, at 113 pounds would finish 2-2 on the day and finish fifth for the Bulldogs. Brody Strother would have a break-out tournament as the freshman would run into a ranked senior in the semi-finals and wrestle a tough match, but ultimately lose. Strother would turn around and win his next two matches to take third in the tournament. He currently lead the Bulldogs in pins with 8 on the season. Charlie Showalter would find himself in the finals. Showalter would also look dominate in the tournament and controlled his finals match to earn a 7-2 victory over Kasen Cochren of Winterset. Cochran is ranked 12th according to IAWrestle, one spot behind Showalter.

At 132 pounds, Chase Johnson would go 2-2 on the tournament and finish 7th place for the Bulldogs. Gage Plagge would also finish 7th with a 1-2 record. Taylor Mahler, wrestling 145, would be the 3rd Bulldog finalist, but would lose his finals match. Mahler would go 3-1 for the tournament with 2 technical falls and a pin. Colin Bird would finish 4th place for the Bulldogs with a 1-2 record. Karter Janssen would have a strong bounce back tournament at 160 pounds, finishing third and going 3-1 with 2 pins. Sean Heilskov would battle to finish 5th place at 170 pounds. Heilskov would go 2-2 at the tournament with 2 pins. Cael Burmester would continue an impressive start to his junior campaign with a 182 pound championship. Burmester would go 3-0 with 2 pins. Maddon Evans would finish in 7th place with a 1-2 record. Hector Bunston would finish 8th for the Bulldogs at 220 pounds and go 0-3. Carter Heilskov would navigate a tough heavyweight bracket to win the tournament. Heilskov would go 3-0, with two pins. His final pin would be over the 5th ranked wrestler in the state in 2A to win the tournament. The Bulldogs as a team would finish runner-up in the tournament losing to a highly ranked Winterset team.

The Bulldogs have maintained three ranked wrestlers. Jayson Stevens is ranked 5th at 106 and will have some big matches with other ranked wrestlers coming out of break. Charlie Showalter is ranked 11th at 126 and has some big wins over other ranked wrestlers in 3A and 2A. Carter Heilskov returns to the mat and looked dominate. Heilskov is currently ranked 10th. The Bulldogs will look to build their resume when they return to the mat Thursday at Independence. Then they will head into break and look and will wrestle the day they return to school with the rescheduled duals with Algona, Humboldt, and Ballard.