Tough opening duals for Bulldogs, AGWSR

ACKLEY – Expecting to be good and actually going out and showing how good you are can be two completely different things.

The Bulldog wrestlers under coach Patrick Hansen learned that with a stunning 40-33 come-from-behind dual loss against non-conference team East Marshall in a triangular hosted by AGWSR.

The Cougars also felt the brunt of the Mustangs tough lineup, dropping the opening dual of the night, 51-27. The finale resulted in a 66-16 win for the Bulldogs over the Cougars.

This match wasn’t originally on the schedule but was re-arranged because both AGWSR and the Bulldogs had teams pull out of their respective duals, opening this up.

“They have some good kids,” Hansen said of East Marshall. “They have like eight seniors, so they know what they’re doing, they’ve been there before. And, we kind of had some kids…who thought they were going to lay down for us, that’s not going to happen.

“They’re a good team, hats off to them, they wrestled well, we didn’t. I think it kind of helped them having a match before we wrestled, our first time of the year, but that’s no excuse, we should have won that one.”

The Bulldogs opened with four straight wins to take a 24-0 lead with a forfeit for freshman 106-pounder Jayson Stevens, Jack Showalter’s pin in 2 minutes, 54 seconds, another forfeit for Carson Hisler at 120 and Tomas Cavazos getting a pin at 126.

But East Marshall won five of the next six matches, getting bonus points in three of them. The toughest match of the night likely was at 132 with Jakyb Kapp facing Class 2A No. 3 at 126, Dominic Ridout, a 17-6 win for the Mustangs’ wrestler. The match featured a second period reversal and a penalty point for an illegal hold, plus three escapes for Kapp.

“I thought Jakyb Kapp wrestled that Ridout kid well,” coach Hansen said. “The thing is Jakyb just sometimes doesn’t understand that you can’t choose when to be great, it’s going to happen. He wants to try to plan ahead of time, he came in three pounds overweight and ran for an hour, so he was gassed and he looked like it. He’s a good enough wrestler, he should be up there with those guys. The consistency has to be there every single day, not when you choose to.”

Neither AGWSR nor East Marshall chose to put anyone on the mat against fifth-ranked 152-pounder Carl Barkema, who had two forfeits to start the season.

“That happens,” coach Hansen said. “Because of the COVID deal, we could have had different kids out there if we were able to bring our whole team, so I feel like that hurt us against East Marshall. It didn’t hurt us against Ackley, but there were a couple match-ups I would have really liked to see the (Kaden) Abbas kid wrestle Jack (Showalter) and stuff like that. That’s how it goes.”

After the loss to East Marshall, coach Hansen brought his team out in the hallway for a talk before the Bulldogs’ match against AGWSR.

“Just ‘wake up,’” coach Hansen said of his words to his team. “’It’s time to get going. You are juniors and seniors and need to start acting like it.’ And they did, they came out against AGWSR and won all the close matches and stuff happens.”

Earning two wins each for the Bulldogs were Showalter and Cavazos. Two wins each were gained by Stevens, Barkema and Bryan Flores at 182. Flores trailed in his match against East Marshall’s Logan Walton, but a reversal with two seconds left in the second period tied it and he went on to mostly dominate in the third period for a 9-6 win.

Zach Johnson (138) was the lone Cougar to claim two wins or AGWSR coach Chad Gerbracht, and after seeing these two tough teams, gives him an idea what to work on in the room.

“East Marshall is a solid group in that middle, not super-stars outside of Ridout, but they are tough competitors,” coach Gerbracht said. “Most of the weights, we’re pretty young, mostly sophomores, one junior, three seniors and one of our seniors out, (Trey) Lashbrook, so it’s a really young group, but right now it’s about getting that mat time behind, so we’re really pleased we’re getting a chance to wrestle.”

Coach Hansen said he was glad he got the chance to renew an old tradition of wrestling against AGWSR.

“It gets a little Franklin County action,” coach Hansen said. “Ackley always has a good team, had some very good individuals and it was great for them to invite us down here. (Lashbrook) he’s a stud, so it would have been nice to see him wrestle Tomas, get a measuring stick where we are at.”

Gerbracht added, “Things to work on, improve on. Working on scramble situations. We had some tough kids, Ridout, didn’t get to see a weigh-in sheet and didn’t think he’d go 126, they bumped everybody up with him not making weight there.”

East Marshall 51

AGWSR 27

285– Conner Murty (EM) pinned Tate Miller 1:25; 106– Jaedrek Bowles (AGWSR) won by forfeit; 113– Kaden Abbas (AGWSR) pinned Karter Welsh 1:30; 120– Coltan Richtsmeier (AGWSR) pinned Skylar Wright 0:15; 126– Noah Clikeman (AGWSR) won by forfeit; 132– Dominic Ridout (EM) pinned Bo Gerbracht 2:51; 138– Zach Johnson (AGWSR) dec. Kordell Negrete 6-4; 145– Dane Thompson (EM) pinned Jayden Bowles 3:31; 152– Ethan Burchland (EM) pinned Trinity Rotgers 3:46; 160– Tim Benson (EM) pinned Ben Puente 1:11; 170– Garrett Kerber (EM) dec. Jacob Haley 4-2; 182– Logan Walton (EM) won by forfeit; 195– Samuel Bandstra (EM) won by forfeit; 220– Tayte Nauman (EM) pinned Jared Granzow 0:36.

East Marshall 40

Bulldogs 33

106– Jayson Stevens (H-D) won by forfeit; 113– Jack Showalter (H-D) pinned Karter Welsh 2:54; 120– Brandon Hisler (H-D) won by forfeit; 126– Tomas Cavazos (H-D) pinned Skylar Wright 1:28; 132– Dominic Ridout (EM) major dec. Jakyb Kapp 17-6; 138– Kordell Negrete (EM) dec. Isaiah Montalvo 6-3; 145– Dane Thompson (EM) pinned Carter Hobson 2:19; 152– Carl Barkema (H-D) won by forfeit; 160– Tim Benson (EM) dec. Braden Hansen 3-2; 170– Garrett Kerber (EM) pinned Tate Schmitt 1:59; 182– Bryan Flores (H-D) dec. Logan Walton 9-6; 195– Sam Bandstra (EM) pinned Zach DeVries 2:37; 220– Conner Murty (EM) won by forfeit; 285– Tayte Naumann (EM) pinned Carter Heilskov 0:38.

Bulldogs 66

AGWSR 16

113– Jack Showalter (H-D) pinned Coltan Richtsmeier 1:23; 120– Kaden Abbas (AGWSR) pinned Carson Hisler 0:38; 126– Tomas Cavazos (H-D) pinned Bo Gerbracht 0:24; 132– Jakyb Kapp (H-D) pinned Noah Clikeman 1:53; 138– Zach Johnson (AGWSR) major dec. Isaiah Montalvo 18-4; 145– Jayden Bowles (AGWSR) pinned Carter Hobson 1:15; 152– Carl Barkema (H-D) won by forfeit; 160 – Braden Hansen (H-D) pinned Ben Puente 3:46; 170– Tate Schmitt (H-D) pinned Jacob Haley 1:04; 182– Bryan Flores (H-D) won by forfeit; 195– Zach DeVries (H-D) pinned Aiden Heitland 0:39; 220– Isaac Heilskov (H-D) pinned Jared Granzow 0:44; 285– Carter Heilskov (H-D) pinned Tate Miller 2:44; 106– Jayson Stevens (H-D) pinned Jaedrek Bowles 3:42.