When the action was over at an exciting home dual with Algona, the two teams fought to a 36-36 deadlock. The tiebreaker criteria of ? gave the one-point win to the Bulldogs.
The meet started at 126, with Algona winning both that match and the 132-pound match to go up 9-0 in the score. The Cowboys were not too happy about that, and countered with a fall by Mario de Jesus Acat (138) in 3:08 followed by a 6-3 win at 145 by Reed Abbas. Reed led off period 1 with a takedown to be up 2-0, and even though he allowed three escapes over the next two periods his two additional takedowns gave him the win.
Those two wins set of a roll of back to back pins by Bryce Allen (152) in 2:57 and Garrett Seaba (160) in 5:15 to put the Cowboys up and looking good at 21-9. A loss by decision for Cael Ahrens (170) was a temporary setback, but Camden Hanson (182) got those points right back by defeating his man by an 8-2 score. That was when the wheels started coming off the Cowboy’s wagon, as the Bulldogs strung together four straight falls from 195 to 106 to pull away to a 36-24 lead with two matches remaining. It would take two falls just to tie the score, and that’s exactly what they got as both Rigo Bobadilla (in 1:38) at 113 and Tyler Stein (in 1:10) at 120 scored falls. That’s when it came down to ?
Jack Mendenhall Invitational
Stein and Abbas both finished on the second step of the awards podium on Saturday in Ames. West Des Moines Valley took the team title with 207 points, followed by Indianola with 202, Dallas Center-Grimes with 195, Omaha Skutt Catholic with 144 and Dowling Catholic with 131.5. The Cowboys were seventh with 113 points.
Stein won two matches by fall to move into the semifinal, pinning Beschorner of PAC in a mere 27 seconds and then Bierma of WDM Valley in 2:40. He took a 4-3 win over Nelson of Perry in the semi’s, only to lose by technical fall 16-0 to Downey of Indianola. Abbas started with a bye, then scored a fall in :53 over Nieman of OA-BCIG before beating Dirkx of Carroll in a close 5-4 decision to reach the finals. He lost there by injury default to Orsi of Skutt Catholic.
Kain Nelson took third place, winning two matches by fall along with a medical forfeit win. Those pins included taking down Meskan of Gilbert in 1:47 and Rumley of Dowling in just nine seconds. Garrett Seaba was fifth, winning one by fall in 1:20 over Tobar of Perry and two others by 10-5 and 11-6 decisions. Bryce Allen and Cael Ahrens were both sixth. Wins for Allen included falls in 1:59 over Cobine of WDM Valley and 5:13 over Ramirez of Perry. Wins for Ahrens included falls in 2:13 over Collins of Dowling and 1:52 over Townsend of Ames.
Ethan Traub, Cale Kirstein and Camden Hanson all took seventh place. Traub’s highlight was an 11-8 decision over McManus of Ames, Kirstein’s a 9-7 overtime win over Aldridge of Indianola and Hanson’s a fall in 1:23 over Wernimont of Carroll. Kaeden Langfitt and Mack Seaba were both eighth, with Kaeden winning by fall in 1:08 over Cooper of Ames and Mack winning by fall in 2:34 over Davis of Ames as their highlight matches.
The team goes to Gilbert this Thursday, with Saydel and North Polk also taking part.
