BURLINGTON After two postponements and a venue change caused by wintry weather, the Pioneer League wrestling meet finally happened Saturday afternoon in Burlington.
The Mustangs came away with five top-three placers including two league champions along with a fifth-place overall team finish with 76 points.
The Mustangs finished not quite six points behind fourth-place Prairie View who had 81.6 points. Santa Fe Trail won the Pioneer League with 130 points, just .5 points ahead of second place Burlington.
As its been for a lot of this season, Iola was led by their youth starting with their two freshmen league champions in TJ Taylor who took the 106-pound class championship and Trent Jones who won the 145-pound class.
Taylor got a 9-0 major decision win over Burlingtons Mitch Broyles in the semifinals before landing a 5:50 pin of Osawatomies Jacob Holloman in the final.
Meanwhile, Jones started things off with a 7-2 decision win over Burlingtons Damon Hoback before grabbing a close 2-1 decision win over Anderson Countys Lane Freeman in the finals.
Freshman Adam Atwell placed second in the 138-pound weight class after falling by pin to champion Carter Greefield in the championship in 2:44.
Sophomore Logan Brown (285-pounds) and junior Gary Lower (220-pounds) each came away with third-place finishes.
Brown fell in the semifinal to Ryely Seals of Santa Fe Trail by a 6-2 decision before bouncing back with a 52-second pin of Anderson Countys Lane Palmer before dominating Osawatomies Quinton Lea in the third-place match with a 19-second pin.
After a 3-2 quarterfinal win over Burlingtons Devin Wonser, Lower got tripped up versus Anderson Countys Dallas Higginbotham, falling by pin in 2:25. But Lower came back with a win over Osawatomies Gavin Brewer in 41 seconds before beating Prairie Views Noah Nordgren by an 11-5 decision.
Sophomore C.J. Shields (0-3), junior Casen Barker (1-3) and senior Elijah Luedke (0-2) did not place.
The Mustangs will head south to Chanute on Friday and Saturday for regional wrestling. Those that qualify for state at the regional meet will advance on to the tournament in Salina next weekend.
