The Iola wrestling team held strong with just three wrestlers on Thursday at their home double-dual versus Osawatomie and West Elk.
The Mustangs were outmanned by the Trojans 36-18 but, thanks to pinning all three of their opponents, they beat the Patriots to get their first dual win in quite some time.
“It shows that we are making improvements,” head coach Jason Bates said. “We set goals at the start of the season and getting the win today shows that we’re working hard enough to reach them. We’re going to continue setting goals and working toward those.”
Freshman Drake Sellman started things off in the 145-pound class with a win over West Elk’s Zack Joseph by fall. Freshman Dylon Reiter grabbed the Mustang’s second win with a pin of Mason Harrod for the 152-pound class. Junior Elijah Luedke finished things off with a first period pin over Connor Noll in the 170-pound class.
“I was pretty surprised and very pleased with how they wrestled,” coach Bates said. “We came out aggressively and that’s something we’ve really talked about this week because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t come out aggressive and ready to wrestle.”
Despite falling to Osawatomie, the Mustangs won both of their head-to-head matches.
Reiter got his second win by fall of the day over the Trojan’s Drake West and Luedke got a win by fall over Michael Tercero.
Iola will travel to Osawatomie on Thursday for the Pioneer League meet.
PICTURE — Junior Mustangs Elijah Luedke grapples with West Elk’s Connor Noll in Iola’s double-dual with the Patriots and Osawatomie on Thursday. REGISTER/TIMOTHY EVERSON
