The wrestling battle was on in Waterloo

The Clear Lake wrestling team traveled to Waterloo before the holiday break to compete in the 32-team Battle of Waterloo.  The tournament is only open to the top 32 teams that the committee chooses; the best teams in the state in all three classes are invited. 

The Lions finished in the top half of the tourney after upsetting a very good Cedar Falls team, 41-24, on Friday.  They then ran into the top seed, Cedar Rapids Prairie, and were beaten, 50-15.

“They were very good.  We we are good-- they were even better,” said Clear Lake Coach Gary Weber.

The third match of the day was against North Central Conference rival Clarion-Goldfield-Dows.  The Lions lost several close matches and fell, 40-20.

On Saturday, Clear Lake lost a heart breaker to Waverly-Shell Rock, 39-38. 

“We were pinned six times and you won’t win many duals giving up that many points,” stated coach Weber. 

The Lions bounced back and beat third ranked powerhouse Don Bosco, 40-34.

“We were very proud of the boys after not performing very well against Waverly to have the intestinal fortitude to tough it out and battle back for a win,” said Coach Weber.  “Marcus Soto had a huge pin with two matches left to give us a big lift.”

The last dual of the day was against Western Dubuque. The Lions wrestled well, but fell, 43-30.

“This was a great experience for us,” said Weber.  “All the teams are good.  We were in the championship side of the bracket, so we did not get any easy matches. This is good experience for our boys.”

Here are Coach Weber’s comments about this wrestlers’ performances to date:

106: Ben Hillyer. Ben had a huge pin against Cedar Falls to help beat Cedar Falls.

113:  Brennen Doebel. Brennen is 20-0 heading into break and beat the Waverly kid, who he had a one point win with two weeks ago, handily.

120: Ryan Schmalen. Ryan is 19-1, with his only loss in overtime to the state champion.

126: Ryan Leisure is 19-1. His only loss is to the third ranked wrestler in the big schools. He has learned what he needs to work on. 

126: Will Kirshbaum. Will wrestled a dual for us and fought like crazy.  He will be a good one for us.

132: Christiano Gonzalez. Chris had a big overtime win against Cedar Falls.

132 Marcus Soto. Marcus had the big pin to help beat Don Bosco.

138: Spencer Orr had six tough matches. He never quits and keeps battling. That is why he was 30-8 last year.

145: Ryan Faught. Ryan is one of our hardest workers. He had a couple of tough losses, which will just make him better

152: Brad Hillyer. Wow! What an improvement. The coaches have worked hard with Brad’s technique. He listened and it paid off with three big wins.

160: TJ Hauser. TJ is a great kid who had been sick for a month. We just need to work on his confidence.

160: Kaleb Froiland. Kaleb only weighs 148 and wrestles 160, giving it his best. We are proud of him. 

170: Dalton Mennenga. Dalton is gaining valuable experience learning how to fight and battle against older kids. 

182: Logan Wilcke. Logan avenged one of his losses from earlier in the year. He is going down to 170 after Christmas and will be even tougher.

195: Ace Walton. Ace is competitive in all of his matches. Our assistant coaches have done a nice job with him.

195: Rowdy Yates. Rowdy will be our 182-pounder second semester and will be very good.

220: Kyle Willms. Kyle has wrestled both 220 and 285 to help the team and done very well.

220: Nate Benson. Nate is doing even better than I expected.  He is fighting in every match.