Wrestlers go 4-3

The Clear Lake wrestling team went 4-3 last week in a busy week of wrestling.  The Lions beat Eagle Grove 64-15 and Hampton-Dumont 42-30 in North Central Conference action Thursday night in the Lion gym. The wins put the Lions at 3-0 and tied for first place in the conference. 

“It is always nice to get conference wins--  one of our goals is to be NCC champs again this year,” stated Coach Gary Weber. The Hampton meet was the highlight of the night.  The meet started out well for Hampton with a pin at 160-pounds.  The highlight match of the night was at 170, where 12-0 Brice Wilcke took on state-rated Josh Bauer.  The match was very exciting, with Wilcke getting a takedown with :10 seconds left to pull out the win in front of a large supportive crowd.

“Once again our crowd was tremendous,” said Weber.  “They really give the kids a big lift with their awesome support.”

On Saturday, the Lions traveled to the very tough six-team Dick Kennedy memorial dual meet tournament. The Lions went 2-3, losing to Ankeny, Dallas Center Grimes and Waukee. Clear Lake beat Belmond-Klemme and a very good Webster City team. 

Coach Weber said the highlight of the tourney was the Webster City meet where the Lions won only six matches and lost eight, but won by a score of  34-30. 

“We are extremely proud of the kids in that dual. Nobody was pinned and that shows what happens when all of the boys wrestle as a team. Once again, Brice Wilcke was a highlight by pinning state-ranked Connor Larson in the first period.”

The Lions lost a heartbreaker, 31-30, to Waukee.

“This was a learning experience for our team,” added Weber.  “They need to learn how to get up for five matches in a day, not just two or three.  We wrestled up and down on Saturday.”

Results of each weight class and Coach Weber’s comments are below:

106: Ryan Schmalen, 4-1. Ryan’s only loss was at 113 pounds to the fourth place wrestler in state. There was a forfeit at 106, so our staff moved Ryan up a weight class trying to help the team and Ryan got beat.  We look for great competition to get us better and that match did. Ryan is basically still undefeated at his weight class.

113: Brennen Doebel, 3-2.  Brennen always wrestles hard, now we need to try to teach him how to stay focused for five matches in a day.

120: Ryan Faught, 4-1. Ryan is 11-1 and just a freshman. His only loss was to a senior from Ankeny who is rated sixth in the state.

126: Spencer Orr, 3-2. Spencer is doing tremendous at the varsity level. His effort is exemplary. We have to continue to perfect his technique, which is what our job entails.

132: Sam Lakose, 2-3.  Sam has improved as much as any wrestler I have ever coached.  He is extremely coachable. Now we need to teach him how to be ready to go for five matches in a day.

138: Carson Farmer, 3-2. Carson suffered his first two losses of the year and is now 10-2.   We needed the great competition on Saturday to show Carson what he needs to work on. He lost two close matches, 4-3 and 2-0, so he is right there with the best kids in the state.

145: Blake Kelso, 2-3.  Blake was injured early in the day and showed great toughness wrestling the rest of the day trying to help out his team. He had a big win against a very good Waukee wrestler.

152: Aaron Boeshart, 2-3. Aaron wrestled his first matches of the year and had a big win against Waukee also. Just like his teammates, he  must wrestle hard all the time.

160: Logan Wilcke, 3-2. Logan is 9-3 and just a sophomore. He is having a great year.

170: Brice Wilcke, 12-0. Brice beat three ranked wrestlers in the past week. This shows how well he is wrestling. The sky is the limit for Brice.

182: Connor Nosbisch, 3-2.  Connor only weighs 173 and is wrestling 182 to help the team and is doing a nice job. Once again, our staff is working hard to perfect has style at the upper weights.

195: Noah Holt, 1-2. Noah is hurt, so we sat him out some on Saturday trying to heal him up.  He had a good match against Webster City, saving us from forfeiting and helped our team win the dual.

195: Ace Walton, 1-3. Ace only weighs 177 pounds and is wrestling 195 and 220.  To top it off, he is only a freshman. He lost a close 3-2 match on Saturday and did an excellent job.

285: Dalton Roll, 0-1. Dalton volunteered to go heavy