Raiders have been battle tested

WILLIAMSBURG — The Williamsburg boys’ wrestling team had a busy week of action for the last full week of the regular season.

Things started off with a home dual against a ranked Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont team.

The Raiders defeated the Rockets 42-29.

After dropping the first three matches, the Raiders won the next seven, all by bonus points.

On Thursday, the Raiders dualed Clear Creek Amana in Tiffin. The contest came down to the last two matches.

Down 33-24 with two matches remaining, the Raiders needed bonus points to tie or win the dual.

At 190-pounds, Cael Moore won by tech fall over the Clippers’ Dylan Schrock to make the score 33-29.

Carson Grier, at 215, did the same thing, winning by tech fall over Carson Bromwell to give the Raiders the 34-33 dual win.

“We had two tough duals this week, and it was exactly what we needed headed into the postseason,” Williamsburg coach Grant Eckenrod said. “We were fortunate to beat two very good teams.

“January is a grind, and you have to battle adversity mentally and physically. Our kids have done a pretty good job of that.”

The Raiders have been battling the last few weeks with several injuries and sicknesses. One of the Raiders’ top wrestlers, Lincoln Schropp, is among the sidelined wrestlers.

“With the sickness and injuries the last couple weeks, our lineup has been a revolving door, but our back up kids have been awesome,” said Eckenrod. “Lincoln should be back this coming week, and we are happy about that.”

On Saturday, Williamsburg hosted a round-robin invitational.

The Raiders had four champions as a team — Riker DeWitt (106), Nile Sinn (150), Cael Moore (190) and Trenton Davies (Hwt.)

Here’s a look at other area results this week:

Lynnville-Sully Quad

LYNNVILLE — The English Valleys boys went 2-1 in duals Thursday in Lynnville.

There wasn’t much wrestling for the Bears — only 13 of 42 matches were not forfeited. The Bears went 3-10 in those matches.

“Overall, not our best night on the mat,” English Valleys coach Ben Edmundson said. “We're looking to keep training hard these next five to six days to make sure we are ready to start competing our best at the conference tournament.

“We're ready to get back in the practice room and start fixing those little things we need to do to make sure some of these matches go our way at the SICL tournament,” Edmundson added.

Montezuma went 3-0 on the night in duals, winning eight of their 15 non-forfeited matches on the night.

Iowa Valley Triangular

MARENGO — The Iowa Valley boys dominated in their two dual wins Thursday night at home.

The Tigers defeated Colfax-Mingo 69-6 and Ogden 62-14.

Nolan Kriegel had a key win by decision, 5-3, over Colfax-Mingo’s Caden Sykes. Sykes beat Kriegel previously at the Corky Stuart Invite.

North Mahaska Triangular

NEW SHARON — The BGM boys went 1-1 in duals Thursday, defeating Knoxville 35-33.

The Bears were down 33-17 and won the last three matches (one by forfeit) to seal the dual win.

Sigourney-Keota Quad

SIGOURNEY — Both the Belle Plaine and HLV-TC boys were in action in Sigourney Thursday.

The Plainsmen went 1-2 in duals, falling to Sigourney-Keota and Moravia.

In the 40-22 win over HLV-TC, the Plainsmen won four of five non-forfeited matches.

HLV-TC’s Cael Weisskopf went 3-0 on the night.

Alburnett Duals

ALBURNETT — The Iowa Valley and English Valleys boys faced some stingy competition Saturday at the Alburnett Duals.

Alburnett is ranked No. 1 in Class 1A and defeated Iowa Valley, 67-3, and English Valleys 78-6.

Both the Tigers and Bears went to the consolation bracket after pool play.

The Tigers won the consolation bracket after a 73-0 dual win over South Winneshiek and a 49-26 win over Dike-New Hartford.

The 150 pounder, Chance Hoyt, went 5-0 for the Tigers, continuing his great season.

Kaleb Bolinger (190) had a team high three victories for the Bears.

Kurt Hinschberger Invitational

BELLE PLAINE — The Belle Plaine boys had one champion and two runner-up finishes at their home invitational Saturday.

Aidan Timm pinned all three of his opponents in the 144-pound bracket to move to 25-3 on the season.

Hunter Henry (113) and Will Sankot (150) both finished runner-up.

The Plainsmen finished fourth as a team with 117 points.

Ogden Tournament

OGDEN — The Montezuma boys finished fourth out of nine teams in Ogden Saturday with 115.5 points.

Brett Plants (190) and Braxton Plants (215) both won their pools for the Braves.

Braxton also reached his 100th career win in the tournament.

North Tama Redhawk Invite

TRAER — The BGM and HLV-TC boys completed competed at North Tama Saturday.

BGM had three runner-up finishes from Hunter Hodina (113), Ethan Bridgewater (157) and Reed Slater (215).

The Warriors had a runner-up finish from Cael Weisskopf at 150.

Allan Scott added a third-place finish for the Warriors at 113.

Colfax-Mingo Tournament

COLFAX — Iowa Valley and BGM both competed at the Colfax-Mingo girls’ tournament Saturday.

The tournament had wrestlers from 21 different schools.

Iowa Valley’s Raelene Hawkins pinned Valley West Des Moines’ Liana Krell to take the 170-pound title.

Kodie Holcomb (140) and Skyler Hoyt (125) both placed third for the Tigers.

BGM’s Taya Sincox pinned Hoyt in the semifinals and finished runner-up at 125.

Amiah Lint (110) and Shyla VanNevel (120) added third-place finishes for the Bears.

Louisa-Muscatine Tournament

LETTS — The English Valleys girls brought three wrestlers to Louisa-Muscatine Saturday.

Emily Sieren finished third at 100 pounds and Taylor Mikesell finished seventh at 170.