IW wrestling downed by Wildcats

MT. PLEASANT — Both the Iowa Wesleyan men and women’s wrestling teams were in action on Tuesday night against the Wildcats of Baker University.

While there were plenty of bright spots for the two squads both were defeated by the Wildcats with the women following narrowly, 25-21, and the men 33-12.

For the No. 9 women, things started off great.

No. 9 Alaina Sunlin defeated the Wildcats Kylie Hernandez by tech fall, 10-0, at 101 to give the Tigers a 4-0 lead to start.

At 109, No. 15 Faith Cole grabbed another victory for the Tigers, pinning Baker’s Kylee Slyter in 1:54 to make it 9-0.

At 116, the Tiger’s Destiny Carranza was defeated by fall to Katherine Heath in 1:03. The loss made it 9-5.

The Wildcats took their first lead of the dual after Aalyiah Bueno took a forfeit at 123 to make it 10-9.

Iowa Wesleyan answered back with three straight victories.

No. 7 JoAnna Vanderwood defeated the Wildcats Olivia Branson by decision 11-2 at 130.

At 136, No. 1 Adaugo Nwachukwu downed No. 16 Abbie Jones by tech fall, 10-0, to give the Tigers a 16-11 lead.

Naida Abdijanovic picked up a win at 143 by pinning Mariam Shariq in 2:43 to make it 21-11.

Baker finished strong, winning the final three matches to take the dual.

At 155, Emma Cole was defeated by No. 3 Kaylynn Albrecht by tech fall, 10-0.

The Tigers forfeited at 170 and No. 19 Grace Gray was pinned in 1:02 by Elisa Robinson at 191.

Iowa Wesleyan will be back at it on Sunday, Feb. 12 at the 2023 Warrior Open hosted by Midland University.

On the boys’ side, the Tigers won just three matches.

At 125-pounds, #23 Saoul Prado defeated Lane Scorpil by decision, 7-4, to give the Wildcats an early 3-0 lead over the Tigers.

In the 133-pound weight class, the Tiger’s Brendan Ferenchik defeated Jake Barnes by decision 6-3 to tie the dual at 3 a piece.

Baker’s Joseph Triscornia defeated Carson Coleman by major decision 10-0 to give the lead back to the Wildcats 7-3.

At 149, #17 Dallas Koelzer defeated the Tiger’s Quinten Aney by decision 3-2 to extend the Wildcat lead to 10-3.

Brent Ward got the Tigers back on track by defeating Jakob Stovall by decision, 6-2, at 157 to cut the Wildcat lead to 10-6.

The 165-pound weight class saw, #14 Joey Hancock of Baker defeated Jesus Diaz by pin in 5:33 to give the Wildcats a 16-6 lead.

Eli Messick took the forfeit at 174 to extend the Wildcat lead to 22-6 over the Tigers.

At 165, #14 Brett Bober of the Wildcats defeated the Tiger’s Kaden Kaiser by tech fall 16-0 to clinch the dual and make it 27-6.

The final win of the night for the Wildcats came at 197, as #23 Roman Bushek defeated the Tiger’s Elias Cordero by pin in 0:29 to make it 33-6.

In the 285-pound weight class, Isaac Boucher (SO/Kalona, IA) won via forfeit to make the final score of the dual 33-12.

The Tiger men will be back in action on Friday as they will travel to Des Moines to take on No. 1 Grand View University and Benedictine College.