Tigers tear at SEISC tourney

LONE TREE - The New London wrestling team had one goal on Saturday, go up and win the Southeast Iowa Super Conference tournament. When the dust had settled at Lone Tree, the Tigers had done just that.

New London ran away with the meet, scoring 195 points, which topped West Burlington-Notre Dame-Danville's score by over 40. Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union took fourth, with 140 points. Pekin was fifth, with 108. Highland took sixth, with 105. WACO finished ninth, with 72. Van Buren scored 27 points for 11th, and Cardinal finished 12th, with 20 points.

New London had four individual titles and three silver medalists en route to the conference title, putting more wrestlers in championship matches than anyone else in attendance.

Josh Glendening had three pins in the 120 pound bracket to earn his title. He finished the night with a pin against Chase Witte of Wapello, finishing him off with just 22 seconds left in the second period. In the earlier rounds, he pinned Cardinal's Mason Shepherd and Highland's Carlos Valenzuela.

Gabe Carter had to win just two matches in the 160-pound bracket, but he did so with ease. He pinned Lone Tree's Hunter Hain I n just 28 seconds and then won the bracket with a 14-0 major decision over Hayden Cavelage of Louisa-Muscatine.

Gavin Holmes had three pins at 182-pounds, finishing his night with a third-period pin over Notre Dame's Cole Jarrett. He also pinned WACO's Isaiah Johnson and Robert Loveless of Columbus/W-MU.

Cameron Raines went 2-0 to win the 195-pound bracket. He pinned Wapello's Kainoa Seumanutafa in 1:28, and outlasted Columbus/W-MU's Chance Malone 6-3.

Among second-place finishers for New London were brothers Marcel and Dominic Lopez, both of which had top-five battles in their championship match.

Marcel, ranked No. 1 in Class 1A, picked up his first loss of the year in the 113-pound title bout against Notre Dame's Blaine Frazier, the third-ranked wrestler in Class 3A. He had given Frazier his only loss of the year earlier this season, and the two are now a combined 80-2 with mutual losses.

Dominic, the fourth-ranked Class 1A wrestler at 138 pounds was defeated 10-6 by Notre Dame's Grifen Molle. Molle is ranked fourth in Class 3A.

The other second-place finish for New London went to Currey Jacobs, at 170 pounds. He was defeated by one of Columbus/W-MU's two champions on the day, Noah Freeman.

Freeman beat Jacobs on a 12-2 major decision in the title match. He started the meet with two second-period pins, one over Cardinal's Brody Adam and one over Lone Tree's Will Hotz.

Columbus/W-MU also won the 106-pound bracket as Lane Scorpil stayed undefeated. He went 2-0 on the night, pinning Wapello's Dawson Tips in 1:07, and taking the 106-pound title on a 14-7 win against Highland's Bryce Thompson. That was a Top 10 battle, as Scorpil is No. 9 in Class 2A, and Thompson is No. 7 in Class 1A.

Second place finishes for Columbus/W-MU went to Malone at 195 pounds and Seth Schurr at 285 pounds.

Pekin had one champion en route to a fifth-place finish, and no second-place finishes. Mason Juhl gave the Panthers an individual championship in the 220-pound bracket.

Juhl defeated Mediapolis' Keegan Akers 11-4 in the 220-pound title bout. Before that, he pinned Highland's Eli Slaymaker in the first period, and Lone Tree's Timothy Mills in the second.

WACO had a champion and a runner up. The champion was Jaden Williams, who won a nail-biter over Caden Benz of Mediapolis, 6-5, in the 152-pound championship. Before his championship match, Williams had only wrestled 15 seconds all day, pinning Wapello's Evan Ross early in his semifinal match.

WACO's second-place finisher was Jalen Collins. He took second in the 126-pound bracket.

Both Van Buren and Cardinal were shut out of the championship round, although both schools did finish the night with placewinners. Van Buren had three, and Cardinal had two.

Final team scores:

1. New London 195

2. Notre Dame 154.5

3. Wapello 142

4. Columbus/W-MU 140

5. Pekin 106

6. Highland 105

7. Louisa-Muscatine 84.5

8. Mediapolis 75

9. WACO 72

10. Lone Tree 38

11. Van Buren 27

12. Cardinal 20