Visitors close down Demons in home opener

WASHINGTON - The crowd was sparse but enthusiastic. The wrestling was good but ended quickly. The forfeits were many but the matches were few.

Washington dropped two duals Tuesday, one to HLV, 30-16, and one to Iowa Valley, 45-6. Iowa Valley defeated HLV 48-20. Three of four Demon matches against each team ended in pins.

With just four varsity Washington wrestlers available, the night was rearranged from a typical double dual format so that the wrestling was fairly continuous and there were no long breaks.

'The thought process was to randomly put matches together so the kids have a 45-minute break (by rule) before they wrestle again,” WHS head coach Brent Van Weelden said.

Van Weelden's innovation kept the two breaks to a combined total of 15 minutes instead of what could have been an hour or more.

'We wanted to get rid of all the forfeits and add them up at the end,” Van Weelden said.

It was a great plan because there were a total of 41 forfeits in the three duals.

Robert Bennett got the Demons off to a flying start with the first match of the year ending with his pin of HLV's Mason Fruendt in 1 minute, 42 seconds at 160 pounds.

'Robert wrestled well and Lincoln Hansen got a win in a junior varsity match,” Van Weelden said. 'Our kids are young and the older ones are inexperienced. I have seen improvement, but we have to get in better shape.”

It's always a boost to win the first match of the season and the preseason was spent preparing for meets, so Bennett just worked what he knew and found success, twice. He waited til the second period to put away Iowa Valley's Nathaniel Miller in 3:03.

'I tried throwing a headlock and swooped in for a high crutch and actually did it with one arm since I didn't get the other arm to connect, but he was light enough that I could lift him up and put him on his stomach,” Bennett said. 'The second one, I was heavier than him so I had an advantage. I just used my weight to turn him over.”

The second match of the night went the distance with Ayden Frazer at 170 dominating HLV's Cole Fontinel in a 17-4 major decision.

The Demons' third win was the quickest of the evening with Jacob Hill pinning Preston Willett of HLV in just 1:02 at 182.

Lane Schrock, at 126, wrestled HLV's Ethan Kupka, but was pinned in 4 minutes. He was pinned again, this time by Zane Keim of Iowa Valley in 3:31.

Frazer went the distance a second time at 170 and led 4-3 after a round, but lost 8-7 to Brody Hoyt of Iowa Valley.

Ronan Peach of Iowa Valley pinned Hill in 3:25 at 182.

Bennett is a junior and is grateful the pandemic hasn't stopped him from competing.

'I wouldn't say the coronavirus has changed things too much for us, other than we take more breaks,” Bennett said. 'In practice, we use a lot more hand sanitizer than before, but overall it's not too bad. It is a lot better than I thought it was going to be.”