Sickness and injuries force young Central/Ed-Co wrestlers to step up
Adam Kloser was the highest place winner for the Warriors at the Upper Iowa Conference Tournament. He finished third at 113 pounds. (Photos by Audrey Posten)
Derek Deitchler finished fifth at 144 pounds at last week's conference tournament.
Zane Embretson finishes pinning his Postville opponent in the conference tournament. He placed fourth at 120 pounds.
Parker Funke landed fifth on the podium at 157 pounds at the Upper Iowa Conference Tournament.
By Willis Patenaude | Times-Register
The Central/Ed-Co wrestling team was hobbled by sickness and injuries during last week’s full slate of competition, which started Jan. 27, when the JV squad traveled to the New Hampton/Turkey Valley JV Tournament.
Six wrestlers made the trip, including Nolan Gaul, Colton Hoisington and Kinnick Robbins, who all went 1-2 and finished third in their brackets.
“They wrestled a little slow and need to pick the pace up a little bit. But the nice thing about that is that it’s easily fixed and we can easily control how much effort we put into matches,” said coach Joe Koehn.
Zane Embretson and Parker Funke both went 2-1 and finished second in their brackets, while Derek Deitchler went 2-0 and placed first.
Next up for the Warriors was a Jan. 28 trip to Monticello for a quad with North Cedar, Maquoketa Valley and Monticello, where they finished 2-1 in duals.
“Overall, a good night. We started off well and ended the night well,” Koehn said.
The first dual was a 36-24 victory over Maquoketa Valley that started with 138-pounder Deitchler picking up a fall over Brayden Schuster in the second period. Funke (157) picked up his first career varsity win by fall over Sawyer Kemp. Funke was losing on points entering the third period before a takedown led to a pin.
Hoisington (175) also won by fall over Braden Ronnebaum in a match he never trailed in points, while Adam Kloser (113), Robbins (132) and Embretson (120) all won by forfeit and Connor Davis (285) lost by fall in the first period.
Against Monticello, the Warriors finished 1-5 in matches while giving up eight forfeits. Embretson pulled off a third-period pin for the only Central/Ed-Co victory of the dual, while Deitchler, Funke and Hoisington all lost by fall. Kloser and Davis both lost by major decision.
In the final dual against North Cedar, it all came down to the last match, a 138-pound contest between Deitchler and Coltyn Pullen, which Deitchler quickly finished with an early takedown and pin in less than a minute. It gave the Warriors a 30-24 dual victory.
In other matches, Hoisington defeated Brennen Koch by fall and Embretson lost by fall. Kloser, Robbins and Funke all won by forfeit.
“It was nice picking up a couple dual wins with most of your starters out. Showing the depth in our lineup. The mistakes we made tonight, fortunately, can be easily fixed and will need to be as the season is winding down,” Koehn said.
On Jan. 30, Central/Ed-Co traveled to Riceville for the Upper Iowa Conference Tournament without Braxton Bormann, Preston Kulper, Collin Jaster, Davis and Gaul, largely due to sickness.
“We were down a few of our normal starters due to sickness and injury, so some of our back-ups had to step up and wrestle some varsity matches,” Koehn said.
The highest placement for the Warriors came from Kloser at 113 pounds. He opened the tournament with a 10-1 major decision win over Henry Becthold (North Fayette Valley) in the quarterfinals, but dropped a 12-8 decision to Tacoma Thompson (MFL MarMac) in the semifinal match after leading 8-3 heading into the third period. Kloser rebounded with a 6-0 decision win in the consolation semifinal, defeating Aidan Finch (Clayton Ridge), before holding off Dalton Brinkman (Janesville) in the closing period to win the third-place match 14-9.
Embretson and Hoisington placed fourth at 120 and 165 pounds, respectively, while Deitchler at 144, Cooper Brown at 132 and Funke at 157 all placed fifth. Mack Perrinjaquet finished sixth at 150 pounds.
“It’s nice seeing our young guys step up at a tougher varsity tournament and still have some sort of success. It definitely makes the future brighter and can bring some positivity to a sick-ridden team after the last couple weeks,” Koehn said.
A Feb. 3 meet at Hudson with Bellevue and Dubuque Wahlert was the final meet of the season before the Warriors travel to Denver on Feb. 15 for districts and a chance at state.
