Oskaloosa holds off Cardinals' late rally, spoils Senior Night
Dec. 22—Newton head boys' wrestling coach RJ Brown did some quick math in his head during the Cardinals' Little Hawkeye Conference matchup with Oskaloosa on Thursday.
And despite falling behind 30-0, Brown still felt like his team had a chance to win once they finally got on the board.
Unfortunately, the Cardinals suffered one too many losses by pin and couldn't quite complete the rally during a 36-35 home loss on Senior Night.
"We needed six points in most of those matches to be able to come back," Brown said. "We knew we'd have to get as many bonus points as possible and not give up too many ourselves. We just gave up too many pins to start. We dug ourselves too big of a hole."
Thomas Stadelmann
Oskaloosa won the dual after registering five pins. The Cardinals had three pins and two major decisions in their contested victories and also took the lone forfeit but finished the dual 6-7 in contested matches overall.
The team's four seniors recognized before the girls' dual against Oskaloosa were Seth Adams, Wyatt Weter, Nathan Milburn and Thomas Stadelmann.
Three of those four ended up on the winning side of their matches. Weter won his match at 190 pounds 10-5 and Milburn and Stadelmann each scored first-period pins at 215 and 285, respectively.
"I can't believe it's almost over," Stadelmann said about Senior Night. "It's kind of sad, but I'm glad I'm here. Losing by one point stinks. We've got a lot to improve on, but I'm excited about where this team can go."
Wyatt Weter
The other contested wins for the Cardinals came from Lane Rozendaal (157), Jake Mace-Maynard (175) and Kent Montgomery (113) and Levi Gregory accepted a forfeit at 106.
Zander Robson made his varsity debut at 126. He scored first and led 5-0 and 7-2 before Oskaloosa's Ivan Montgomery rallied.
The match was even at 7-, 9- and 11-all before Ivan Montgomery scored the pin with 10 seconds to go in the bout.
Brown has slowly worked in his talented crop of freshmen this season. Four of them were in the lineup on Thursday, while three others are just sophomores.
The Cardinals are wrestling a few starters down, too, as sophomore Sebastian Sorenson and freshman Isaiah Hansen have been ruled out for the season with injuries.
Junior Keary Sanger and sophomore Gavin Dean also made their varsity debuts against Oskaloosa.
"I think we win both of those weights if they were able to wrestle," Brown said of the injured Cardinals. "That's probably a 12-point swing."
Lane Rozendaal
Adams wrestled up a weight at 138 and led his match early before losing 7-2. Aiden Robson also lost his match by decision at 144.
The first victory of the night for Newton came from Rozendaal, who wrestled up a weight and rallied from an early hole to win 10-2 at 157.
Rozendaal trailed 2-1 after one period but tied it with an escape early in the second and added a takedown and back points to go up 6-2 after two.
Another takedown and more near fall points in the third capped the major-decision triumph.
Mace-Maynard dominated his match at 175. He scored takedowns in each of the first two periods to lead 4-0 and then went up 6-0 early in the third with another takedown before registering two more takedowns in the third to cap off the major decision.
"They have done a great job stepping up and wrestling in our dual meets," Brown said about the freshmen class. "They're a talented group and they're getting a lot of mat experience between both varsity and JV.
"Mentally, they've proved themselves to me. They are starting to figure things out."
Seth Adams
Weter scored an early takedown in his match at 190, but Parker Jordan tied it in the second with an escape.
Weter eventually led 4-2, 6-3 and 8-4 before winning 10-5. He secured five takedowns in the victory. He's undefeated since dropping down to 190.
Milburn and Stadelmann both wasted no time in their matches at 215 and 285.
Milburn, who weighs about 200, got an early takedown and then finished off the win with a 32-second pin.
"The seniors gave us a chance late in the dual," Brown said. "Nathan looks good at his new weight and Wyatt has been much better at his."
Stadelmann's pin came in 26 seconds. He got a hold of Kyron Smith from the side and flipped him to his back almost instantly.
"I knew him a little bit, and I knew it was a move I wanted to try. I was looking forward to it," Stadelmann said. "I picked him up from the side and just tossed him. I haven't worked on it actually. It just happened. It was out of the blue a little bit."
Gregory, who joined the team on Tuesday, took a forfeit at 106. That allowed Kent Montgomery to wrestle up to 113, and he posted another first-period pin.
Jake Mace-Maynard
The four Newton seniors will always hold a special place in Brown's heart. It's the first class he was able to coach from freshmen to senior year. He coached them his first two years as a Newton assistant coach before taking over as head coach last winter.
"This group were freshmen when I came in," Brown said. "This my first class I've seen all the way through. It's been bittersweet. They are definitely close to my heart because I started with them."
