The Solon boys and girls wrestling teams endured a tough test in the early portion of its respective seasons by hosting Independence on Friday night. While the Spartan boys were on the back end of a blowout performance, the lady Spartans climbed its way back from an early deficit to come out on top — amid standout performances from both sides.
Solon girls
It was an intense shootout that featured individual and team comebacks and a few match-deciding forfeits as Solon escaped with the narrow 30-28 victory. Riley Worrell (105) got the party started for the Spartans with an 8-7 decision after Independence’s Abby Martin held a 7-4 lead heading into the final period.
Independence responded with a 22-6 run that included three Mustang pins and a major decision — Solon relied on a forfeit for its lone points during that stretch. Wren Brodersen’s period one pin (140) was followed by an energetic Kendell Koss pin (145) as she faced a 10-7 deficit to Independence’s Mercy Toe.
While Toe forcibly controlled the match through the entirety of the first period, Koss’ pin with four seconds left in the first period of her varsity debut brought the entire gym to its feet while giving Solon the 24-22 lead.
“It was like a confidence booster,” Koss said. “It made me feel a lot better about my wrestling skills than I felt before.”
And despite an Independence pin in the last match to put the Mustangs back ahead by four, another Solon forfeit victory secured the victory for the Spartans.
“I thought we were outperformed. So, it’s one of those things we got a lot of work on still,” said Solon girls head coach J.J. Cooper. “I guess [it was] a good test, saw a lot of things that we need to kind of make corrections to, but it was just one of those nights that we want to have a big win on the scoreboard.”
Solon boys
It was all Independence right out of the gate as the Mustangs cruised to a 57-22 victory.
An Anderson Osgood major decision (106 pounds) and Justin Moore pin (126) kept Solon within arm’s reach early on, though Independence followed with four-straight pins enroute to a 24-0 run.
“I thought the effort of getting off your back was definitely a big thing tonight,” said Solon 285-pound wrestler Lucas Feuerbach. “They had so many pins that couldn’t have happened. Some people are just not fighting off their backs, which I thought was a big thing.”
Carson Kidwell (157) broke the scoring run with a pin over Independence’s Austin Buckman in the second period. With an 8-0 lead up to that point, Kidwell finished as the only Spartan on the boy’s team to hold an opponent scoreless.
Outside of Feuerbach’s pin in the final match, Independence dominated the rest of the way as Solon finished on the wrong side of a lopsided duel. The Spartans won four of 14 total matches.
“For the most part, I was happy with our fight, which is what we preach,” said Solon boys head coach Aaron Hadenfeldt. “But we’ve got some work to do… The season’s early, we’ve got some time to improve.”
In other wrestling action:
The Spartans won the North Cedar Invitational Saturday, Dec. 13, at North Cedar HS in Clarence. Solon topped the eight-team field with a dominating 214.5 points. Louisa-Muscatine was runner up with 167 followed by Cedar Rapids Jefferson (150.0), Durant (134.0), Regina Catholic (96.0), Wapello (80.5), Maquoketa Valley (63.5), and the host Knights (31.0).
Champions for the Spartans were Anderson Osgood 8-1, 106-lbs.), Evan Gleason (4-2, 113-lbs.), Jayden Steapp (6-3, 132-lbs.), Carson Kidwell (7-3, 157-lbs.), Connor Dunn (7-2, 175-lbs.), and Lucas Feuerbach (7-1, 285-lbs.). Jadyn Bevans (4-4, 150-lbs.), Teague Williams (5-4, 165-lbs.), and Tripp Johnson (4-5, 190-lbs.) took second place. Justin Moore (2-7, 126-lbs.) had a third place showing on the day with Grayson Waddell (2-8, 120-lbs.), Michael Bigelow (2-8, 138-lbs.), Quinten Henning (2-7, 144-lbs.), and Eli Cash (2-1, 165-lbs.) finishing in fourth place. Drew O’Neill (2-2, 165-lbs.) and Jackson Bell (1-2, 215-lbs.) took fifth place, Grant Milliman (1-3, 157-lbs.) finished in sixth and Luke Devery (2-6, 215-lbs.) was seventh on the day.
The Lady Spartans opened the week with a 15th-place showing (51.0 points) in the 27-team field. South Tama took the championship with 200.5 points followed by Liberty High School (165.5) and the host Raiders (133.5). Among fellow WaMaC teams, Mount Vernon was fifth (112.5), Vinton-Shellsburg was sixth (112.0), Benton Community was seventh (100.5), Marion was 12th (66.0), West Delaware was 13th (64.5), CPU was 19th (31.0), Grinnell tied for 20th (29.0), and CCA was 26th (14.0).
Alannah Mahoney (7-4, 130-lbs.) was Solon’s top-finisher at fourth place. Tess Richards (10-4, 120-lbs.) was sixth, and Rylee Worrell (7-8, 110-lbs.) and Haiden Wolfe (6-8, 235-lbs.) both finished eighth.