Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Ryan Ceynar entered his final matchup with cross-town rival West High on Thursday expecting to close out the match.

Instead the City High senior got the Little Hawks off to an incredible start.

Ceynar bumped up a weight to 145 and recorded a second-period pin in the first match of the evening as City High opened with four consecutive victories and never trailed in a 49-28 win over West High.

“I was expecting to go 138 so I was surprised when coach (Cory) Connell told me I was going at 45,” Ceynar said. “I was expecting the last match and instead I got the first match but I just had to go in there and be ready.”

The pin by Ceynar at 145 was one of six falls for the Little Hawks on Thursday and started a string of three straight to open the match.

Junior Reece Caven and senior Kyle Hefley followed with first-period pins at 152 and 160 pounds respectively as City High quickly built an insurmountable 18-0 lead.

“That built momentum, it got everyone excited a ready to go,” Hefley said. “That was huge getting off to a good start and having the first guy be a sparkplug out there.”

Jacob Murry (285), Garrett Bormann (126) and Michael Santoro (132) all added pins for the Little Hawks which stretched their winning streak to four straight over West High.

City High picked up bonus points in eight of its nine wins on Thursday as top-ranked Ethan Wood-Finley won a major decision at 106 pounds and Davryn Stewart won via injury default at 220.

“Bonus points definitely help you win a dual,” Murry said. “We always talk about getting those extra points and not giving up any of those extra points and that was a big thing for us tonight.”
One of the biggest things for City High was its start.

Ceynar got the Little Hawks rolling early with a pin of West High junior Collin Leavy at 145.

An early takedown gave Ceynar an early lead but the senior led just 2-1 when he turned Leavy to his back from the top position 35 seconds into the second period.

“I was a little nervous tonight after having two weeks off but once I got out there I was fine,” Ceynar said. “I was just fighting as hard as I could.”

The pin by Ceynar started a streak of four consecutive victories that gave the Little Hawks a 21-0 lead they would never give up.

Caven needed just 37 seconds to pin Noah Terwilleger at 152 and Hefley pinned freshman Mason Applegate in 1:46 at 160 pounds.

City High snapped a three-match Mississippi Valley Conference losing streak and improved to 2-3 with the win while West High dropped to 2-3.

“Sickness and injuries have just wrecked our team the first part of the season I think the break was what we needed to recover and just reset our team,” Hefley said. “We are approaching the new year like we are starting the season fresh again and you could really see it tonight.”

With its full lineup in place for one of the first times this season City High look more like the defending MVC divisional champion and dual team qualifier from a year ago.

An 8-2 decision by Brandon Lalla at 170 pounds put City High in command 21-0.

“Really its been kind of a trying year so far, we’ve had a lot of injuries and we’ve literally had half of our lineup out of the lineup the first half of the year,” Connell said. “We’ve always known, we can do this, we have this potential once we get healthy we can do this. It’s finally nice to see that come to fruition now we want to have a great 2019.”

West High closed the lead to 21-10 on a pin by Will Hoeft at 182 and a major decision from senior Landon Green at 195.

City High answered quickly as Davryn Stewart won by injury default over Brett Pelfrey at 220 and Murry pinned Brock Pelfrey in 10 seconds at 285.

“It felt really nice,” Murry said. “You could just feel that the whole atmosphere was different tonight just because we had everybody in the lineup.”

West High got pins from freshmen Parker McBride at 113 and Hunter Garvin at 120 but Garrett Bormann secured the win for City High with a first-period pin of Mark Mueller at 126.

Santoro finished the City High pin sequence with his own first-period fall at 132.

“This is the time of the year we need to get it going and finish the year strong,” Connell said. “The first half of the year was what it was but now we need to get it going.”

City High 49, West High 28

106 – Ethan Wood-Finley (ICH) major dec. Grant O’Dell 11-1

113 – Parker McBride (ICW) pinned Gavin Lindaman 1:30

120 – Hunter Garvin (ICW) pinned Creshon McTeer 1:16

126 – Garrett Bormann (ICH) pinned Mark Mueller 1:45

132 – Michael Santoro (ICH) pinned Elijah Bruss 1:46

138 – Graham Gambrall (ICW) pinned Pail Waikel 1:17

145 – Ryan Ceynar (ICH) pinned Collin Leavy 3:05

152 – Reece Caven (ICH) pinned Noah Terwilleger :37

160 – Kyle Hefley (ICH) pinned Mason Applegate 1:46

170 – Brandon Lalla (ICH) dec. Joe Dixon 8-2

182 – Will Hoeft (ICW) pinned Joe Ring :45

195 – Landon Green (ICW) major dec. Jason Lemus 21-8

220 – Davryn Stewart (ICH) won by injury default Brett Pelfrey

285 – Jacob Murry (ICH) pinned Brock Pelfrey :10