Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – Fight and finish.

Blake Williams challenged his team to fight in its final matchup at the Solon Duals and the Spartans responded by finishing.

Solon won four matches in the final period and two in the final seconds on its way to a convincing 42-21 win over Prairie City-Monroe in the final match of the Solon Duals on Thursday.

The win capped a perfect 3-0 performance for Solon at its own dual meet and came after the Spartans escaped with a 42-37 win over Vinton-Shellsburg.

“We talked in between meets, the Vinton meet our fight wasn’t there and we had a nice little chat between meets and I just challenged them to fight,” Williams said. “I said win or lose just fight, fight for six minutes and they took it upon themselves and it showed.”

Solon won just three of nine contested matches against Vinton-Shellsburg and needed four wins by forfeit to escape with a win.

Against PCM the Spartans finished.

Finished matches, finished the dual and finished the 2017 portion of its schedule on a high note with a win over a Mustang squad ranked sixth in the IWCOA Dual Team rankings released on Wednesday.

“I told them before the meet if we go out and fight I’m going to feel good going into break but if we wrestle like we did against Vinton then it’s going to be a sick feeling for a while,” Williams said. “It’s fun to be in meets like that but it’s a lot more fun when you are fighting.”

Christian Haight, Andy Brokaw, Caleb Ebert and Mike Hoyle all used strong finishes to secure close wins as Solon won 10 of 14 matches against PCM.  

Ebert and Hoyle each scored in the final 20 seconds to secure critical wins for No. 13 Solon in swing matches in the dual.

“It’s just a mindset,” Hoyle said. “You have to get mentally tough to close out matches like this and duals like these.”

The dual started at 126 pounds and Solon got off to a strong start as Aidan Dall made a first-period takedown stand up in a 2-0 decision over Clay VanWyk.

Solon’s string of strong finishes started at 132 when Christian Haight scored a takedown with 40 seconds left and rode out Chase Shirk the rest of the way for a 6-5 win.

“To me that was the biggest one,” Williams said of the Haight win. “That one got the momentum going and it just kept going from there. I was proud of the guys.”

Andy Brokaw outscored Cody Wallace 4-1 in the third period to break a 2-2 tie in a 6-3 win at 138 pounds.

Ebert overcame a 4-1 fourth period deficit with a pair of third-quarter takedowns including the clincher in the final 10 seconds.

“Our coaches asked us to put more effort into the last dual and We all tried to put more effort into our matches,” Ebert said. “It was a good feeling.”

Following the four consecutive decisions to open the match a major decision by Zach Bevans at 152 pounds gave Solon an insurmountable 18-0 lead.

“Those first four matches all were real close but we found ways to win,” Williams said. “I think conditioning played a big part, that was big but guys were just willing to fight and not give up any points and it was crucial.”

In the match of the night No. 6 Hoyle scored an escape with 16 seconds left to edge ninth-ranked Jarron Trausch 8-7.

Hoyle had a 3-1 edge in takedowns and took a 7-5 lead with his third of the match with 1:34 left in the third period.

Trausch evened the scored at 7-7 with a reversal with 37 seconds left but Hoyle calmly escaped to earn the win.  

“When you mess up you have to stay calm,” Hoyle said. “In those situations you have to do what you have to do.”

Seamus Poynton added a pin at 170 and No. 8 Zach Wegmann (220) and third-ranked Tyler Linderbaum (285) each needed less than a minute to earn pins.

Linderbaum picked up the 100th victory of his career with a first period pin of Jace Smith.

Zeb Gnida capped the win with a 17-2 tech fall of Brian Nicholson at 120 pounds.

“It’s big to close on a big dual like this,” Hoyle said. “We will come back with a lot of momentum and get back to work.”

Solon 69, Keokuk 9

106 – Gabe Yetley (SOL) won by forfeit

113 – Tres Merydith (KEO) pinned Austin Schwake

120 – Zeb Gnida (SOL) won by forfeit

126 – Aidan Dall (SOL) won by forfeit

132 – Christian Haight (SOL) won by forfeit

138 – Andy Brokaw (SOL) dec. Matt Wyatt 6-2

145 – Caleb Ebert (SOL) won by forfeit

152 – Zack Bevans (SOL) won by forfeit

160 – Jax Flynn (SOL) won by forfeit

170 – Seamus Poynton (SOL) won by forfeit

182 – Mike Hoyle (SOL) won by forfeit

195 – Austin Tibbits (KEO) dec. Adam Bock 7-4

220 – Zach Wegmann (SOL) pinned Zack Glasscock 1:27

285 – Tyler Linderbaum (SOL) won by forfeit

Solon 42, Vinton-Shellsburg

106 – Mike Betterton (VS) pinned Gabe Yetley 2:47

113 – Bryce Radeke (VS) won by forfeit

120 – Zeb Gnida (SOL) won by forfeit

126 – Carter Weeks (VS) pinned Aidan Dall 2:48

132 – Luke Radeke (VS) major dec. Christian Haight

138 – Brock Radeke (VS) dec. Andy Brokaw 10-5

145 – Scott Betterton (VS) pinned Caleb Ebert 4:43

152 – Zack Bevans (SOL) pinned Luke Beyer :41

160 – Jax Flynn (SOL) won by forfeit

170 – Kort Johnson (VS) pinned Seamus Poynton 3:53

182 – Mike Hoyle (SOL) won by forfeit

195 – Adam Bock (SOL) won by forfeit

220 – Zach Wegmann (SOL) pinned Chris King :59

285 – Tyler Linderbaum (SOL) pinned Grant Ries :26

Solon 42, PCM 21

106 – Landon Fenton (PCM) pinned Gabe Yetley :42

113 – Payton Drake (PCM) pinned Austin Schwake :24

120 – Zeb Gnida (SOL) tech. fall Brian Nicholson 17-2

126 – Aidan Dall (SOL) dec. Clay VanWyk 2-0

132 – Christian Haight (SOL) dec. Chase Shirk 6-5

138 – Andy Brokaw (SOL) dec. Cody Wallace 6-3

145 – Caleb Ebert (SOL) dec. Colby Tool 8-5

152 – Zack Bevans (SOL) major dec. Drew Johnson 20-7

160 – Wes Cummings (PCM) dec. Jax Flynn 8-2

170 – Seamus Poynton (SOL) pinned Brady Fagen 4:36

182 – Lucas Roland (PCM) pinned Hayes Diersen :29

195 – Mike Hoyle (SOL) dec. Jarron Trausch 8-7

220 – Zach Wegmann (SOL) pinned Dalton Schlangen :19

285 – Tyler Linderbaum (SOL) pinned Jace Smith :52