Bulldogs boys wrestling team shows growth during first half of season

With the first half of the season over and the team coming back from the winter break, The Hampton-Dumont-CAL Bulldogs boys wrestling team is ready to get back to competition.  Head coach Patrick Hansen said that while some things did not go their way that the first half of the season was good for the Bulldogs.

“We wrestled hard and got better and showed a lot of growth over the first half of the year,” Hansen said. “We had a pretty hard schedule, so with wrestling you learn more about yourself than you do with just winning.It is not easy for the kids to deal with losing but it is hard for them to understand how much it makes them but I think we have a good group of kids that understand and the break has been nice and we are ready to get after it.”

At their most recent meet before the break, the team took fifth place out of 19 teams with a score of 153.5 points at the Jim Kinyon Norsemen Invitational on Dec. 21. In that meet, Madox Strother went 10-6 and took fifth place in the 106-lbs weight class, Luke Showalter went 12-6 and took fifth place in the 120-lbs weight class, and Arnold Yahir Guerara-Barara went 1-3 in the 126lbs weight class.

Charlie Showalter went 15-1 and took first place in the 132-lbs weight class, Jacob Mahler went 9-8 in the 138-lbs weight class, and Jaymes Stevens went 9-7 and took sixth place in the 144-lbs weight class. Ryder Strother went 5-4 and took sixth place in the 150-lbs weight class, Taylor Mahler went 13-3 and took first place in the 157-lbs weight class, Colin Bird went 13-4 and took second place in the 165-lbs weight class, and Sean Heilskov went 8-8 and took seventh place in the 175-lbs weight class. Brody Robertson went 6-9 in the 190-lbs weight class, Maddon Evans went 10-7 and took fifth place in the 215-lbs weight class, and Emmitt Elling went 5-10 in the 285-lbs weight class.

A positive for Hansen during the first half is how the younger wrestlers have been coming along and how he said the JV team also looks strong so far this year.

“Our JV, they did a lot of stuff that is hard, which is why we do it,” Hansen said. “I am pretty happy with the growth they have shown with just getting better and just coming along.”

In the second half of the season, Hansen said one thing he would like to see the team improve on is competing more.

“We have lost a lot of close matches in some of those duals that we lost and we have to get better at competing at the end of those matches,” Hansen said. “Just going for broke and putting ourselves in a better situation to win. We wrestled a lot of tough matches and things like that and now it is time for the rubber to meet the road and start putting it to people.”

One improvement that Hansen has noticed from the start of the season to now is how the wrestlers have pushed the pace.

“I think we have gotten more tech falls this year than any other year in school history,” Hansen said. “It is good for higher points and we have some kids that are really pushing the pace right now. They are not letting kids hang around on them and win by one, they are trying to win by eight or nine or 10 points and trying to get as many tech falls as they can.”

A goal for the rest of the season for Hansen is that with around 30 duals left this year that the Bulldogs get a few more wins to put themselves in a good spot for when regional duals come around.

“We have a lot of district seeding duals coming up and if we put ourselves in a good spot we have a pretty good district for us,” Hansen said. “With looking at some of the teams and where the kids are at I can see us getting quite a few kids through. There are quite a few that are in good situations and we have to stay positive and keep grinding for the end of the year.”

The team’s next meet is on the road at Iowa Falls-Alden on Jan. 9. at 6:30 p.m.