Cyclone wrestlers place fourth at Dan Hill Invite
The HCHS Cyclones boys wrestling team earned a fourth place finish with 148.5 Saturday at the Dan Hill Invite in Harlan. Logan-Magnolia won the event with 248 points.
Senior Cyclone Jesse Jens achieved two milestones earning his 100th career victory and 50th career pin.
“He’s been a solid wrestler,” Cyclone Head Coach Adam Bendorf said of Jens. “I think he’s been working a lot this year on his fundamentals. Jesse has some of the best hips of any wrestler I’ve ever seen. He’s able to get out of situations and able to score out of positions that most other kids wouldn’t be able too.”
Jens won first place in 120 pounds beating Winterset’s Judah Gurwell with a 9-0 major decision.
Senior Spencer Fink also took home a first place finish in the 126 pounds pinning Logan Magnolia’s Noah Archibald at 3:47.
“That’s always good to see the seniors do well,” Bendorf said. “You want to see everybody do well. By the time you’re a junior or senior you really start winning and things come together, and that’s the case for Spencer. Things are really coming together for him.”
Other Cyclone highlights included Senior Brody McKinley getting a fifth place victory over Reese Fauble in the 157 weight class. Senior Austin Spray also got a third place match victory in the 285 weight class beating out Narciso Hidalgo of Perry, and Senior Reese Koch won a third place match in the 175 weight class over Nile Lundvall of Glenwood with a fall at 1:16.
The Cyclones return to action Tuesday at St. Albert in a quad that will also feature Glenwood and Southwest Iowa.
“It’s about making improvements,” Bendorf said. “It’s kind of the nature of wrestling too starting the season out learning basic moves and until the first competition is when you start seeing the things that you need to focus on. We’ll have practice tomorrow and we’ll be focusing on some of those areas we made mistakes on.”