Reivers and Tritons Give National Tournament Preview

February 12, 2021

Council Bluffs, Iowa

NJCAA #4 Iowa Western welcomed Iowa Central to Reiver Arena on Thursday night for a top-10 showdown.

Iowa Western (1-0, 1-0 ICCAC) and the sixth-ranked Tritons (0-1, 0-0) opened the dual at 125 with Nathan Rizek facing off against ICCC's Couy Weil. Rizek worked Weil for a first-round win by fall with 40 seconds left in the opening period that staked the Reivers to an early 6-0 lead in the team scoring.

Iowa Central would rally back as Aidan Harris won by tech fall over Wyatt May at 133 pounds to close the team score to just a one-point gap. That's the closest the Tritons would get as IWCC used a trio of wins to pad their lead to 18-5 before ICCC would counter again.

An upset of #5 Bret Minor by Creighton Baughman gave the Reivers a win at 141. Baughman edged Minor 5-4 on riding time before the Reivers grabbed six more points at 149 where ICCC stood open. The Nation's #1 157-pounder gave IWCC another victory as defending national champion Isaiah Crosby topped Nolan Miller-Johnson at 157.

The Tritons would begin to inch closer when at 165, Fabian Padilla was beaten by fourth-ranked Andrew Gamble, 6-3.

At 174 Keaton Geerts, ranked sixth in the 165 class beat Micheal Aquirre by fall. The pin came at 2:09 in the first, cutting the Tritons' deficit to just four points at 18-14.

The dual of the night proved to be at 184. The Reivers Josh McFarland, number one in the class, held the match until Jose Rodriguez (#3 at 174) rallied in the final seconds to win 7-5. That would have brought Iowa Central to within one, but a team point was deducted after Rodriguez was penalized for taunting after his victory, meaning the Reivers led by a pair by a pair of points with two matches left.

Anthony DeAnda (IWCC) and Trevion Sample (ICCC) treated the benches to an entertaining dual at 197, with Deanda coming out on top 3-1 to give the Reivers a five-point advantage at 21-16.

The heavyweight match would be the only one of the night to feature a top-10 pairing at the same weight class as #3 Dillyn Miller lost to #5 Jordan Pryor 12-6, making the final score Iowa Western 21, Iowa Central 19, giving the Reivers their second win of the season and dropping the Tritons to 0-2 on the year.

"I think we made great strides from the first dual." Said Head Coach Josh Watts, "We just need to keep building off of it and keep improving."

The Reivers have the weekend off before they'll face North Iowa Area on the road on Tuesday.

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