Council Bluffs, Iowa
It was a game of falls for Iowa Western and Ellsworth on Thursday night at Reiver Arena, a good thing for IWCC things were falling in their favor.
Starting at 197, ECC's Jerell Belcher topped the Reivers Trent Strong with a first-period pin to put the Panthers up 6-0. That lead was short-lived however as the Reivers' Dillyn Miller pinned ECC's Chris Sanchez with only six seconds left in the first to tie it at 6-6.
As the weight classes rolled around to the top, Nathan Rizek took out the Panthers' Carter Littlefield with 1:20 elapsed in the second period and Dillyn Stewart followed with a 20-5, Tech Fall, win over Martin Santana at 133 to boost the IWCC lead to 17-6.
Creighton Baughman added a 9-4 decision at 141 before Ellsworth finally earned points back at 149 when Nate Lendt shutout Levi May, 8-0.
The Reivers' second tech fall victory of the night came at 157 as Isaiah Crosby topped Joseph Littrell, 20-2 to grow the lead to 25-9.
Fabian Padilla nearly rallied to victory at 165, but Justin Henry's late escape gave Ellsworth their final victory of the evening with an 8-7 win.
Before the news could get out, Michael Aguirre and Josh McFarland both pinned their opponents to end the scoring, 37-13 in favor of the Reivers. Aquirre's pin took 1:27, while McFarland needed only 34 seconds to earn the final victory of the night for IWCC.
The Reivers won seven of the dual's 10 matches, four by fall and two by tech fall.
"We are making strides every time we compete," said Head Coach Josh Watts, "Our emphasis has been on being more physical and asserting ourselves in the matches and I think we did a good job of doing that tonight."
In the exhibition matches that followed, IWCC's Wyatt May won 9-2 at 133, Tanner Higgins added another victory by pin at 149, and Trent Strong, wrestling for the second time on the evening, won 8-5 to round out the action.
The Reivers will host Minnesota West in their lone non-conference dual of the season next Wednesday night. The event will take place in the Wrestling room of the Athletic Performance Center, the first such event to occur inside the facility.
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