WARRIOR MEN WIN FIRST-EVER DUAL
OSKALOOSA, IA – Not a bad first salvo.
With nary a meet under its belt, the NJCAA saw enough potential to include the first-year Indian Hills Men's Wrestling program in its first Division I rankings of the season as the Warriors entered the poll at No. 20.
That was the easy part.
The hard part is proving it.
The first step in doing so happened Friday night as the Warriors took the mat for the first time ever as a program and, in doing so, collected a dominating 37-15 win over their NAIA counterparts from William Penn.
The night included a dual between both schools men's and women's programs and was dubbed the "Co-Ed Clash."
"I think the event was awesome," said Head Coach Cole Spree. "It gave both programs the opportunity to highlight their programs at the same time. We are really looking forward to making this event a tradition."
Something that Spree is also hopes will continue are collecting more victories than their opponents, and that's exactly what his Warriors did on this night. IHCC (1-0) took five contested matches and collected a pair of forfeits to provide the winning margin.
Sophomore Christopher Busutil picked up the first win in program history to start the night at 125 pounds as the Homestead, Florida native won by technical fall, 17-5 over Penn's Nadhelo Charles-Pierre.
After IHCC's Ethan Lemon garnered a forfeit at 133, freshman Caleb Meekins picked up the Warrior first-ever pin as the Michigan product stuck Darian Diaz at the 1:02 mark of the first period to give Spree's troops a 17-0 lead.
In what Spree would call the most impressive outing of the night from his side of the ledger, the Warrior headman lauded freshman Destin Jones' 15-6 major decision over William Penn junior Joe Eads.
"Destin came out in his first-ever collegiate match and took out a returning NAIA All-American," Spree said. "We look forward to seeing what he can do going forward."
Jones' victory handed the Warriors a commanding 21-0 lead after four matches. William Penn would take the next two bouts before IHCC would get back in the win column with Mouhamadou Sene picking up a forfeit victory at 174 and sophomore Justin Grant's dominating 12-1 major decision, to make it 31-9 heading into the final two battles of the night.
The two squads would split the final two matches as Deron Pulliam pinned Dylan Comstock in forty seconds to collect IHCC's final win of the night, and WPU picked up a forfeit win at 285 to end the scoring.
Indian Hills will try to keep the momentum rolling when it hosts its first-ever home dual on Friday, February 12 at Howar Middle School in Centerville. The Warriors will battle Ellsworth on that history-making night, with the first match starting at 7 p.m.
Indian Hills CC 37
William Penn 15
125--Christopher Busutil (I) won by technical fall over Nadhelo Charles-Pierre, 17-2 (0-5)
133--Ethan Lemon (I) won by forfeit (0-11)
141--Caleb Meekins (I) won by fall over Darian Diaz, 1:02 (0-17)
149--Destin Jones (I) won by major decision over Joe Eads, 15-6 (0-21)
157--Makail Stanley (W) won by decision over Eli Loyd, 13-8 (3-21)
165--Steven Skewes (W) won by fall over Neal Larsen, 0:55 (9-21)
174--Mouhamadou Sene (I) won by forfeit (9-27)
184--Justin Grant (I) won by major decision over Jason Beebe, 12-1 (9-31)
197--Deron Pulliam (I) won by fall over Dylan Comstock, 0:40 (9-37)
285--Maxwell Diaz (W) won by forfeit (15-37)