Statesmen Fall Just Short of Fighting Bees

Davenport--Both squads won five matches, but bonus points made up the difference as the William Penn men's wrestling team fell 20-18 to St. Ambrose in a Heart of America Athletic Conference dual meet Wednesday.

WPU (1-1, 1-1 Heart) opened the night down 4-0 after 125 pounds, but Lane Scorpil (So., Columbus Junction, Iowa, Industrial Technology) answered right back with an 11-4 decision over Isaac Martinez at 133 pounds.

The SAU edge grew to five at 8-3 after William Penn dropped the 141-pound bout.  Fortunately, Quinten Aney (So., Mediapolis, Iowa, Business Management) got the ship righted again, defeating Reese Finch 6-4 at 149.

157-pounder Kael Bunce (Sr., Stockbridge, Mich., Mechanical Engineering) then put the navy and gold on top for the first time in the meet as he shut out Riley Woods in an 11-0 major decision, but
unfortunately the Statesmen were penalized a point for unsportsmanlike conduct, leaving the lead at just 9-8.

Cameron Hargrove (Jr., Bolingbrook, Ill., Sports Management) added to the visitors' advantage as he pounded Diego Machado to the tune of a 19-4 technical fall at 165 pounds, pushing the lead to 14-8.

Unfortunately, the Fighting Bees flipped the script with three consecutive victories of their own to grab a 20-14 edge.

285-pounder Isaac Boucher (Jr., Kalona, Iowa, Nursing) was then forced to win via fall in the last matchup of the night to get it to a tiebreaker.  Boucher had no problem with Jeremiah Morris, but failed to get the mat slapped as he won by major decision at 16-6.

"Tonight was a great dual and hard-fought by both teams," Head Coach Aron Scott said.  "Hats off to St. Ambrose; they wrestled tough and wanted to win.  We missed out on bonus-point opportunities on a few occasions and that cost us.  We need to clean things up and wrestle smarter, but I am really proud of the effort and fight in our guys."

Next Up: William Penn returns to Oskaloosa on Tuesday, November 28 to host Baker in a Heart dual meet at 6 p.m.

125--Steele Dias (S) won by major decision over Brendan Nantz, 13-0 (0-4)
133--Lane Scorpil (W) won by decision over Isaac Martinez, 11-4 (3-4)
141--Guiseppe Guerra (S) won by major decision over Hector Diaz, 12-4 (3-8)
149--Quinten Aney (W) won by decision over Reese Finch, 6-4 (6-8)
157--Kael Bunce (W) won by major decision over Riley Woods, 11-0 (9-8) (WPU lost one team point due to unsportsmanlike conduct)
165--Cameron Hargrove (W) won by technical fall over Diego Machado, 19-4 (14-8)
174--Jayden Terronez (S) won by fall over Jesus Diaz, 0:47 (14-14)
184--Dylan Meiners (S) won by decision over Branson Bottorff, 4-0 (14-17)
197--Tyreese Johnson (S) won by decision over Jesse Schwery, 7-5 (14-20)
285--Isaac Boucher (W) won by major decision over Jeremiah Morris, 16-6 (18-20)