Halterman takes third at Marion
By KYLE KIRBY
Sports Editor
The Montezuma grapplers competed in a triangular on Wednesday, Jan. 9, against conference foes BGM and Lynnville-Sully. The Braves were not able to win either dual, but did have five individual victories.
Nate VeVerka, Monte’s 189-pound wrestler, came away with two victories. He pinned BGM’s Nick McCulley in 1:44 and then pinned Matt Lisk of Lynnville-Sully in 1:57.
James McCain wrestled at 112 pounds and also had two wins. He received a forfeit against BGM and won his match against Lynnville-Sully’s Bill Trettin by major decision, 16-3.
Kris Halterman (160 pounds) also won by major decision over BGM’s Dustin Henry, 12-1. Brok Dawley (215 pounds) suffered a tough loss, 4-3, to BGM’s Wyatt Bauman and was pinned by the Hawks’ Josh Rockwell. Vinny Buchanan, Monte’s heavyweight wrestler, lost both of his matches by fall.
Halterman led the Braves at the Marion Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 12. He lost his first match by fall to Marion’s Ben Holub in 3:50, but then won two matches to place third. He won by injury default over Keokuk’s Nate Kelly in the consolation semi-finals. Halterman faced off with Holub in a rematch in the consolation finals and this time came out on top with a pin in 3:51.
VeVerka suffered a loss by fall in his first match of the day to John Schumacher of Louisa-Muscatine in 1:00. He then pinned Dakota Riddle of Keokuk in 2:49 in the consolation semi-finals. VeVerka’s final match of the tournament was against Marion’s Sam Hoffman. He lost the match by fall in 3:44. Brok Dawley went 2-2 at the tournament and finished in fifth place. He lost to Gabe Brown of Cedar Rapids Xavier in the first round by fall in 2:13.
He then pinned Jake Houston of Louisa- Muscatine in 27 seconds to advance to the consolation semi-finals. Dawley lost his next match to Keokuk’s
Alex Edler in 3:23, but responded by pinning Grinnell’s Nathan Merical in 1:26. Vinny Buchanan and James McCain also competed for the Braves at the invite, but were not able to place. Monte finished ninth at the tournament with 39 team points. Williamsburg won the team title with 199.5 points. Keokuk (188), Louisa-Muscatine (182), North Linn (171), Marion (168.5), Wilton (145), Cedar Rapids Xavier (101) and Grinnell (95) all participated at the tournament.
Upcoming events:
The Braves will take part in the North Tama Tournament on Saturday, Jan. 19, in Traer. Monte will then battle with Tri-County and Lone Tree in a triangular on Tuesday, Jan. 22.