Central College wrestling Jan. 20, 2009

Dutch down St. Olaf 36-15

PELLA—The Central College wrestling team fell behind 12-0 after its first two individual matches but stormed back to top St. Olaf (Minn.) 36-15 and win its second consecutive dual match Tuesday night in Northfield, Minn.  

It is the first time Central has won back-to-back duals since Jan. 22, 2005 when it beat MacMurray (Ill.) and St. Olaf in the same day.

“It feels great,” said head coach Eric Van Kley. “Our guys are really learning a lot, and they know that even though we’re not going to win every match that we need to compete and be aggressive. If we do that, then good things are going to happen.”

Nate Fell (sophomore, Avoca, AHST HS) put the match away for good with a pin at 184 pounds to give the Dutch a 24-15 lead before St. Olaf forfeited the 197-pound match. At 285 pounds Ted Dirkx (junior, Alleman, North Polk HS) added the exclamation point with a pin in 2:04.                                           

After forfeiting the opening match at 125 pounds and losing by pin at 133 pounds, Curtis Hobbs (sophomore, Grinnell) recorded a pin at 141 pounds to cut the early 12-0 deficit in half. The Dutch, who don’t have a 125-pounder, have had to learn to fight their way out of a hole from the start.

“It makes us realize that everyone’s got to step up and we need to be fighting for every point,” Van Kley said. “I think it puts some positive pressure on us.”

Freshman Zach Beekman (Pocahontas) won by a 7-3 decision at 149 pounds and Tommy Van Renterghem (freshman, Oskaloosa) pulled out a 13-12 overtime victory in the 165-pound match.

            Central will now try to take the momentum of winning consecutive duals into Iowa Conference action where it has not won since defeating Buena Vista 31-10 on Dec. 10, 2004.

“We know the competition is going to be mighty steep when we get back into the Iowa Conference,” said Van Kley. “We know that we need to battle and be aggressive. If we do that we’ll be able to have some individual successes and that will go a long way in our development as a team.”

Central will travel to Storm Lake Saturday for matches against four conference opponents. The Dutch will face fifteenth-ranked Luther at 9 a.m., tenth-ranked Cornell at noon, Buena Vista at 1:30 p.m. and Loras at 3 p.m.