Tigers dominate Iola; Pittsburg wins tight dual

Fort Scott's Chase Howser controlled Iola's Zeph Larney during a 152-pound bout at the FSHS gymnasium Thursday night. Howser pinned Larney in the second period. (Kenny Felt/Exclusive to the Tribune)

In what was already their final home appearance of the season, Fort Scott High School's wrestlers split a triangular with Iola and Pittsburg at the FSHS gymnasium Thursday night.

The Tigers defeated former Southeast Kansas League foe Iola, 70-4, winning 13 of of the 14 matches with six coming via forfeit. But they fell to SEK rival Pittsburg, 38-37, in the final match of the evening.

"It helps wrestling at home with a sizable crowd," Fort Scott head coach David Brown said. "It was a great night, great atmosphere. Those who came to watch got their money's worth tonight, every bit of it."

Jacob Durossette scored a technical fall over Iola's Cody Conner as he took part in his first match of the season after recovering from knee surgery. (Kenny Felt/Exclusive to the Tribune)

In the night's opening dual, Pittsburg pummeled Iola, 61-18, picking up five of its 12 wins by forfeit as the Mustangs brought just nine wrestlers.

The Tigers (0-1 SEK, 8-4 overall) won the first three matches of the Iola dual without having to break a sweat as freshman Thomas Nighs-wonger (106 pounds), junior Cole Stewart (113) and senior Tyler Sharp (120) had no opponents to wrestle and picked up forfeits.

Junior Jerad Heckman won the first bout held when he pinned Iola's Tristan Sigfusson at 126 pounds. Heckman already had a 15-2 lead when he got the stick with 1:16 left in the third period.

Adam Deloney (132) and Issac Thurston (138) picked up forfeits to push Fort Scott's lead in the dual to 36-0.

Junior Jacob Durossette took to the mat for the first time this season as the 145-pounder missed the Tigers' December matches while recovering from minor knee surgery. He scored a technical fall on Cody Conner after he built a 16-1 lead in less than two periods.

Chase Howser pinned Zeph Larney at 152 pounds with 42 seconds left in the bout on a reversal that led almost immediately to the stick. John Hughes pinned Travis Rieske at 160 and Cody Bunn picked up a 12-3 win over Andrew Garber as Fort Scott's lead grew to 57-0.

Senior Marques Floyd stepped on to the mat at 182 pounds for his first-ever high-school match. He joined the team midway through December. Although he lost 12-0 to Bryce Misenhelter, he was able to show some quickness and strength that could help him as he gains experience.

John Metcalf scored a 17-7 win over Chase Roettgen at 195 pounds. B.J. Wilson took a forfeit at 220 and Brendan Blackburn closed out the dual with a 7-1 win over Trey Colborn.

Wilson would have wrestled Stephen McDonald in what could have been a good match but the Iola senior suffered a separated shoulder during his earlier bout with Pittsburg's Gersham Avalos.

The Pittsburg dual began with Levi Kester accepting a forfeit from Fort Scott after Brown decided to leave 106 open. Jeremiah Jones pinned Stewart at 113 to boost Pittsburg's lead to 10-0.

Fort Scott won the next two bouts. Sharp took a 12-4 major decision over Joey Wools at 120. Heckman prevailed over Logan Fields at 126 in overtime, 9-7.

Fields led 5-4 after two periods. Heckman escaped to tie the bout with 1:50 on the clock in regulation and scored a takedown with 1:11 to go.

On that move, Field suffered an injury to his left shoulder and the match was stopped for a moment while he was attended to. But he managed a reversal with 11.8 seconds left to take the dual into overtime.

Heckman took down Fields 12 seconds into the sudden-death session for the victory.

Brett Cobb pinned Deloney at 132 to boost Pittsburg's lead to 16-7. This was the first of eight consecutive bouts to end with pins.

Fort Scott won the next two as Victor Hughes stuck Willey Johns 50 seconds into the 138-pound bout and Durossette ended his match with Ethan Davis in 1:14. That gave the Tigers a 19-16 lead in the dual.

Matt Tallie reclaimed the lead for the Purple Dragons as he pinned Howser at 152. But John Hughes got it back for the Tigers when he pinned Hunter Cress in 1:36. That put Fort Scott ahead, 25-22.

Jason Wools pinned Bunn in 1:17 at 170 to give the Dragons the lead for good. Will Mengarelli stuck Floyd in 1:29 to make it 34-25.

Metcalf pinned Ivan Carrel at 195 with 17 seconds left in the second period. But Avalos clinched the dual for Pittsburg when he took a 12-2 major decision over Wilson. That made the dual score 38-31. The dual ended with Blackburn receiving a forfeit at 285.

"It's one of those things when you've got the luxury of having kids you can put in and move up and down the lineup," Brown said in reference to the fact that Pittsburg put Cress in at 160 to bump Jason Wools and Mengarelli each up one weight class in order to avoid forfeiting the 182-pound match. "We didn't have those kids today. That's unfortunate because we had some kids who couldn't be available because they didn't make good decisions to be available tonight. And that's part of kids growing up.

"But we didn't have many matches that we gave away -- ones where we made bad, foolish decisions. The mistakes that were made were ones made from going very hard and very aggressively. You can take that and build from that and the kids will get a lot better for it."

Hayes Howser wrestled two exhibition matches against Pittsburg wrestlers. Prior to the varsity dual, he pinned Greg Bromswell in 22 seconds. After the dual, Hurley Burch pinned Howser with 48 seconds left in the second period.

The Tiger varsity travels to Bonner Springs Saturday morning for the annual Dick Burns Mat Classic. Action begins at 8:30 a.m.

FORT SCOTT 70, IOLA 4

106: Thomas Nighswonger (FS) won by forfeit. FS, 6-0.

113: Cole Stewart (FS) won by forfeit. FS, 12-0.

120: Tyler Sharp (FS) won by forfeit. FS, 18-0.

126: Jerad Heckman (FS) pinned Tristan Sigufsson, 4:44. FS, 24-0.

132: Adam Deloney (FS) won by forfeit. FS, 30-0.

138: Isaac Thurston (FS) won by forfeit. FS, 36-0.

145: Jacob Durossette (FS) def. Cody Conner by technical fall, 2:29. FS, 41-0.

152: Chase Howser (FS) pinned Zeph Larney, 3:18. FS, 47-0.

160: John Hughes (FS) pinned Travis Rieske, 2:41. FS, 53-0.

170: Cody Bunn (FS) def. Andrew Garber, 12-3. FS, 57-0.

182: Bryce Misenhelter (Io) def. Marques Floyd, 12-0. FS, 57-4.

195: John Metcalf (FS) def. Chase Roettgen, 17-7. FS, 61-4.

220: B.J. Wilson (FS) won by forfeit. FS, 67-4.

285: Brendan Backburn (FS) def. Trey Colborn, 7-1. FS, 70-4.

PITTSBURG 38, FORT SCOTT 37

106: Levi Kester (P) won by forfeit.P, 6-0.

113: Jeremiah Jones (P) def. Stewart, 14-2. P, 10-0.

120: Sharp (FS) def. Josh Wools, 12-4. P, 10-4.

126: Heckman (FS) def. Logan Fields, 9-7, OT. P, 10-7.

132: Brett Cobb (P) pinned Deloney. P, 16-7.

138: V.Hughes (FS) pinned Willey Johns, :50. P, 16-13.

145: Durossette (FS) pinned Ethan Davis, 1:14. FS, 19-16.

152: Matt Tallie (P) pinned C.Howser, :50. P, 22-19.

160: J.Hughes (FS) pinned Hunter Cress, 1:36. FS, 25-22.

170: Jason Wools (P) pinned Bunn, 1:17. P, 28-25.

182: Will Mengarelli (P) pinned Floyd, 1:29. P, 34-25.

195: Metcalf (FS) pinned Ivan Carrell, 3:43. P, 34-31.

220: Gersham Avalos (P) def. Wilson, 12-2. P, 38-31.

285: Blackburn (FS) won by forfeit. P, 38-37.