By Coach Bob Yilek
A double dual on Tuesday night with two bigger schools was good experience for us. Even though we did not come out on top we felt we made progress and wrestled much more aggressive. We gave up 12 points with the two forfeits and lost both duals by 10 points each. We are winning more matches then our opponents but need to make up for the 12 free points we give away.
Both Grinnell and Marshalltown have some good kids and wrestled them the well. We are focusing on individual improvement and we feel the majority of them are doing that as we get ready for the conference tournament this Saturday. We will need to have all 13 wrestlers wrestling at their best.
Belle Plaine 32 Grinnell 42
Winners included: Zakk Buch, Jack O’Brien – fall, Cody Chekal – decision, Kurtis Osipchack – Technical fall, Reed Petersen – fall and Jeremy Ellis – fall

Belle Plaine 30 Marshalltown 40
Winners include: Zakk Buch – fall, Lance Hinschberger – fall, Jack O’Brien – Major decision, Blake Chekal – decision, Chad Olson – Technical Fall and Reed Petersen – fall
Louisa Tournament
229.5 Davenport Assumption
208 West Delaware
175.5 Louisa Muscatine
95 Belle Plaine
81 West Liberty
76.5 Wapello
62 Mediapolis
56 Dyersville Beckman
55 West Burlington

Once again we wrestled short handed with some sickness . Wrestling with just nine guys we managed to come home with a 4th place finish with some really good teams. Davenport Assumption is rated 3rd in 2A, West Delaware is 5th and Louisa is in the top 10 of 1A. Then you add the many rated wrestlers competing and this was a great tournament. We had two champs, a third place finisher and five others who placed in the top six. A good effort but we need all guys to contribute and score points for us. We are wrestling better but need to keep fighting for six minutes.
Champions: Zakk Buch had two pins to win his title, Jack O’Brien had two pins and a good 5-0 decision over a very good opponent form Dyersville. The same kid Jack bet 2-0 last year so we made progress this year. Lance Hinschberger had a tough match in the semis but had three pins on the day to finish third. Cody Chekal and Reed Petersen both finished 5th with two pins each.
Junior varsity compete in the Mid-Prairie Tournament. The last tournament of the season for the junior varsity so it is called our JV State. We had one champion and one runner-up.
Scott Wheeler 1st; Trelys Mitchell – 2nd; Brent Wheeler – 4th
This week, the Plainsmen host English Valleys and Lisbon on Wednesday and the SICL Conference tourney Saturday.