Central upended in battle of ranked wrestling squads

DECORAH — Despite leading by four points at two separate moments of the match, the No. 25 Central College wrestling team was defeated 21-16 by No. 19 Luther College Thursday night in an American Rivers Conference contest.

Central (11-6, 2-5 conference) lost to the Norse (10-6, 4-3) for the first time since 2016.

“We let one get away tonight by just now showing the toughness we need and preach about every day,” coach Eric Van Kley said. “These are the ones that hurt. We needed 10 strong efforts and we didn’t have that tonight.”

Trailing 6-0 entering the 141-pound match, Daniel Radcliffe (senior, Lockport, Ill., Lockport Township HS) gave Central its first victory with a 15-7 major decision. Rob Areyano (sophomore, Selma, Calif.) quickly followed with a fall at 149 pounds in 62 seconds to give Central a 10-6 lead

“I thought Daniel did a nice job of leading by doing things the tough way,” Van Kley said. “We need more guys on the team to follow his lead and do the same thing.

The Dutch had several near-miss losses in the middle-weight bouts before Griffen McBride (junior, Pleasantville) got the team back on track with an 8-4 victory at 174 pounds.

“Griffen is doing a lot of things right and it shows,” Van Kley said. “He believes in his training and his toughness and it showed once again tonight.”

Nathan Fritz (senior, Sigourney) also added a 5-4 decision at 184 pounds to put Central in front by a 16-12 margin.

The Dutch will contest its last dual of the season next Thursday against Simpson College inside Central’s P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium.

“We’re very fortunate this wasn’t the last dual of the year,” Van Kley said. We’ll be looking forward to next Thursday.”