Central earns four men’s wrestling crowns at Last Chance Invitational

PELLA – The Central College men’s wrestling team piled up the place finishes at the Last Chance Invitational inside H.S. Kuyper Fieldhouse Friday night.

Friday night’s action served as the final competition for the Dutch before the NCAA Division III Lower Midwest Regional February 29 to March 1 in Cedar Rapids. Central had 23 wrestlers in action, many of whom completed their season.

“Hopefully the hard work of wrestling is worthwhile but its fun to compete,” coach Eric Van Kley said. “It was good to get a lot of those guys on the mat one more time.”

At 141 pounds, Donovan Card (freshman, Norwalk) rattled off three straight wins to take the title, putting an exclamation point on his night with a pin in the final.

“He’s the first guy in 17 years to be a dual athlete with wrestling and cross country,” Van Kley said. “I think he’s going to make a big impact on both.”

Winning four narrow decisions, Hayden Hearne (senior, Urbandale) battled his way to the 285-pound bracket title.

“He showed some resiliency there,” Van Kley said. “He had a tough loss Thursday night against Simpson and he wasn’t happy about it. He bounced back with four hard fought matches.”

Jason Hermann (junior, Stockton, Ill.) won all three of his matches in bonus-point fashion, taking the 165-pound crown. It took some overtime in the final, but Colby Tool (junior, Reasnor, PCM HS) earned the 157-pound title with a 7-4 win in sudden victory. He finished the tournament 4-0.

“They’ve had some ups and downs the last couple of weeks and I thought they put it all together,” Van Kley said. “It will be a great springboard into regionals for them.”
Austin Roos (junior, Atkins, Benton HS) and Landon Kirby (junior, Grinnell) shared the title at 174 pounds after both went 3-0 on the day, including a pair of bonus point victories for each. They did not wrestle the title match after both advanced that far.