Central wrestlers second at Wabash duals
Central College
CRAWFORDSVILLE, IND.—The Central College wrestling team took runner-up honors Saturday, finishing 2-1 in the Wabash College (Ind.) Max Servies Duals.
The No. 29 Dutch blanked Knox College (Ill.) 60-0 and cruised past the College of Mount St. Joseph 35-5 before falling to No. 25 Wabash in the finals, 23-12.
“We were much more aggressive this week and did a better attacking on our feet,” coach Eric Van Kley said. “We had some scrambles that didn’t go our way against Wabash, but to get second in a solid tournament like that is a really good weekend.”
Central improved to 9-3 overall. Earlier in the day the Dutch scored a 35-3 victory against the Wabash B team, but the match was not included in team scoring.
Junior TJ Peretti (Auburn, Wash., Mountainview HS), freshman Aaron Anderson (Clarion, Clarion-Goldfield HS) and senior Theron Stewart (Marshalltown) each produced four wins for the Dutch and racked up all of Central’s points against Wabash. Peretti improved to 12-5 at 141 pounds while Anderson moved to 20-4 at 133 and Stewart advanced to 19-3 at 197.
“They each had solid efforts and did a good job of getting the offense going,” Van Kley said. “TJ definitely had his best effort of the year. Aaron and Theron did a good job off bottom to allow them to push the pace of the match and use their conditioning to win the close ones in the third period.”
The Dutch return their focus to Iowa Conference action next Saturday with three league duals at Dubuque, hosted by the University of Dubuque. Central opens with top-ranked defending champion Wartburg College at 10 a.m. and meets No. 26 Dubuque at noon before closing with Buena Vista University at 2 p.m.
