Zuercher is champ at UIC; wrestlers have good week

By Lindsay Mueller
CLAYTON RIDGE- Last Tuesday night the Pirate wrestlers defeated both Central and Clayton Ridge in a dual meet. 
The Pirates were up against Central first and won by a team score of 58-18.  Trailing 18-3 against the Warriors, the Pirates then put up 55 straight points winning the next ten matches.  Kollin Berg, Sam White, Cory Miner and Chris Zuercher all won by falls.
Chris Dibble (125) scored an impressive major decision 13-0.  Mitchell Schultz (119) and Bryan Mueller (275) both won by decisions in their matches.
Asa Waters, David Pfister, Ethan Snitker and Abe White all won by forfeits against Central.
In the match against Clayton Ridge, the Postville boys won by a team score of 71-12. 
Bryan Mueller, Chris Dibble, Cory Miner, Asa Waters, David Pfister, Ethan Snitker and Abe White all won by falls. 
Chris Zuercher won by technical fall 21-4. 
Mark Donlon, Kollin Berg, Mitchell Schultz and Sam White all won by forfeits against Clayton Ridge.  "In both duals we wrestled very aggressively," commented Tracy Decker.
North Fayette & Valley           
POSTVILLE- The Pirates tried to come out tough against the strong teams from North Fayette and Valley, but they just couldn't quite get the job done.  Postville hosted the dual meet and although they lost, the coaching staff felt it provided good practice against two of the teams they would face in the UIC meet on Saturday.
In the first match, the Pirates were up against North Fayette,losing by a team score of North Fayette 40, Postville 33. 
Chris Zuercher (130) and Alex Berns (215) both came out strong as they both picked up pins.  Abe White (171) won by injury default and Travis Donlon won by decision 9-5. 
Kollin Berg (112) and Mitchell Schultz (119) both won by forfeits against North Fayette. 
"I knew that we would need to build a lead as North was favored in the last two matches.  It featured Dibble and Sam White facing the 2005 conference champion and runner-up from North Fayette.  We had matches that we could have won before heading into the last two," said Decker.
In their second match of the night the Pirates again came up short against Valley as they lost 43-30. 
Sam White, Cory Miner, Alex Berns, Kollin Berg and Chris Dibble all won by falls.
Chris Zuercher (130) wrestled up two weight classes once again to make our team stronger and nearly defeated this years' 2005 Upper Iowa Conference champion. Zuercher lost that match 2-1. 
"I was disappointed with the way we wrestled.  We were not as aggressive as either team.  We had opportunities that we did not take advantage of and wrestled into the style of our opponents.  Sam White however, did look good in both of his matches," said Coach Decker.

Upper Iowa Conference
Meet

UPPER IOWA CONFERENCE- This past weekend was the most important meet of the season for the Pirates. 
This year the UIC meet was held at Upper Iowa University, in Fayette.  Team scores are as follows: MFL-MM 215, Turkey Valley 190, South Winn 163, North Fayette 139.5, Postville 128, Sumner/Fred 119, Valley 108, Central 69 and Clayton Ridge 5.  As you can see Postville placed 5th overall and had one champion!
Before the meet started the team talked about not holding back and just putting all their effort in to wrestling the best they could.  The team started off with a super first round.  "I was pleased with nearly every match wrestled.  In some of the matches that we lost, we were underdogs.  That just put a scare into some of the other wrestlers by putting them on their backs.  Our effort was tremendous," commented Coach Decker.
In the first round Kollin Berg (112), Mitchell Schultz (119), Chris Zuercher (130) and Cory Miner (135) racked up four straight falls.
\Asa Waters, David Pfister and Abe White gave it everything they had and wrestled great matches to help the team keep their momentum up. 
The second round went well for the Pirates also, as they faced some big matches.  Mitchell Schultz (119) looked good in a tough semifinal match over Hackman from Turkey Valley, who had previously defeated him. The win was enough to send Schultz to the final round.
Chris Zuercher (130) recorded his second straight fall of the day to join Mitchell in the finals. 
Chris Dibble and Travis Donlon both pinned wrestlers from Clayton Ridge on the consolation side of the bracket. 
Alex Berns (215) PINNED Lansing of North Fayette to be the third Pirate wrestler in the finals.  Bryan Mueller (275) rolled up a big major decision win over Meyer, a senior from Central, to stay alive in the heavy weight class. 
In the third round, Kollin Berg bounced back from his loss the previous round to win by fall over Lutz of Central.
Cory Miner also won by fall over Dickens from MFL-MM. 
David Pfister lost by fall in overtime, but wrestled well in the match. 
Asa Waters was leading in his match, but was also defeated by pin. "David and Asa are so close to becoming very good wrestlers, but just make that little mistake to take themselves out of the match," said Decker.
In the final round, Kollin Berg came from behind and pinned Schwan from South Winn. 
Mitchell Schultz was defeated in the finals by the score of 10-0 by Baker from Valley.  "Schultz is really coming on right now and is looking good in all three positions of wrestling," said Decker. 
Chris Dibble was also defeated in this 5th place match.  "Chris needs to just get after people and take shots, he has great single leg takedown and he's just not using it," commented Tracy Decker.
Chris Zuercher (130) rolled in the finals to a big lead of 10-0 over Knox from North Fayette before pinning him in the third period.  "I was real happy for Chris.  He was really focused during the day and I could tell that he was on a mission to be the conference champion," said Coach Decker. 
Cory Miner was leading in his 3rd place match when he was thrown to his back and lost by 1 point. 
Asa Waters used several headlocks to build a big lead in a wild match for fifth place at 145 pounds and won 22-13. 
David Pfister again wrestled well, but was pinned in a close match.  Abe White was seeking revenge in a match that he had previously dropped in the finals at Monona two weeks ago.  This time he won over Whitney from MFL-MM 11-9. 
Travis Donlon lost his fifth place match, and was just coming back from and injury and looked rusty said his coach.
Alex Berns (215) wrestled Brian Rodas from MFL-MM in the finals.  Rodas is ranked 7th in 2A and beat Berns 4-0. 
The final match of the day featured Bryan Mueller facing Corlett of MFL-MM.  It was the second time that they have faced each other with Corlett winning the first.  This time Mueller would score a takedown with a headlock, pinning Corlett to place fifth on the day. 
"It was a good day overall for us.  We still have plenty to work on, but for the most part we are headed in the right direction," said Coach Decker.
Final individual results are as follows: 112-Kollin Berg 3rd, 119-Mitchell Schultz 2nd, 125-Chris Dibble 6th, 130-Chris Zuercher champion, 135-Cory Miner 4th, 145-Asa Waters 5th, 152-David Pfister 6th, 160-Ethan Snitker DNP, 171-Abe White 5th, 189-Travis Donlon 6th, 215-Alex Berns 2nd, and 275-Bryan Mueller 5th.
 Congratulations to all the wrestlers for doing well at the UIC meet!
Thursday the team will travel to Central to wrestled Wapsie Valley and Jesup. Friday the team is hosting against Waukon and Valley.