Greene County High School went 1-2 in its dual meet wrestling tournament on Saturday, but head coach Mark Sawhill was pleased with how the Rams wrestled, given the fact they were short three weight classes on the day. The Rams were 39-26 winners over Estherville-Lincoln Central in the first round. They dropped a 45-28 decision to Class 3A Norwalk in the second round, and finished with a near-upset of South Central Calhoun 37-34 in a meet that came down to the final match of the day. SCC was 3-0 on the day with Norwalk 2-1, and E-LC 0-3.
Even though the Rams lost two of three meets, they had a winning record of 21-20 on the day. Taking out forfeits, the Rams were 17-13 in matches that were actually wrestled. Rams that were 3-0 on Saturday included junior Jacob Challen at 113 lbs., junior Dylan Forkner at 126 lbs., junior Jeremy Scheuermann at 145 lbs., and senior Aaron Beaman at 285.
Forkner has arguably had the most difficult opposition early in the season, but he’s come through unscathed in six matches while recording five falls and a technical fall. The Ram junior trailed eighth ranked Chase Goodman of South Central Calhoun 4-0 before winning by fall in the second period. Goodman placed seventh in the state tournament a season ago at 120 lbs. Other wins early on for the Ram junior include falls over a top 10 ranked wrestler from Ogden as well as over a 2012 state qualifier from Van Meter. Forkner is not among the top- 10 rated wrestlers at his weight class. The quartet of Rams who each went 3-0 on Saturday are all 6-0 so far this season. Beaman has two forfeits and four falls to his credit. All four falls have taken place in 44 seconds or less.
Greene County sophomore Jordan Challen also won against a South Central Calhoun wrestler ranked in the top 10 by Predicament wrestling magazine. Challen was a 7-2 winner at 132 lbs. over ninth ranked Logan Peed.
Greene County is 4-2 on the season and 1-0 in the Heart of Iowa Activities Conference. The Rams will wrestle at Roland-Story in Story City on Thursday, Dec. 6 and the varsity matches can be heard on KGRA 98.9 FM. Coverage begins at 6:30 p.m.