GREAT FALLS, Mont. – No. 4 Argo wrestling produced two dominant performances and fell to the No. 4-ranked NCAA Division II McKendree during the Battle of the Rockies Duals on Friday.
Against the No. 13 Mavericks, the Argos tallied a 40-point victory as they held Northwest Tech (Kan.) to single digits and every match won by an Argo resulted in a fall, 42-9.
No. 14
Michael Lefuel opened things up at 125 with a 1:49-minute pin over Tyler Cella of Northwest Tech to give the Argos a solid 6-0 lead.
The Mavericks picked up an 8-4 decision at 133 pounds as
Eli Walston fell to cut the deficit in half, 6-3.
The succeeding four wrestlers all garnered first period pins to give the Argos a huge 30-3 advantage.
Chris Mesa downed his opponent at the 2:29 mark, No. 5
Shonn Roberts earned a fall at 3:00,
Jarren Komac pinned his adversary after 2:45, and lastly No. 2
Casey Dobson garnered a fall following only 1:47 of match time. The four falls sealed the dual victory for the Argos.
At 174,
Alex Quick fell to Northwest Tech's John Cruz in a 9-6 decision to push the Mavericks point total to six, 30-6. The Mavericks tallied another decision in the 184-weight class as Charles Small defeated No. 2
Adrian Lyons-Lopez in a narrow 4-3 decision, 30-9.
The Argos closed things out as No. 7
John Hensley earned a fall over Northwest Tech at the 1:12-minute mark, followed by the Argos quickest pin of the match from Matthew Hopkins, who pinned his opponent following only 20 seconds of expired time, 42-9.
In a battle of No. 4-ranked programs, the Argos fell by only three points in a heavily contested match to the fourth-ranked McKendree Bearcats, 19-16.
The Bearcats got on the board first as they opened the match with a seven-point lead. Marcus Povlick of McKendree defeated Lefuel in a 11-1 major decision, followed by a 4-3 decision with Charles McNeal defeating Walston, who narrowly missed an escape in the final seconds of the match that would have put him on top.
Baun came up huge for the Argos at 141 pounds as he single-handedly brought the Argos back within one following a pin of McKendree's Riley Beard, 7-6.
The Bearcats notched four-straight decisions at 165, 174, 184, and 197 as Komac, Lyons-Lopez, Webley, and Hensley fell by 7-3, 5-1, 4-3, and 5-1, respectively. The decisions sealed the Argos win as McKendree took a seven-point lead with one match remaining.
Hopkins dominated the Bearcats' Luke Diener at the 285-weight class, as he tallied a huge 16-2 major decision to close out the match and cut the Argos deficit to only three, 19-16.
The Argos bounced back from their defeat to the Bearcats as they produced another dominant performance to defeat the No. 20 Dickinson State Blue Hawks, 37-13, to close out the duals.
Lefuel opened things up in the 125-pound match to put the Argos up 5-0 as he earned a 23-7 technical fall at the close of the first period, 3:00.
The Blue Hawks tied things up at five all as Gresh Jones of Dickinson State tallied an 18-0 tech fall over Walston.
At 141 pounds,
Chris Mesa picked up a 2-1 decision over the Blue Hawks' Jaime Mullins to put the Argos back on top, 8-5.
Dickinson State tallied a technical fall in the 149-pound weight class as
Isiah Yates fell to Rodolfo Guillen, 19-4, in the third period and Taner Stone defeated Komac in a 5-1 decision to give the Blue Hawks a 13-8 advantage.
That was all the Blue Hawks would get in the dual as the Argos dominated the remaining matches.
At 165 pounds, Josh Beckler earned a pin with nine seconds remaining in the match to lift the Argos back on top, 14-13.
Adrian Lyons-Lopez followed in the 174-pound weight class with a tech fall over Dickinson State's Caden Haugen, 16-1, less than 30 seconds into the second period, putting the Argos up by six, 19-13.
Tyler Webley picked up a huge fall at the 36-second mark to give the Argos a double-digit advantage after the 184-pound weight class, 25-13.
John Hensley sealed the Argos win as he pinned the Blue Hawks' Kyle Anderson only 17 seconds into the second period, 3:17, to push the Argos lead to 31-13.
At 285, Matthew Hopkins padded the Argos victory as he closed things out with a third-period pin, 5:38, to give the Argos the 37-13 victory.
Up Next
The Argos will host the Battle of the Rockies Open tomorrow with the men's tournament beginning at 9 a.m. and the women's competition commencing at noon.
