Upon further review, New Hampton wrestling coach Nick Hemann will take his team’s second-place finish at the Northeast Iowa Conference tournament Saturday.

“I was a little frustrated, a little too negative Saturday,” Hemann said Sunday night, “but the more and more I think about it, we had a lot of positives and we got what we thought we could get. ... But I was hoping it would be a little closer.”

Waverly-Shell Rock easily won the team title with 270.5 points while New Hampton won a four-team dogfight to claim runner-up honors.

The Chickasaws used its depth – 12 of its 14 wrestlers placed — to score 172 points, nine more than third-place Crestwood, 10 more than fourth-place Charles City and 13 more than fifth-place Decorah.

The biggest positive without a doubt came from junior Tom Mahoney, the lone New Hampton wrestler to bring home a team title.

And say this about Mahoney, he knows how to avenge defeats.

The 135-pounder dominated Charles City’s Tyler Mitchell in the finals as he claimed a 9-0 major decision over the Comet wrestler who had beaten him at the Clear Lake Invitational earlier in January.

“He learned from that loss,” Hemann said, “and I mean he just was in complete control almost the whole match. He was really impressive.”

Three other Chickasaws wrestled in the finals but all three — Matt Paulus at 112, Jordan Roths at 119 and Alec Lang — had to settle for runner-up medals.

Paulus came out firing against Waverly-Shell Rock’s Tanner Werner as he recorded the first takedown of the match.

But Werner used two reversals — one late in the first period and one early in the third — to post a 5-2 win and avenge a loss to Paulus in a dual meet earlier this season.
“The Werner kid’s good, and he’s ranked [in Class 3A] for a reason,” Hemann said. “We’re going to make sure Matt uses this to get better.”

Lang, meanwhile, never could get his offense going n a 3-2 loss to Crestwood’s Trevor Pisney.
“I think those two — Paulus and Lang — were the toughest,” Hemann said, “just because they were in their matches and, you know, a move here, a move there and they could have been conference champions. We learn, we move on.”

The key for the Chickasaws in taking second as a team may have been its work in the consolation rounds.

Leighton Gaul at 103, Brandon Schissel at 125 and Sawyer Anderson at 130 all won third-place matches. Logan Hopp took fourth at 285. Lee Schuchhardt at 140, David Nelson at 160 and Randy Schilling at 215 all won fifth-place matches.

New Hampton now heads into the postseason and back to Waukon on Saturday when it takes part in the Class 2A sectional meet that includes Crestwood, Decorah, Oelwein, Waukon and MFL-Mar-Mac.

“Now is the time we want to start peaking,” Hemann said. “We’re going to talk to the guys about how every match is important because we want to come home and get a chance to wrestle in the regional duals at our place.”

TEAM STANDINGS
Waverly-Shell Rock 270.5, New Hampton 172, Crestwood 163, Charles City 162, Decorah 159, Waukon 98.5, Oelwein 88.
NEW HAMPTON RESULTS
103 - Quarterfinals: Leighton Gaul pinned Trent Tweeten (D), 1:55; Semifinals: Cole Parmely (O) pinned Gaul, 5:29; Consolation semis: Gaul pinned Mason Dougherty (W), 4:52; Third-place: Gaul pinned Austin Hoeft (CC), 0:29.
112 - Quarterfinals: Matt Paulus bye; Semifinals: Paulus (NH) pinned Nathan Galvin (C), 1:15; Finals: Tanner Werner (WSR) dec. Paulus, 5-2.
119 - Quarterfinals: Jordan Roths pinned Adam Staudt (CC), 4:37; Semifinals: Roths dec. Zach Henning (D), 4-0. Finals: Eric DeVos (WSR) tech. fall Roths, 4-0.
125 - Quarterfinals; Brandon Schissel pinned Thomas Rigdon (O), 5:10; Semifinals: Jesse Etherington (CC) maj. dec. Schissel, 11-0; Consolation semis: Schissel pinned Dalton Skillings (W), 3:40; Third place: Schissel dec. Travis Weinacht (C), 3-0.
130 - Quarterfinals: Sawyer Anderson bye; Semifinals: Anthony Hable (D) pinned Anderson, 1:54; Consolation semis: Anderson pinned Demond Decker (W), 3:36; Third place: Anderson pinned Andrew Kennedy, 1:56.
135 - Quarterfinals: Tom Mahoney pinned Michael Roth (W), 3:55; Semifinals: Mahoney pinned Deven Bruening (D), 1:20; Finals: Mahoney maj. dec. Tyler Mitchell (CC), 9-0.
140 - Quarterfinals: Michael Fish (O) pinned Lee Schuchhart, 4:54; Consolation semis: Kyle Sindelar (C) pinned Schuchhardt, 2:46. Fifth place: Schuchhardt pinned Zach Mitchell (CC), 1:33
145 - Quarterfinals: Victor Garcia (O) dec. Eddie Denner, 6-2; Consolation quarters: Chris Klapperich (C) pinned Denner, 4:48.
152 - Quarterfinals: Shawn Miller (WSR) pinned Skyler Hoth, 1:25; Consolation quarters: Hoth pinned Devin Johnson (W), 5:43; Consolation semis: Alex George (CC) pinned Hoth, 3:55; Fifth place: Landon Ashbacher (D) dec. Hoth, 11-9.
160 - Quarterifnals: Jacob Jansen (C) dec. David Nelson, 3-2; Consolation semis: Seth Marvin (CC) pinned Nelson, 0:38; Fifth place: Nelson pinned Jacob Jensen, 3:41.
171 - Quarterfinals: Alec Lang pinned Luke Johnson (CC), 2:30; Semifinals: Lang dec. Colin Ferring (W) 6-3; Finals: Trevor Pisney (C) dec. Lang, 3-2.
189 - Quarterfinals: Caleb Ferring (W) pinned Kyle Neitzke, 2:38; Consolation quarters: Mike Hoeper (WSR) pinned Heitzke, 2:27.
215 - Quarterfinals: Randy Schilling pinned Nathan Klocke, 5:48; Semifinals: Tyler Rinken (D) pinned Schilling, 4:58; Consolation semis: Jeff Skoda (C) dec. Schilling, 5-0. Fifth-place: Schilling pinned Nathan Klocke, 2:19.
285 - Quarterfinals: Logan Hopp (NH) pinned Brad Byerly, 2:57; Semifinals: Mark Tiedemann OT dec. Hopp, 3-1; Consolation semis: Hopp pinned Jordan Meier (WSR), 1:37; Third place: Mitch Schluter (D) pinned Hopp, 1:32.