Iowa City High blazes past Linn-Mar

IOWA CITY - Jacob Dykes was in something of a precarious position.

The fifth-ranked Iowa City High 195-pounder chose bottom to start the second period of his match against Linn-Mar's No. 9 Brayden Schultz and was quickly taken to his back. Three nearfall points gave a 5-4 lead to the Linn-Mar wrestler, which ballooned once Schultz added an escape and a takedown early in the third.

Trailing, with time running out in the final stanza, Dykes kept attacking. Finally, he hit a shot and managed to get Schultz to his back, pinning him. It was one of seven falls for the Little Hawks during their 50-25 win over the Lions at City High.

'I was trying to hit my normal stuff, but nothing was working,” Dykes said. 'After plan A didn't work, plan B didn't work, it was time to go to plan C. I found the right one, I guess.”

The pair wrestled last week in the Mississippi Valley Conference meet, with Dykes pulling out an 11-1 major decision. He certainly had the confidence, though did mention he hadn't been able to practice much this week and wasn't '100 percent” going into the meet.

Now, however, he has a bit of time to rest up, as class 3A district wrestling doesn't take place until February 11th.

It certainly is an event City High should have some confidence going into. All four of the Little Hawks ranked wrestlers got wins, with three of them coming via fall.

Another big win in a season full of them for City High.

'We've never beat them since I came here,” Little Hawks head coach Cory Connell said. 'I think we got beat by them four times, close, last year.

'It feels good to get a win.”

Linn-Mar did get two falls during the meet, coming back-to-back at 152 and 160 pounds from No. 8 Jacob Wempen and No. 6 Alex Streicher, respectively. They helped give the Lions a brief early lead in the dual that started at 145. Linn-Mar made things close through the first half of the meet, but by the end, the Little Hawks were able to roll up more bonus point wins than Linn-Mar could handle.

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