Tigers wrestling ends week with two wins at Atlantic

ATLANTIC — The Red Oak wrestling team went 2-3 to finish in fourth place at the Atlantic Duals on Saturday.

Red Oak scored victories over Riverside and Denison. They defeated Riverside, 35-32 and Denison-Schleswig 51-27. Red Oak Head Coach Tiegan Podliska said he was pleased with the day.

“We’ve been kind of banged up recently and had kind of a rough stretch with some duals. We’ve really come to the hardest part of our schedule,” Podliska said. “And we’re just aiming to that point, where we’re going to peak.”

Caleb Orme, Dakota Petty and Geoff Sellers all scored pinfall wins to give Red Oak an 18-0 lead. Seth Esaias and Jordan Vrba both scored first period pinfall wins as well.

Tanner Mertz had the deciding match when he won 7-4, in the last match of the dual. Shae Lewis also had an 8-0 decision win at 170 lbs.

Podliska said he was impressed with Lewis’ performance Saturday.

“He had kind of a rough patch during Christmas break, where he missed a couple practices so his conditioning wasn’t there,” Podliska said. “But he came in and wrestled tough for us today. We really needed that.”

Mertz and Esaias both had pinfall victories against Denison, while Lewis won a decision.

The Tigers first loss was against Atlantic, via a 66-21 score.

Sellers and Esaias both had the key wins in the match. Sellers won by decision, while Esaias won by pinfall.

Red Oak then lost to Nodaway Valley, 48-33. Lewis and Esaias both had pinfall wins, while Sellers won a 3-0 decision.

Red Oak’s last loss was against Carroll, 60-24. Mertz, Petty and Sellers helped Red Oak get out to a 18-0 lead, with pinfall wins. The Tigers were then held winless until Esaias scored the Tigers final points with a pinfall win.

For their efforts, both Esaias and Sellers were named to the all-tournament teams.

Thursday night, Red Oak lost to both Glenwood and St. Albert. The Tigers lost to Glenwood, 63-9.

Mertz won an 11-4 decision, while Esaias had a win via pinfall.
Red Oak then lost to St. Albert, 48-36.

Sellers, Esaias, Bailey Akers and Austin Hale all had pinfall victories against St. Albert.

Red Oak got back to action last Tuesday when they traveled to Corning to compete in a double dual against Corning and Clarinda.
Red Oak dealt with injuries in their first meet back and lost both of their meets.

The Tigers lost to Clarinda, 62-18. Esaias, Mertz and Petty picked up the wins for Red Oak. Mertz and Petty won via forfeit, while Esaias won by pinfall at 2:41, against Scott Brockman.

Red Oak lost the other dual to Corning, 52-30. Mertz, Petty and Sellers all had first period pinfall victories.

Mertz defeated Ryan Wood, Petty pinned Jake Wilson and Sellers, who was wrestling at 126-lbs., pinned Taylor Mullen. Esaias and Logan LeRette both had forfeit victories.

Red Oak begins their week Tuesday night when they host their second meet of the season.

The Tigers will take on Bedford/Lenox and Griswold. The meet will mark the return of Griswold Head Coach Tom Van Dyke, who coached Red Oak for several seasons.

On Saturday, the varsity team travels to Adel to take part in the ADM Tourney.

The JV team will compete at a tournament in Bedford.