The Bobcats took on two more ranked teams in the Roundhouse on Thursday, wrestling tough in defeat against Fort Dodge, 45-27, and Waverly-Shell Rock, 50-14.

All three teams are in the Class 3A IHSAA dual team rankings; Waverly-Shell Rock is ranked 2nd, Fort Dodge 17th and Marshalltown 22nd.

“We wanted to make our schedule tougher,” MHS head coach Luke Cross said. “The scoreboard wasn’t pretty, but I think we showed that we’re here to not just be a team to walk over. We wrestled to the distance in a lot of these matches and could have won some of those matches.”

Marshalltown’s three ranked wrestlers in IAwrestle rankings — Nicholas Wise, Xayvion Anderson and Johan Gomez — all finished 2-0 on the night.

In the dual with Fort Dodge, Anderson, rated eighth at 157 pounds, won by fall at 165 pounds. Gomez, currently rated eighth at 190, followed suit with a second-period pin and Wise, 12th at 138, scored a first-period fall. Israel Garcia added a 5-4 decision at 120 pounds and Colby Cross notched a pin at 132 pounds to round out Marshalltown’s scoring against the Dodgers.

Wise posted another pin in the Waverly-Shell Rock dual, and Anderson was close to a fall before having to settle for a 19-1 tech fall. Gomez had one of the big wins of the night with a 9-5 decision over Zander Wedemeier of W-SR, who is rated fifth in the rankings at 190 pounds.

“Johan had beaten that kid last weekend in Bettendorf and we knew he’d be back trying to get revenge tonight,” Luke Cross said. “He gave up a takedown that shouldn’t have been given up and made it closer than it should have been, but we knew we could beat him. … We still have work to do on his top game — if he wants to win at state, he’s got to figure out how to ride people. He can take down anyone, but sometimes he has a hard time keeping people down.

“[Wise] is a force to be reckoned with. Pound-for-pound, he’s probably one of the strongest people in the state, and he goes out there knowing he’s going to win. And he’s a great team guy because he knows what he’s got to do and knows those team points matter. … And for Xayvion to score as many points as it was against the Waverly kid who was trying to keep the score close just shows that he’s on another playing field.”

The Bobcats travel to Des Moines Lincoln on Saturday, trying to power through the part of the season that many wrestling teams dread — cold/flu season.

“Our bodies are worn out, we’re fighting the cold bug,” Cross said. “If our conditioning looks bad it’s because we can’t breathe. There’s some adversity there, but we can’t use that as an excuse. We always have to prepare for our best effort no matter the circumstance. … I think we’re on the right track, and if we keep up the effort, we’ll be doing just fine.”

Marshalltown girls pin down Dodgers

Bobcat girls wrestling had three pins in head-to-head matches with Fort Dodge, combined with several forfeits for a 48-23 win in the Roundhouse on Thursday night.

Mia Zazueta (140 pounds), Nevaeh Gonzalez (heavyweight) and Ava Kusserow (130) all had pins over the Dodgers. Geneva Spitzli, Genevieve Lantigua, Olivia Wise, Natalie Nickey, Paige Kreuger had their arms raised via forfeit.

“Mia was fiery, man,” MHS head coach Isaiah Cox said. “It was her senior night, and she wanted to end on a good note, and did what she needed to to get the win.

“And freaking Ava, she was a beast. I had never seen her hit that move she hit tonight for the first time, like ‘Whoa,’ that was good for her.”

Gonzalez has been coming on strong at heavyweight, gaining confidence from her performance at the Alliance wrestling meet earlier this week as the bronze-medal winner at heavyweight.

Her opponent on Thursday was the same Fort Dodge competitor she faced on Tuesday, which Cox said gave her the confidence to step up.

“We knew she’d be coming back to fight hard,” Cox said. “But I told Nevaeh that we’ve been here before and we know what to do. She’s been getting so much better and has just been battling this season.”

The next stop for MHS girls wrestling is the state-qualifying meet at Mason City on Friday, Jan. 31 at 5 p.m.

“My coaches used to always say ‘The hay is in the barn now,'” Cox said. “We’re fine-tuning our technique, get things sharp, making sure we’re executing the right way. They’re starting to see it, and I hope they’re starting to believe it. … Now hopefully we can get some girls to have their arms raised and on the way to state, baby.”

BOYS

Fort Dodge 45, Marshalltown 27

157–Rylee Brown (FD) dec. Carson Wright, 12-5; 165–Xayvion Anderson (MHS) pinned Jayce Skow, 1:06; 175–Jesse Egli (FD) dec. Dalton Zednichek, 5-0; 190–Johan Gomez (MHS) pinned John Phan, 3:29; 215–Dreshaun Ross (FD) tech. falled John Schoenfelder, 18-2; 285–Joe Constable (FD) pinned Jaxson Hinkle, 2:44; 106–Damien Yeoman (FD) tech. falled Nicholas Million, 18-2 5:57; 113–Hunter Kasperbauer (FD) pinned Jose Corral Coronado, 5:36; 120–Israel Garcia (MHS) dec. Angel Sandoval, 5-4; 126–Drake Hayes (FD) pinned Gael Garcia, 3:36; 132–Colby Cross (MHS) pinned Kadince Kisler, 1:48; 138–Nicholas Wise (MHS) pinned Amari McCaleb, 1:58; 144–Koy Davidson (FD) tech. falled Anthony Chavez, 15-0 2:36; 150–Hunter Richardson (FD) pinned Kager Kremer, 3:23.

Waverly-Shell Rock 50, Marshalltown 14

175–Mekyver Hagarty (WSR) dec. Dalton Zednichek, 7-2; 190–Johan Gomez (MHS) dec. Zander Wedemeier, 9-5; 215–Meric Hagarty (WSR) tech. falled John Schoenfelder, 15-0 1:42; 285–Mason Hinrichs (WSR) pinned Jaxson Hinkle, 4:46; 106–Ryker Eberhart (WSR) dec. Nicholas Million, 5-4; 113–Kipton Lewis (WSR) tech. falled Jose Corral Coronado, 18-3 3:09; 120–Kane Keller (WSR) pinned Israel Garcia, 2:52; 126–Talas Zimmerman (WSR) pinned Gael Garcia, 0:51; 132–Ryker Graff (WSR) tech. falled Colby Cross, 17-2 1:32; 138–Nicholas Wise (MHS) pinned Malik Caston, 1:18; 144–McCoy Mcllravy (WSR) dec. Anthony Chavez, 9-4; 150–Brayden McNeal (WSR) dec. Kager Kremer, 10-7 SV-1; 157–Bas Diaz (WSR) tech. falled Carson Wright, 16-1 2:45; 165–Xayvion Anderson (MHS) tech. falled Eli Forcier, 19-1.

GIRLS

Marshalltown 48, Fort Dodge 23

140–Mia Zazueta (MHS) pinned Naomi Zaharia, 2:41; 145–Geneva Spitzli (MHS) won by forfeit; 155–Genevieve Lantigua (MHS) won by forfeit; 170–Jessenia Elias (FD) won by forfeit; 190–Olivia Wise (MHS) won by forfeit; 235–Nevaeh Gonzalez (MHS) pinned Addie Mikesell, 3:28; 100–Natalie Nickey (MHS) won by forfeit; 105–Paige Kreuger (MHS) won by forfeit; 110–no match; 115–Brooklyn Nelson (FD) tech. falled Adele Beek, 19-4; 120–Alivya Rokes (FD) pinned Patricia Mateo Merita, 3:10; 125–no match; 130–Ava Kusserow (MHS) pinned Tristen Holst, :23; 135–Mariaha Benedict (FD) pinned Ella DeMonte, :16.