Hound wrestlers dismantle Keokuk

KEOKUK – The Fort Madison Bloodhounds are tuning up for the post-season and showed a little of what’s in store for regionals with a couple lopsided wins over Keokuk at Wright Fieldhouse Thursday night in Keokuk.
The Lady Hounds won 59-12 and the boys took down the Chiefs 59-18 in Southeast Conference duals.
The Lady Hounds were led by junior Kat DiPrima who won her 100th match last week and is now focused on advancing to state out of regional action Friday in Iowa City.
DiPrima took out the Chiefs' Niamonnie Wadena by tech fall in just over one minute working different takedowns in short order. DiPrima is 30-4 on the year and has won 107 matches in her high school career.
“Kat is back to being healthy following a concussion. In her mind she’s trying to make up a little time and she’s usually aggressive, but not this aggressive. It was good for her to go out and get a tech fall. We didn’t need the bonus points so she could go out there and work on her offense,” said Head Coach Kyle Doherty.
“Her offense is so good. She’s got a lot of weapons and a lot of times you don’t get to see a lot of them in tournaments, but tonight we got to see a lot them.”
DiPrima said the 100th win she earned in a forfeit last week was a bit of a distraction.
“It’s just another win to me. It’s not that big of a deal. It’s what I’ve been doing. I went 33-11 as a freshman because I kept losing second-round matches and had to go through wrestle back. So, at some point, its more about just pushing through,” she said.
But now her focus is being aggressive and scoring points.
“My coach told me ‘three leg attacks’ and that’s what I’ve been preparing for. I was pushing to do that the last few matches and then tonight, with it being the last dual, I just wanted to leave everything out there.”
Senior Mara Smith was ranked 2nd at 140 lbs. by IAWrestle, but she too said the loftiness is a distraction. Smith finished 4th at 130 lbs. at the Class 2A 2025 IGHSAU State Wrestling meet.
“I’m trying not to think about that too much. Rankings don’t matter. You have to wrestle as hard as you can no matter what. I try not to pay too much attention and just do my thing. But it’s hard to avoid that stuff. You see it on your phone and places like that,” Smith said.
Doherty said Smith just needs to go to regionals and give her second best effort. Her first should come at the state meet the following weekend.

“My expectation for her is to go up and put her second best effort together up there. We want her best at state. As long as she stays wrestling the way she’s been wrestling, she’s gonna take care of what she wants to take care of.”
The Lady Hounds got wins from Briena Fenton over Avaleigh Sparrow by fall in the second period. Aubree Bunnell worked a fall over Izzie Droege in the second period and McKayla Schinstock got a first-period fall over Kylee Varner. They won the other matches by forfeit.
For the boys, the Hounds got six pins in the win from Adan Oronia (106 lbs.), Oliver Schelich (138 lbs.), Peter Seyb (157 lbs.), Jack Benner (165 lbs.), Clifford Stewart (175 lbs.), and Baylor Ferreira (285 lbs.)
But Head Coach Nic Chiri focused on two losses as places for improvement
“When you lose a match in wrestling, there’s always something to improve on,” he said. “Ryker sticks out to me. He’s been doing really great and, today, he was pretty flat. But it’s that time of the year where you start questioning yourself - what you’ve been doing, why it didn’t work,” he said.
Despite the lopsided score, Chiri said the mentality for the match was Keokuk is always a good rivalry and you have to take advantage when you can.
“Rivalries change, decades change. In ten years this could be completely the other way, so we needed to take advantage when we could,” he said.
Overall we’re in as good of shape as were going to be in. We’re fine tuning some injuries, but really just trying to build confidence going into the post-season is what we’re doing.”
The Bloodhounds lost their only dual Southeast Conference match this year to Mt. Pleasant, but Mt. Pleasant dropped a dual Thursday night to Fairfield 45-36 which puts the Hounds in a tie for the top of the conference with one dual left against Burlington.
The Hounds travel to Belle Plaine on Saturday for their last tournament of the season and then travel to Fairfield for a six-team Southeast Conference tussle Saturday, Jan. 31.
Chiri said the Hounds are in good physical shape heading toward the post-season.
“No one’s going to be in better shape than us. I’m confident in saying that,” Chiri said Thursday.
“That’s what I try to get through to them. Don’t just dance around, use your shape, you got six minutes to wear them down. You might not be the best technician, but you can be heavy on them and wear them out. Then two minutes left, that’s when you attack."