Hounds just miss in season opener

FORT MADISON – Cal Hennings hasn’t seen a whole lot of wrestling in high school, but he just missed being a hero of sorts Thursday night before the Bloodhounds fell to Quincy 45-36.
Now a senior, Hennings came into the Bloodhounds’ dual in the final match at 285 lbs., trailing by just 3 points after Clifford Stewart and Ren Watson recorded back-to-back pins at 190 and 215 lbs. to cut the lead to just three.
Then Hennings went to work in the first period, scoring a takedown in the first minute and had the Blue Devils’ Eli Zanger compromised near the edge of the mat just moments from getting a mat slap. But Henningss didn’t get his body perpendicular to Zanger’s and the Quincy senior was able to roll out.
After a medical timeout with both wrestlers bleeding from the nose, Hennings got another takedown off the whistle, but Zanger scored a reversal before Hennings could get things under control again, and was able to get his weight shifted correctly to get Hennings for the fall.
The Hounds needed the pin and full six points to win the match. Anything else would have resulted in a loss on a total pin tiebreaker.
Hennings said he lost momentum quickly in the match, but thought he had secured the pin early on.
 “Having a match like that for my first match back, it's kind of wild, you know,” he said.
“I spent a lot of energy riding him and then I got complacent and he hit a roll on me and pinned me. Kudos to him, he’s a good wrestler.”
Hennings said he was confused by not getting the fall early on.
“I was pretty confused. I was, like, I'm pretty sure this guy’s flat, but I wasn’t getting the tap so maybe I have to readjust. I tried readjusting and I made a mistake and he was able to stroke off of that,” he said.

Head Coach Nic Chiri said Hennings just needed to “T” out, which meant to turn his body so the two formed a T which would have given him weight control and more likely resulted in the pin.
“Just T out. I mean, that's all he needed to do. He just needed to get his weight distributed, but if we even get two or three other kids to fight and don't get pinned, that's not even a situation,” Chiri said.
James Fuller, a state qualifier from last season, started quick again this year, recording a pin in the second period for the Hounds at 126 lbs.
“I feel good and really strong right now. I need to fine tune some though. I’m not cutting as much weight this year and I feel really good. Yeah, so I'm not cutting as much weight this year. I feel really healthy and it's just been a lot easier getting my weight down. I didn't have to come down much at all compared to last year, so I just feel so good,” Fuller said.
Chiri said that’s what he expected from Fuller, as well as Stewart and Watson.
“We’re going to count on those guys to get us some bonus points this year,” he said. “Last year (Fuller) was real quick and here we got what we wanted out of him and Cliff and Ren. We’ve had two weeks of practice and we’re just telling the kids to do what they know and not get more complicated than that."
Chiri said he was proud of the effort the kids put out considering it was the first match of the year, while Quincy has been wrestling in Illinois for close to three weeks.
Other wrestlers scoring points for Fort Madison included Oliver Schelich at 138 lbs. with a 30-second fall. Rainer Johnson and Jack Benner both scored six points. Johnson with a third-period fall over Roman Lilo and Benner won in an injury forfeit when Quincy’s Jayden Wilson suffered an injury to his left arm and couldn’t finish the match.
Quincy got wins at 106, 113, and 120 to start the match up 18-0 before Fuller got Fort Madison back on track.
Fort Madison is off just a day before heading to New London’s Jeremy Fulk Invitational all day Saturday.