Johnson sparks Hounds' wins in double dual at Fairfield

FAIRFIELD – Rainer Johnson may have come into his own at the Fairfield double dual Thursday night.
Johnson, wrestling at 150 lbs., got key wins in the Hounds’  42-41 win over Fairfield and 38-37 tiebreaker win over Ottumwa Thursday night on the road. The most dramatic came in the final match of the dual with Fairfield where Johnson trailed going into the third period and Fort Madison trailing by five points to the Trojans' Aiden Westercamp. Westercamp had the upper hand in the third period, but Johnson was able to spin out of a hold and come over the top of Westercamp and roll him into a cradle for a come-from-behind pin to give the Hounds the 1-point pin.
“I felt pretty good about that. I didn’t have his arm when I went for the cradle, but I didn’t think I had much time left so I just hit and it worked,” he said.
Johnson, who rides bulls as well as wrestling in high school, said he was stepped on by a bull recently, and in his second match with Ottumwa that injury popped up.
“He kept prying on my back. That freakin’ hurt. I got stepped on by a bull so that bothered me a bit.”
Head Coach Nic Chiri said Johnson fought all the way to the end.
“At the beginning of the year, we had some guys that would just give up when they got beaten down, but Rainer turned a corner there,” Chiri said.
“He was getting dominated all the way into the third period, but then that shows that anything can happen.”
“We’re finding our niche and it’s being gritty and fighting to the end. We’re not the most technically savvy or know the most moves but we’re learning how to finish matches. You’re never going to win if you don’t finish.”
Johnson’s win in the Ottumwa match put the Bloodhounds up by four at 37-33 and set up a final match between Fort Madison’s Eric Cornelis and Ottumwa’s Brannon Flattery. Flattery would regularly score points and then let Cornelis up to score more points, when a pin would have given the Bulldogs a 39-37 win.
But with Flattery up 18-6 and needing just one more point for a 5-point technical fall, Cornelis, who’s been dinged up with an injury, was able to deflect Flattery’s shots and run the clock out. The 18-6 major decision earned the Bulldogs 4 points to tie the match at 37.
The win was originally given to Ottumwa using technical falls as the criteria for the tiebreaker, but Chiri challenged the scoring and Fort Madison was given the win on the number of pins recorded and not tech falls, giving them a 38-37 win.
Aaron Warner (285), Oliver Schelich (106), and Tate Green (144) also had pins in the win over Ottumwa. Clifford Stewart scored a tough 6-2 win over Ottumwa’s Jackson Songer at 215 lbs.
Logan Pennock had the Bulldogs' Tayton Frueh all packaged up on the far side of the mat for about 20 seconds at the end of the second period, but couldn’t get a slap so he let Frueh free out of a little frustration and restarted. Pennock couldn’t finagle the fall in the third period, but scored a 4-point major decision at 132 lbs.

In the Fairfield dual, the Hounds got six pins in addition to Johnson’s match winner.
Ren Watson (190), Warner, Schelich, Justice Lightfoot, Pennock, and Noah Swigart all scored falls in the Southeast Conference win.
Chiri said James Fuller was thrown in at 126 and held off a fall suffering a technical fall. That saved the Hounds one point, which was critical at the end of the match.
“We just had to throw him in there and then he goes out there and grinds it out all the way. That shows kinda where we’re at right now,” Chiri said.
In girls' wrestling, Fort Madison lost the nightcap with Ottumwa 60-24.  The Bulldogs only forfeited one match which brought a lot of mat time for the Lady Hounds. The girls have been seeing a lot of forfeits in matches this year and Head Coach Kyle Doherty was glad to see the girls get on the mat.
The Lady Hounds trailed 54-6 going into the final four matches. The first six points came off a forfeit and then Briena Fenton, Mara Smith, and Kat DiPrima all scored falls to get Fort Madison 18 points.
Fenton’s pin came after what appeared to be an earlier pin over Ottumwa’s Maravihla Vedina. Fenton had Vedina’s back to the mat, but the Bulldog was able to call for an injury stoppage just prior to the pin. No medical time was issued and Fenton went back to work, scoring the pin in the following period.
DiPrima scored her fall in just :32 seconds.
In the conference dual with Fairfield, Fort Madison jumped out to a quick 17-0 lead highlighted by DiPrima’s 18-1 technical fall to get things going. Fairfield would battle back to a 24-23 lead on a forfeit at 110. But the Lady Hounds would get the next four matches by forfeit to put the tussle out of reach for Fairfield 45-24.
Doherty said it was good to see teams like Ottumwa.
“They have good numbers. I wish we could mimic that, but we’ve had some injuries this year and we didn’t have a couple girls travel because of illness,” he said.
He said the girls have a lot of work to do if they want to compete at the higher levels with districts just over two weeks away.
“They gotta tap in and I felt like tonight, we left our wrestling in Fort Madison. It was nice to get the conference win over Fairfield, but we wanted to test ourselves against Ottumwa because they are a very, very good program. Some nights you just don’t got it.”
He said Smith is continuing to become a high-caliber level wrestler. "She loves these moments. Tournaments it's easier to blend in, but in duals, the limelight is there. She continues to wrestle hard and doesn’t like to be outhustled or outwrestled and that shows.”