The Predicament.com-your ultimate Iowa wrestling source

BY MATT PFIFFNER

It was far from easy, but Iowa Central did what it set out to do at the beginning of the season.

The Tritons clinched a record fifth consecutive NJCAA National Championship after winning two out of three title bouts Saturday night at Vets Auditorium in Des Moines.

Iowa Central trailed at the end of the first day and only had five wrestlers left to compete on Saturday, but still got the job done once again.

"I'm pretty happy. There was a lot of pressure," Triton head coach Luke Moffitt said. "We were letting it slip through our fingers and we came out and took it. We just came in today and took care of business."

One wrestler for Iowa Central who took care of business all season was 125-pound freshman Joe Colon of Clear Lake. Colon capped off a 39-2 season with a dominating 14-2 title match win over second-ranked Ricardo Gomez of Nassau.

Colon won every match against Junior College opposition this season by major, technical fall or fall.

"At the beginning of the year I told myself I wouldn't lose to a JUCO kid," Colon said. "If I lost, it was going to be to a Division I wrestler. And not only didn't I lose to a JUCO wrestler, I won them all by major or more."

Triton sophomore Vinny Pisani dropped his title match at 141, but fellow sophomore Bradley Banks put the cherry on top of the Iowa Central championship with a 6-4 win at 165 over top-ranked Bekzod Abdurakhmonov of Colby. That was the same wrestler Banks' brother, Carrington, beat for the 157-pound title last season.

Banks won the gold after losing the 174-pound title in overtime last season.

"There was not going to be a repeat of last year. I came into this tournament saying nobody is going to deny me," Banks said.

Also taking the raised stage on Saturday night and winning his school's first National championship was Victor DeJesus of second-year program Iowa Lakes. DeJesus won the 149-pound crown in overtime over top-ranked Ganbayar Sanjaa of Colby, 8-6. In the tiebreaker, DeJesus rode Sanjaa the first 30 second period and got a locked hands call and escape in the second tiebreaker for the win. DeJesus rallied from an early 4-0 deficit.

"I felt him get weak. His conditioning just wasn't there," DeJesus said. "It was basically I need to keep hustling and I will wear him down.

"I knew I was down, but it didn't effect me. I don't train for second."

First-year Iowa Lakes head coach Ty Eustice said DeJesus did everything he needed to win the title.

"He has a ton of ability. He has so much skill," Eustice said. "He just had to do the little things right and he did them all this weekend."