The West Delaware Hawks rebounded from a cold shooting performance at Independence on Tuesday night to down a very good DeWitt Central club, 62-54, on Friday night in Manchester.

Against the Mustangs the Hawks struggled from the field, shooting just 27% from the floor (18 of 66) and were also cold form the charity stripe making just five of 13 free throws. That all added up to 12-point defeat, 54-42 to the Mustangs.

On Friday night that all turned around as the Hawks torched the nets at a 60% clip from two-point range (18 of 30), canned three of seven three point shots and made 17 of 23 free throws in defeating DeWitt 62-54.

At one point during the second half the Hawks made 13 straight free throws as they stretched their 10-point half time lead to as many as 17-points on two occasions during the third quarter.

The dual started at 215 where Steve Broghammer got the Hawks off to a good start with a second period fall. Brother Paul gave the Hawks a 12-0 lead with a first period pin. That lead was increased to 18-0 when Nathan Vaske (103) won by fall in the first period of his match.

The Hawks forfeited at 112. DeWitt then picked up wins at 119 and 125 to pull to within three points at 18-15.

Zach McCool (130) and Adam Rave (135) both picked up wins by fall to give the Hawks a 30-15 lead.

DeWitt came right back with wins at 140 and 145 before Dustin Jaegers major decision at 152 gave the Hawks a 34-21 lead.

However the Sabers bounced right back with wins at 160 and 171 to cut the Hawk lead to just four points, 34-30, with one match left.

Senior Tony Marbach sealed the Hawk 40-30 win with a first period fall.

In the nights last dual the Hawks totally dominated the Blazers of Dyersville Beckman, 63-10 as they won seven of the nine contested matches; six of those seven wins coming by fall.

Picking up pin fall wins for the Hawks were Steve Broghammer (215), Paul Broghammer (275), Nathan Vaske (103), Zach McCool (130), Adam Rave (135), and Nate Lahr (160).

On Saturday the Hawks traveled to Van Horne (Benton Community) to wrestle in the Jerry Eckenrod Invitational.

This is a tournament that each year gets stronger and stronger and this year was no exception. There were 26 ranked wrestlers and five top ten ranked teams in the field.

Two WaMaC Conference teams placed in the top three with Indpendence claiming the team title and the Hawks of West Delaware taking third.

With 13 teams participating the wrestlers did not get a chance to wrestle for a true third place, meaning that if you lost a first round match the best you could finish would be fifth.

The Hawks sent three wrestlers to the finals, Zach McCool (130), Dustin Jaeger (152) and Nate Lahr (160). Lahr was the only Hawk to claim an individual title when he pinned Scott Soukup of Independence in the finals.

The Hawks Zach McCool had the dubious task of facing Centerville's TJ Sebolt who came into the tournament with a 22-0 record, and a three time defending state champion.

Sebolt was able to score early on and held a 4-1 lead going into the third period. That’s when McCool showed the crowd what conditioning is all about. He picked up a late take down to make the score 6-4.
Would that match had another minute left in it the chances are the match would have had a much different outcome.

At 152-pounds the Hawks Dustin Jaeger and Tyler Burkle faced off in the championship match. Both wrestlers came into the meet unbeaten at 14-0 and ranked second in their respective classes, Burkle in 1A and Jaeger in 2A.

The only point of the match was scored by Burkle with an escape during the second period.

The Hawks Nathan Vaske (103) bounced back from a though 3-2 loss in the semi-finals to capture third place.

At 125 the Hawks Nick Ketchum also finished the day with a win to capture third place.