Two more conference victories
this week have increased the West Delaware boys basketball team to a 9-3
WaMaC record and an 11-5
season record.

Hawk fans barely sat back in their seats during the two games this week, with both victories coming by just a two-point margin.

The Hawks traveled to Maquoketa on Tuesday to take on a Cardinals team that
was seeking revenge for the time the two teams met earlier this season. West Delaware pulled off a one point win
over Maquoketa on Dec. 4, and the close battle continued on Tuesday.

First quarter scoring was almost even for the two teams, with Maquoketa taking
just a two-point lead over the Hawks in the first quarter, 14-16.

The Hawks began to falter a bit in the second quarter, and the Cardinals went to the half with a 21-29 lead over WD, outscoring the Hawks 7-13 in the second.

Halftime seemed to be just what the boys in black and orange needed. Scoring in the third was vice versa as in the second, with the Hawks putting up 13 and holding the Cardinals to just 7.

Still trailing by two with the final eight m i n u t e s looming, the H a w k s pushed over the Cardinals and snagged another close victory 57- 55. They o u t s c o r e d Maquoketa by four in the last quarter, 23-19.

Junior Ben Lechtenberg was on top once again for the Hawks with 21 points.

S e t h Engelken put up 13 points and Derek Klein scored 11 points and grabbed a team high
n i n e rebounds.

The momentum from Tuesday’s game carried right into Center Point on Friday, with another road game for the Hawks ending in a victory.

But not an easy one. The two teams met in West Delaware’s first contest of the season, and the Stormin’ Pointers got the non-conference victory over the Hawks 59-48 in Manchester.

Fast forward to Jan. 25. The Hawks are on a three game winning streak and have senior BJ Hermsen back on the court and every other player in the Hawk lineup vastly improved, with Lechtenberg averaging nearly 19 point per game. The Hawks jumped out early in the first to put the Pointers at an eight-point deficit.

C e n t e r Point gradually inched back and outscored the Hawks by three in the second. WestD e l a w a r e went to the locker room with a five point lead, 31-26.

It took both teams a little while to wake up from their halftime rest, with W e s t D e l a w a r e only putting up six in the third quarter and Center Point tagging nine. The Hawks would have to play tight defense in the fourth, only leading by two over the Pointers at the conclusion of
the third. It was head-to-head in the final eight minutes. Lechtenberg led the Hawksthrough the fourth, scoring 13 of their 16 fourth quarter points. The Hawks held a four point lead with 3:36 left in the game when Coach Tony Tjaden took a time out.

Following the break, senior Chris Crawford was fouled and sunk both free throws, increasing the Hawks lead to six, 48-42. Center Point went on an unanswered scoring streak and came within one 48-47 with 1:47 left. Lechtenberg put up two more baskets and put the Hawks up 52-47 with 1:08 remaining. The Pointers sank two shots to come back 52-51. A jump ball gave CPU the ball with :32 seconds left and after running down the clock, the Pointers nailed a short jumper, giving the Hawks just two seconds left on the clock.

Senior Lucas Kafer grabbed the ball and threw a long baseball pass down-court which sailed out of bounds. Heads hung for the Hawks when CPU took the ball back with a one point lead and still two seconds remaining. But Kafer looked up and came back in the clutch.

CPU also attempted a long pass almost to half court, and Kafer’s vertical to steal resulted in a CPU foul, and Kafer’s chance for redemption.

Kafer missed his first of two free throws, but nailed the second to tie the Pointers 53-53 and force overtime.

With four minutes on the clock, the Hawks jumped out on top right away again, but needed to keep the momentum going because the Pointers weren’t ready to lay down just yet. Lechtenberg made the first shot in overtime and put the Hawks up 55-53 with 3:46 left. Good defense by both teams kept the score the same until a foul was called on CPU to put Lechtenberg at the line with 2:40 left.
A successful free throw added one more for the Hawks, 56-53. Chris Crawford was also fouled and gave the Hawks two more points with 1:53 remaining.

The Pointers finally scored in overtime with 1:27 left on two free throws, making the score 58-55. They followed that up with a field goal with 1:02 left to come within two of the Hawks.

Hermsen was fouled and sunk both free throws with 0:56.3 left, increasing the Hawks lead to three, 60-57.

The Pointers got off one more shot with 0:23 left, but would have to do more than that for the victory. Hermsen was once again fouled and added one more point for the Hawks, making the score 61-59 with 21 seconds left.

No matter how much CPU tried, the Hawks were not going to let them get a chance to force double-overtime. The Hawks’ quick defensive efforts were successful and wrapped up the hard-fought game with another well-deserved victory.

Lechtenberg continued his offensive domination, recording 26 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Crawford added 14 points while Kafer and Hermsen each scored nine.

The Hawks will have two home games this week, hosting DeWitt Central on Tuesday and Waterloo Columbus on Friday. They enter Tuesday’s game on a four-game win streak.

WD vs. Maquoketa
FG: WD 19-39 49%; Maq. 23-47 49%
FT: WD 16-27 59%; Maq. 3-6 50%
Assists: WD 21 (Crawford 9, Engelken 5, Kafer 4, Heinrichs 2, Mangold 1)
Rebounds: WD 22 (Klein 9, Lechtenberg 8, Engelken 2, Kafer 1, Mangold 1, Hermsen 1)
Individual scoring: Lechtenberg 21, Engelken 13, Klein 11, Crawford 7, Kafer 3, Hermsen 2)

WD. vs. CPU
FG: WD 21-46 46%; CPU 24-62 39%
FT: WD 17-27 63%; CPU 6-6 100%
Assists: WD 18 (Hermsen 6, Engelken 5, Crawford 4, Kafer 2, Lechtenberg 1)
Rebounds: WD 23 (Lechtenberg 7, Hermsen 5, Crawford 3, Engelken 3, Klein 2, Kafer 1, Mangold 1, Walters 1)
Individual scoring: Lechtenberg 26, Crawford 14, Kafer 9, Hermsen 9, Klein 3)

In the seven matches that the Mustangs won they scored bonus points in four of them.

The meet started at 103- pounds where the Hawks PC McEnany lost a 24-10 major decision to Indee’s Tyler Endres.

Hawk freshman, Jared Hoefer got the Hawks on the board with a third period fall over Travis Nowell. Hoefer led 2-0 at the end of the first period and was in control, 6- 0 heading into the third period.

After Nathan Vaske was awarded the injury default victory at 119-pounds teammate Brett Yonkovic gave the Hawks a 15-4 lead with a hard fought 7-2 win at 125- pounds over Indee’s Jordan Wulfekuhle.

Independence then took the next four matches, winning by fall at 130, by forfeit at 135, a 9-1 major decision at 140 and by fall at 145. The four wins vaulted the Mustangs into a 26-15 lead, one they would not lose.

Senior 152-pounder Adam Rave got the Hawks back on the board with an 8-2 win over the Mustangs Tim Bagley. Indee won at the next two weights, 9-3 at 160-pounds and 5-4 at 171-pounds.

With the Hawks trailing 32-18 and only three weight classes left they needed at least two falls and a decision to win the dual. Carl Broghammer, 189- pounds posted a 7-1 win to keep the Hawks in the meet. At 215-pounds the Hawks Adam Mossner lost a very hard fought 7-6 decision. Heavyweight, Nick Trenkamp closed out the Hawk scoring and the meet with a 7-0 win.

Match results vs. Independence 103 - PC McEnany (WD) lost a 24-10 dec.; 112 - Jared Hoefer (WD) won by fall in the third period; 119 - Nathan Vaske (WD) won by injury default; 125 - Brett Yonkovic (WD) won by dec., 7-2; 130 - Andrew Pesek (WD) lost by fall in the second period; 135 - West Delaware forfeited; 140 - Chris Ketchum (WD) lost by major decision, 9-1; 145 - Nick Ketchum (WD) lost by fall in overtime; 152 - Adam Rave (WD) posted an 8-2 decision win; 160 - Devon Alber (WD) lost a 9-3 dec., 171 - Tyler Manternach (WD) lost a 5-4 dec., 189 - Carl Broghammer (WD) won by decision, 7-1; 215 - Adam Mossner (WD) lost a 7-6 dec., 285 - Nick Trenkamp (WD) won by decision, 7-0.

On Saturday the Hawks traveled to Vinton for the WaMaC Conference Wrestling Tournament. Things would be different Saturday. The focus was back, the intensity was back and the conference championship was back - in Manchester.

The Hawks outlasted the Mustangs of Independence and brought home the WaMaC Conference team title, 219 - 211 over Indee.

The Hawks crowned four champions on the day. Nathan Vaske picked up his third straight WaMaC title this time at 119-pounds while Brett Yonkovic brought home the gold at 125-pounds. Tyler Manternach at 171- pounds and Carl Broghammer at 189-pounds were the other two Hawk conference champions.

Western Dubuque finished in third place with 174 team points and DeWitt Central placed fourth with 166 points.

The Hawks entered wrestlers in 13 of the 14 weights, leaving 135 open and had all 13 competing wrestlers place in the top eight spots. At 103-pounds PC McEnany placed 4th.

He started his day with a 4-1 win over Blake Adams of Wa t e r l o o C o l u m b u s before falling in the semifinals to eventual champion, Tyler Endres of Independence 19-5.

His third, fourth place match was a 7-0 loss to Marion senior, Kris Thompson. At 112- pounds Jerad Hoefer won his pig tail match by tech fall, 15-0 over Trey Coblentz of Vinton Shellsburg.

He then lost to runner-up M a r c u s Breeden by fall in the quarterfinals. He defeated Dan Bieber of Anamosa in his seventh, eighth place match, 9-4.

At 119-pounds top seeded Nathan Vaske claimed his third straight WaMaC crown with a convincing 16-0 technical fall win in the finals over Tim O’Connell of Maquoketa. Nathan downed Austin Anstoetter of Western Dubuque by fall in his first match of the day before also pinning Ryan Dolan of Anamosa in the first period of their semi-finals match.

At 125-pounds Brett Yonkovic went 3-0 and picked up his conference title with a big 13-8 win over Seth Klinefelter of DeWitt Central. Brett won his first two matches by decision, 9-1 and 5-2 to advance to the finals.

At 130-pounds Andrew Pesek scored a major decision win in his pig tail match before losing to eventual champion Mike Kremer of Indee. Andrew came back to take third place, losing his final match 16-0 to Mitch Hewitt of Anamosa.

At 140-pounds Chris Ketchum was seeing some of his first action and placed seventh, winning his final match of the day, by fall in the third period over Kyle Henninger of Waterloo Columbus.

At 145-pounds Nick Ketchum advanced to the finals with a pair of first round wins. He defeated Eric Klein of Dyersville Beckman and Kyle Rogers of Marion to get to the finals. Nick lost to Dylan Azinger of DeWitt, 15-2 to place second for the Hawks.

At 152-pounds Adam Rave won his first match over Greg Schneckloth of DeWitt before falling to Zach Hyland of Vinton in the semi-finals. Adam came back to take third with a first period fall over Jeff Toney of Benton Community.

At 160-pounds Devon Alber grabbed fifth place for the Hawks. He won his pig tail match with a pin over Chase Skonecka of Benton before falling to Blake Bagby of Indee in the quarterfinals. His fifth, sixth place match was a 6-3 decision win over Tj Salyars of DeWitt Central.

At 171-pounds Tyler Manternach claimed his title with a 12-7 win over Larry Eggers of Maquoketa. He had defeated Ryan Langel on Dyersville Beckman, 10-4 in the semi-finals to advance to the championship round. His first win of the day was a third period fall over Jacob Johnson of Columbus.

At 189-pounds Carl Broghammer topped the weight class with three straight wins. He defeated Sam Hoffman of Marion by fall in the first round, and did away with Casey Kreither of DeWitt Central, 3-2 in the semi-finals. He then posted a 3-0 win over Tyler Hoerner of Western Dubuque in the finals.
At 215-pounds Adam Mossner claimed fourth with a pair of early round wins. He lost his final match of the day to Travis Keltner of Anamosa 4-3.

At 285-pounds Nick Trenkamp got to the finals with wins over Daymon Reynolds of CPU and Chris Besler of Western Dubuque before falling in the finals to Will Maas to place second.

This week the Hawks will be off until Saturday when they travel to Dyersville Beckman for their Sectional Tournament beginning at noon.