By Corey Meints
Ellsworth Community College went 2-3 in the first round of the North Central District Meet in Mason City, but had four qualifiers to the NJCAA National Championships as wildcard selections.
The Panthers were 0-8 over the last two rounds, including consolation semifinals and placings.
Josh Berlin (174) and Tafari Parker (285) were first round winners. Berlin moved into the semifinals with a 7-4 decision over Hawkeye's Austin Pfantz. Parker beat Kolby Scott of Iowa Western 8-5 to earn his spot in the semis.
Fourth-seeded Berlin will be making a return trip to Nationals, he fell to top-seed and third-ranked Damarcus Powe of Iowa Central by tech fall. He went on to drop a decision to Iowa Lakes' Etheend Deyampert in the consolation semis, before medically forfeiting to Pfantz in the fifth-place match.
Parker, seeded sixth, lost his semifinal by fall to top rated Zaman Anwar of Iowa Central. The ECC 285-pounder then dropped to the fifth-place match with a major decision loss in the consolation semis to Laker Phillip Malone. He finished sixth after getting pinned by NIACC's Grant Henderson.
The only consolation winners were Nicholas Fischer (157) and Jiraiya Fonseca (197) who rebounded in the second round.
Fischer bounced back after a first round loss to pin Kynnick Christofferson of Southeastern in 2:51 after building a 9-0 lead. That win put in the consolation semifinals where he lost to Southeastern's Braxton Peacher by major. Iowa Lake's Vincent Costabilo ended Fischer's day in the fifth-place bout by pin.
Fonseca (197) came back from his opening loss to reach the consolation semifinals with a pin in 6:27 over Preston Thorton of SCC. Fonseca led 14-1 at the time of the fall. He dropped his next two by pin to finish sixth.
Gabe Brazzel (141) dropped his first two bouts then finished seventh with a bye.
In the team race, defending national champion and top-ranked Indian Hills repeated as district champions ahead of second-ranked Iowa Central and the Panthers finished seventh.
Fischer, Berlin, Fonseca, and Parker received coaches votes and advanced to the National tournament via wildcard selections.
For more photos from the meet, visit https://www.timescitizen.com/gallery/
North Central District
Sunday at Mason City
Team Results: 1. Indian Hills 179; 2. Iowa Central 175; 3. Iowa Western 148; 4. North Iowa 103.5; 5. Iowa Lakes 103; 6. Hawkeye 61; 7. ECC 35; 8. Southeastern 31.
ECC Results
141: Gabe Brazzel (7th place): pin by Che Jenkins (IC) 1:45; TF by Macael Bear (HCC) 15-0 2:20; Bye.
157: Nicholas Fischer (6th): pin by Cory Scanlan (NI) 2:27; pin Kynnick Christofferson (SCC) 2:51; MD by Braxton Peacher (IW) 10-0; pin by Vincent Costabilo (IL) 6:04.
174: Josh Berlin (6th): dec. Austin Pfantz (HCC) 7-4; TF by Damarcus Powe (IC) 25-6 4:13; dec. by Etheend Deyampert (IL) 7-2; mff. to Pfantz (HCC).
197: Jiraiya Fonseca (6th): TF by Umair Ahmad (IC) 20-4 5:31; pin Preston Thorton (SCC) 6:27; pin by Damien Spears 2:05; pin Mustafa Hadi (NI) 1:39.
285: Tafari Parker (6th): dec. Kolby Scott (IW) 8-3; pin by Zaman Anwar (IC) 1:37; MD by Phillip Malone (IL) 13-4; pin by Grant Henderson (NI) 2:25.