By Corey Meints

The war was basically won before Ellsworth Community College boarded the van and headed to Fort Dodge Thursday night. With five open weights, they needed to win the other five by pin in order to reach the list of tiebreakers against second-ranked Iowa Central.

Instead of holding out for that, Panther head coach Diorian Coleman wanted to see his five guys win a few battles. Instead, the Panthers lost takedowns 18-0 and the dual 58-0 to the Tritons.

"Iowa Central is a good program, but that shouldn't mean that we go out there and wrestle scared and that's exactly what we did," Coleman said. "We had a couple guys really fight, but I really wanted to see us with a good mindset. It's not about the wins and losses right now, it's about how tough you wrestle and giving yourself a chance. Tonight, that wasn't us."

In addition to the five forfeits, Iowa Central booked pins at 141, 157, and 285 and technical falls at 174 and 197. The Tritons carry a roster of eight rateds and just four wrestled.

Two matches made it out of the first period. At 174, CJ Mikely earned a 21-5 technical fall over Josh Berlin in 5:49. Ranked seventh at 197, Umair Ahmad also recorded a tech fall for the Tritons, tallying the 20-5 win in 5:56 over Jiraiya Fonseca.

For more on ECC Athletics, visit https://www.timescitizen.com/sports/ecc/

ICCAC Wrestling
Thursday at Fort Dodge

Iowa Central 58, Ellsworth 0
125: Matthew Ireland (IC) FF; 133: Shane Schwab (IC) FF; 141: Che Jenkins (IC) pin Gabe Brazzel :52; 149: Matt Roche (IC) FF; 157: Chancery Deane (IC) pin Nicholas Fischer 1:14; 165: Derrick Foster (IC) FF; 174: CJ Mikely (IC) TF Josh Berlin 21-5 5:49; 184: Damarcus Powe (IC) FF; 197: Umair Ahmad (IC) TF Jiraiya Fonseca 20-5 5:56; 285: Marcelo Rosario (IC) pin Tafari Parker 1:52.