PELLA — The Central College men's wrestling team yielded too many bonus-point victories in a 32-13 loss against No. 15 Coe College Thursday night.

Central fell to 1-1 in American Rivers Conference duals while Coe won in its first dual of the year. In total, Central lost five matches via bonus points.

"Coe is a good team," coach Eric Van Kley said. "Overall, our guys wrestled hard. It just looked like the second dual of the season for us. I don't fault our effort, we just looked inexperienced at times. We need to improve some of our mat savviness."
           
The two teams alternated wins early with Coe striking first at 125 pounds. Brock Beck (senior, Grinnell) got the Dutch on the board with a 4-2 decision at 133 pounds.

"Brock's a leader," Van Kley said. "He's got a lot of experience and has been in a lot of big matches. We know we can count on him."

Following a loss at 141 pounds, Duncan Delzell (senior, Burlington) brought the crowd to its feet with a thriller at 149 pounds. Losing his 4-2 lead late in the third period after being called for stalling twice, he pinned his opponent just 11 seconds into overtime to level the match at 9-9.

"It was a gutty effort," Van Kley said. "He had a poor last 10 seconds of regulation but then went for it in overtime."

The Kohawks went on to win the next four matches, including a pin and two major decisions, before Gage Linahon (senior, Newton) stopped the bleeding at 197 pounds with an 11-3 major decision at 197 pounds.
           
"He's a sledgehammer," Van Kley said. "We feel really confident when we get to him in the lineup."
           
Central's varsity lineup is headed to the Scotty Wood duals hosted by Muhlenberg College (Pa.) in Allentown, Pennsylvania this weekend. Starting Saturday at 1:30 p.m. (EST), the Dutch will square off with Camden County Community College (N.J.), Washington & Lee University (Va.) and Muhlenberg. Central will also send a contingent of reserve wrestlers to the Augsburg Invitational in Minneapolis on Saturday starting at 9 a.m.