Shake ‘n’ Stick

Comet heavyweight finishes meet with WWE-like finishing move

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — As professional wrestling finishing moves go, Jake “The Snake” Roberts has the DDT, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has the “People’s Elbow”, and Charles City senior Luke Hilligas has the “Cartwheel Milkshake.”

“It was something (CC teammate) Bronson Forsyth showed me in practice,” Hillegas said of the stunning maneuver he pulled off to pin Oelwein’s Riley McKeeman at the end of the first period of their heavyweight bout Thursday to conclude the Comets’ Northeast Iowa Conference home dual against Huskies

That “something” was a one-handed cartwheel to escape from McKeeman’s upright grasp which Hillegas nimbly followed with a belly-to-belly takedown leading to the fall at the buzzer.

You may expect such a display of agility from someone like Forsyth, a 113-pounder. But for a wrestler more than twice that size?

“(Coach) Wedeking told me he would buy me a milkshake if I could do that in a match,” Hillegas said. “So I got one coming to me.”

Hillegas was among the seniors honored with their parents during Charles City’s “Senior Night”. This is his first year wrestling varsity, and he has a record of 16-3.

“I guess I can say ‘yes and no’,” Hillegas answered when he was asked if he expected to do this well at the varsity level. “I did pretty well wrestling junior varsity last year, but I’ve only been wrestling for a couple of years.”

Though Hillegas’s victory was the highlight of the meet, it came up short in catching Oelwein, which won 39-35 after the Comets left five weight classes open.

“For me, the season is going good, but we’ve had a lot of injuries this year,” Hillegas said.

Though he didn’t use the move he taught Hillegas, freshman Forsyth earned the first wrestled victory of the night when he pinned Moxon Horkheimer 48 seconds into their bout.

Two-time state qualifier Nate Lasher was even more efficient in his 132-pound bout against Husky Riley Hershey when pinning him in 47 seconds.

Charles City 195-pounder Sam Niichel lit up the scoreboard on way to defeating Jeremy Bamford with a 21-6 technical fall.

OELWEIN (OELW) 39,

CHARLES CITY (CHCI) 35

106: Double Forfeit 113: Bronson Forsyth (CHCI) over Moxon Horkheimer (OELW) (Fall 0:48) 120: Blake Smith (OELW) over   (CHCI) (For.) 126: Austin Parmely (OELW) over   (CHCI) (For.) 132: Nate Lasher (CHCI) over Riley Hershey (OELW) (Fall 0:47) 138: Jake Kuhens (OELW) over Shau Landt (CHCI) (Fall 1:42) 145: Carter Block (OELW) over Dylan Koresh (CHCI) (Dec 9-5) 152: Bryan Graves (OELW) over Ciana Sonberg (CHCI) (Fall 1:36) 160: Ernane Da Silva (OELW) over   (CHCI) (For.) 170: Austin Duffy (OELW) over   (CHCI) (For.) 182: Alex Koehler (CHCI) over  (OELW) (For.) 195: Sam Niichel (CHCI) over Jeremy Bamford (OELW) (TF 21-6 4:27) 220: Aaron Maloy (CHCI) over  (OELW) (For.) 285: Luke Hillegas (CHCI) over Riley McKeeman (OELW) (Fall 2:00)