On Thursday evening, Jan. 23, the STC boys wrestling team hosted a dual against rival Grinnell. At the end of the night, the Trojans honored seven seniors and walked away with a hard fought 48-35 team victory.

After Grinnell jumped out to a 5-0 team lead, the Trojans responded with back-to-back wins from underclassmen. Sophomore Manny Cervantes (215 lbs.) and freshman Lakyr Peska (285 lbs.) both pinned their opponents to give STC a 12-5 team lead. Cervantes pinned Grinnell’s Tyler Kostow with 1:07 left in the third period, while Peska took a mere 42 seconds of the match to pin Grinnell’s Drake Goughnour.

The teams split the next four weight classes to put the team score at a narrow 24-17 lead for the Trojans. But STC gained a big victory at the 132 weight class from sophomore Eli Cruikshank, who won by fall in the first period to extend the Trojan’s lead to 30-17. But Grinnell won three of the next four matches, with STC’s only victory in that stretch coming from senior Clayton Babinat (144 lbs.).

This took the dual to the final two matches, with the score being a slim 36-35 lead for STC. Senior Kinzer Jaennette (165 lbs.) took the mat for the Trojans and faced the Tigers’ Owen Blankenfeld. After a scoreless first period, Jaennette fell behind 1-0 in the second. But he bounced back in dramatic fashion and pinned Blankenfeld with 7 seconds left in the period. The win fired up the Trojan team and crowd, and extended the STC lead that they never gave up. After junior Marcus Bear won a forfeit victory in the 175-pound weight class, STC walked away with the final 48-35 victory.

It was a successful ‘Senior Night’ for the team, who honored the 2025 class of: Babinat, Cody Blocker, Jaennette, Ramiro Saquic-Xirum, Wyatt Silhanek, Anthony Thompson, and Ian Vore.

Up next for the boys wrestling team is the annual WaMaC conference tournament, which will be held at Benton High School on Saturday, Feb. 1. Following that, the team will head to their District Wrestling meet on Saturday, Feb. 15, also at Benton High School.