District Wrestling Looming
Oskaloosa News
by Jamie Brockman
This weekend starts the most exciting time of the year in Iowa High School Wrestling as teams and individuals start their road to the most prestigious state tournament in the nation, the Iowa High School State Wrestling Tournament. The road is never easy, however, smaller schools, Class 1A and 2A, will compete in Sectional tournaments this Saturday, while Class 3A teams like Oskaloosa have an extra week to prepare for their Districts on February 9th. The top two teams from each Class 1A and 2A Sectional will advance to Regional Dual Team Tournaments, hoping to advance to the State Duals held Wednesday, February 13th at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. Meanwhile, the top two individual finishers in each weight class will advance to the District Tournaments on Saturday, February 9th, then must again finish in the top two of their weight class to advance to state.
A couple of area Class 1A wrestlers who have entered the postseason ranked in their respective weights include Junior Mason Dye of Sigourney Keota, ranked 5th at 113 lb. weight class, and Senior Zach Hammes of Pekin who’s 10th at 138 lb. class. Another wrestler to watch, although unranked, is Jarrett Stodghill of North Mahaska, a former state qualifier. Sigourney Keota, Pekin, and Cardinal Eldon will all compete at Sigourney this Saturday, with individual qualifiers heading to Wilton next Saturday, February 2nd, for the Districts. North Mahaska will compete at Pleasantville Saturday, February 2nd, along with Lynnville Sully, Montezuma and others, with individual qualifiers moving on to the Districts at Montezuma next Saturday, February 9th.
Class 2A features several ranked area wrestlers and teams, including PCM who is the top-ranked team in 2A and Centerville who is ranked 4th. The 113-pound class features top-ranked Matthew Lewis of Centerville, 4th ranked Landon Fenton of PCM, 6th ranked Tyler Landgrebe of Eddyville- Blakesburg-Fremont, and 9th ranked Dalton Gosselink of Grinnell. At 120 lb., Sophomore Nathan Genobana of Centerville is 2nd, and Brock Beck of Grinnell is 5th. At 126 lb., Kayden Kauzlarich of Centerville is 4th, and Payton Drake of PCM is 6th. At 145 lb. class, PCM Sophomore Colby Tool is 3rd, at 160 lb. Wes Cummings of PCM is 2nd, at 170 lb. Junior Sage Walker of Eddyville Blakesburg Fremont is 2nd and Jarron Trausch of PCM is 3rd, and at 182lb. Lucas Roland of PCM is 3rd.
PCM and Knoxville will compete in a Sectional at Carlisle Saturday, February 2nd, while Eddyville- Blakesburg- Fremont, Albia, and Grinnell will all compete at Williamsburg, with individual qualifiers moving on to Districts next Saturday,February 9th, in Knoxville. Centerville heads to Fairfield for their Sectional on Saturday February 2nd, with Districts being in Washington.
All Sectionals across the state will start at Noon on Saturday, February 2nd. Again, the top two teams from each Sectional will advance to Regional Duals on Tuesday, February 5th, while the top two individual finishers in each weight class will advance to the District Tournament next Saturday, February 9th.
