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DES MOINES – All ten area wrestlers from Thursday’s Iowa High School Traditional State Wresting Tournament wrestled Friday, with all either wrestling in consolation or falling into consolation across the 12-hour day.
Below is the Friday’s state tournament broken down by area teams that are active.
Creston
Triston Barncastle was bounced from quarterfinal action by second-ranked Averee Abben of Osage. Abben pinned Barncastle with 16 seconds left in the second period after gaining an 8-1 lead on points.
Barncastle advanced in the Class 2A 132 consolations A reversal early in the second period against Hunter Steffans Sergeant Bluff-Luton led to him gaining a 3-2 points advantage, then ultimately ended with him pinning Steffans at 2:23.
The match win earns Barncastle an opportunity to face Taylor Huggins of Davis County in the 2A 132 consolation quarterfinals.
Three takedowns and two three point near falls helped Huggins win a major decision over Barncastle 15-4.
Despite the loss, Barncastle gets one more match for a chance to place seventh in his first trip to state. He’ll face Jackson Jaspers of Mount Vernon for his last match of the year in Session 7. The session kicks off at 10 a.m. Saturday morning.
Second-ranked Jackson Kinsella continued to dominate, winning over Harlan’s Jesse Schwery by pin in 87 seconds.
It’s Kinsella’s second win over Schwery, the first coming in the Hawkeye 10 Conference final at 195, where it was a 21-8 major final. The win advanced him to the 2A semifinals at 195 against second-ranked Jacob Reicks of NH/TV.
In a low-scoring, upright battle, Kinsella led 3-1 entering the final period. An escape by Reicks pulled the difference to one, and with stalling called on Kinsella, one side took the initiative to run offense.
Reicks shot in for a takedown, bringing Kinsella down in from of the NH/TV bench for two points. With 29 seconds left in the third period, Reicks rode out Kinsella for the win by a one-point margin.
On stalling being called on Kinsella, Downing felt Kinsella was the aggressor in the match.
“I thought we were initiating everything, for two periods,” said Downing. “Maybe we wore ourselves down, ... I don’t know if it was wearing ourselves down or anxiety or what it was. Couldn’t get the job done.”
With Kinsella needing just one point to even the score, Downing said the goal was to work Reicks back to the middle to prevent getting a reset.
“I thought maybe try to get the ankle and try to keep (Reicks) in the middle of the mat was the main thing,” said Downing. “He was playing the edge of the mat a little and we couldn’t do it in the middle.”
If whether the nerves or pressure of returning to a state final got the best of Kinsella, Downing was unsure if it was either of the two, but pointed out it being rare that gets to him.
“I wonder. ... I thought maybe last year the nerves were worse. He seemed loose all week, looked great the first two rounds, I don’t know if the pins got us enough conditioning, but it was rare,” said Downing.
Kinsella will get at least two more matches in his quest for third. He opens tomorrow with a match against Matthew Wirtz of Emmetsburg in Session 7.
Kaden Bolton’s second state run (first since his freshman season) has came to a close in consolation, falling to Ridge View’s Zander Ernst.
A 9-2 decision where blood time for Ernst left Bolton waiting, four takedowns led to Bolton falling behind, unable to get anything going as time expired in the third period.
Southwest Valley
The win preceded the 220-pound bout between Southwest Valley’s Tallen Myers (No. 3) and Luke Recker of East Buchanan.
Myers and Recker, wrestling conservative in the first period, had a 2-0 score through the first two minutes with Myers scoring the lone points.
In the second, Myers made his move and pulled away. A reversal and a three-point near fall within 30 seconds of eachother shot Myers ahead 7-0.
A one-point penalty and an escape near the end of the second period were the only points by Recker, which kept him within reach in the second period. No points were scored in the third.
The win for Myers earns him a match in the semifinals against Derek Anderson of Hinton.
Myers and Anderson went the distance, with Myers bounced in a low-scoring 1-0 match.
The lone point game off the start of the third period, where Myers cut Anderson loose for one point. From there, Anderson held off Myers and kept his offense reserved for the 1-0 decision.
Mount Ayr
Only one out of the fourth state-qualifying Mount Ayr products advanced through the quarterfinals into the semis. Eighth-ranked Trae Ehlen (145) battled Jerret Delagardelle of Jesup, coming out on top with a 5-4 decision win.
An escape in the third period to go ahead gave Ehlen the advantage in the final minute of the match.
On the offensive, Delagardelle went in for a late shot in hopes of scoring a takedown, but Ehlen avoided the takedown and took Delagardelle out of bounds.
Eying the clock, Ehlen rode out the one-point advantage for the win to earn himself a shot against undefeated and top-ranked Robert Avila Jr. of Lisbon.
Avila Jr., has he has all season, dominated over Trae Ehlen. A 29-11 technical fall where Trae had all 11 points scored by escapes where Avila Jr. allowed Trae Ehlen up.
Up next: Trae Ehlen now battles for a shot at third against Nick Hageman of Beckman Catholic, Dyersville.
The first area wrestler to fall into consolations Friday morning was Mount Ayr’s sixth-ranked Drew Ehlen (106).
Drew, facing Nashua Plainfield’s Kendrick Huck (No. 7), fell behind in the first period on a takedown by Huck. With the score 2-0 into the second, Ehlen got a takedown of his own to even the score entering the final two minutes.
A reversal was the difference maker as Huck got his with 40 seconds left in the period, riding out Drew Ehlen on top for the 4-2 final.
The loss put Drew Ehlen against Dalton Ervin of Moravia in consolations.
Ervin had no answers for Drew Ehlen’s strength, getting beat by the Mount Ayr product 9-1 in a major decision. Three takedowns helped push the score to a major decision, locking up a podium spot for Drew Ehlen for the second straight season.
Following the win, Drew Ehlen was paired up with Easton Schlabaugh of Highland, Riverside in the consolation quarterfinals.
A first period takedown and a second period reversal gave Schlabaugh a 4-0 advantage entering the third period.
After controlling the entire match, Schlabaugh allowed a takedown to Ehlen to bring the score to 4-2, but with Ehlen attacking, looking for points, he held on for the win to move to the consolation semis.
Up next: Drew Ehlen now awaits a battle for seventh place against Kolton Munson of Ogden.
Mount Ayr’s 152-pound Jaydon Knight fell into consolations with his first loss of his sophomore campaign.
Facing fifth-ranked TJ Lau of East Buchanan, Knight led 4-2 entering the third period on a second period reversal to put him ahead.
A reversal from Lau evened the score, but Knight got loose for an escape at 1:18 to give him the lead as time dwindled.
A takedown from Lau with 30 seconds on the clock put pressure on Knight to score, but he never found a chance to break even in a 5-4 decision loss.
In consolations, Knight faced Denvers’ Ben Foelske for a chance to continue on and wrestle back for third.
Knight’s season came to a close at the hands of Foelske, who limited Knight’s ability to score and draw the score close.
Foelske scored a takedown in each period, along with a near fall, to bounce Knight from competition and a potential podium placing with an 8-0 major decision.
Bryce Shaha was bounced from competition with a 3-1 decision loss to Quinten Aney of Mediapolis, ending his season.
A second period takedown was the difference for Aney, who bounced the four-time Raider qualifier.
Nodaway Valley
Nodaway Valley’s No. 10 Elliot Cooney (120) was next to fall into consolations with a 13-6 decision loss.
The Wolverine was hit by three takedowns from Don Bosco’s third-ranked wrestler Garrett Funk. Trailing 6-2 through the first, Cooney wasn’t able to cut the margin any closer as Funk had one more takedown, a reversal and a near fall through the next four minutes.
Cooney will faced Paul De Jong of North Mahaska in consolations, keeping his season alive with a pin in the second period to advance.
Leading 2-0 into the second period, Cooney scored another takedown to go ahead 4-0, pinning De Jong at 3:01.
In the consolation quarterfinals later in the day, Cooney met his match in Kellen Smith of West Hancock.
Trailing Smith on points 6-3, Cooney was roughly 30 seconds into the second period to bounce the Nodaway Valley product from a high podium spot.
Next: Cooney will wrestle for seventh against Cade Cook of North Linn, Troy Mills.
Bedford/Lenox
Bedford/Lenox’s Devin Whipple also fell into consolations Friday morning.
The fourth-ranked 285-pounder was unable to score once, falling behind on both an escape and a takedown by opponent Brant Baltes of Lisbon (No. 3). The final was a 3-0 decision.
Whipple fell into consolations, getting Matthew Kauffman of Pleasantville with hopes of battling back for third.
The Tiger heavyweight held a 5-0 advantage at one point in the second, but a penalty on Whipple grabbing headgear gave Kauffman his first point, reseting the match for Kauffman to add another point on an escape.
A takedown from Whipple was reversed in the final seconds of the second period. Had a few more seconds been on the clock, Whipple would have fell by pin. Instead, Kauffman picked up three near fall points to even the score at 7-7.
Early in the third, Kauffman ended Whipple’s consolation run with a pin to guarantee the Pleasantville grappler a podium spot.
“We’ve already beat him, ... We were hoping for the same outcome, obviously,” said Bedford/Lenox coach Derek Weller. “Obviously, against good kids, it falls when it’s not in your favor. When we wrestled before it was in our favor and this time it wasn’t. Make a mistake, get caught. Can’t make mistakes against good kids.”
On if this season was any different in consolations, Weller said it wasn’t necessarily different as much as Whipple may have felt the pressure to succeed.
“I wouldn’t say there’s a whole lot of difference there, I’d just say maybe he had a little more pressure this year,” said Weller. “Just simply for the fact that last year he had already showed up and proven himself and everybody is expecting to be on the podium. That weighs on kids, it’s one thing for us as an adult, ... he feels like everybody is expecting him to be there and I guess it just didn’t happen.”