Bedford/Lenox pulls away from Wolverines to win POI

GREENFIELD — Gaining distance from the rest of the pack in the last two rounds, Bedford/Lenox won the Pride of Iowa Conference Wrestling Tournament Friday, Dec. 17 at Nodaway Valley High School.

The champs had all of their wrestlers in placing matches, going 8-5 in that round, to score 209 points. Host Nodaway Valley/O-M was second with 176.5 and Southwest Valley third with 150.5.

“I thought everybody showed up ready to wrestle,” B/L head coach Jared O’Riley said. “From 106, we had a guy making it there at the first time, and clear up to heavyweight, they showed up.”

Individual champs for Bedford/Lenox were Colby Nelson (120), Connor Fitzgerald (145), Jake Cox (182) and Devin Whipple (285). This was Fitzgerald’s first tournament win, according to O’Riley.

Whipple was one of three wrestlers who won their fourth conference tournament title Friday. Others were NV/O-M’s Elliot Cooney (132) and Central Decatur’s Tegan Carson (220).

“Not being able to wrestle the last couple of meets is what got me going, and being able to win it a fourth time,” Whipple said. “My game plan was take as many shots as possible, make it as clean as possible and out-smart my opponents.”

Mizael Gomez (106), Dylan Stein (132) and Trenton Beck (152) were all runner-ups for Bedford/Lenox. They had Dalton Kitzman (138), Jordan Martin-England (160) and Xavier Adamson (195) place third, Chase England (126) and Izaak Dukes (170) in fourth while Jaycee Fitzgerald (113) was fifth.

Cooney and Jaxon Christensen (138) were both champions for the hometown Wolverines. Zackery Gebbie (126), Jevin Christensen (152), Caelen DeVault (182) and Adam Ayase (195) were runners-up. Kasen Hansen (113), Bradley Gebbie (120) and Trenton Warner (285) were all third. Colt Slocum (160) and Brandon Raasch (170) were sixth.

“Coach [Kolby] Baier and myself talked preseason and we both circled this date on the calendar. We really felt we could come out, compete, and that it would be a dog fight. I couldn’t ask any more out of our guys,” NV/O-M co-head coach Brad Honnold said. “They came out, wrestled hard, fought hard, and even though we didn’t reach that ultimate goal of a POI championship with the runner-up finish, we’re pretty proud of the effort.”

Southwest Valley had individual titles from Brayden Maeder (113), Ryder Petry (160) and Colin Jacobs (195) on the night. Dalton Calkins (220) was a runner-up, Tate Haffner (152) and Bradlee Grantz (170) were third, Eli Rodriguez (138) and Robbie Barnes (182) were both fourth and Ian Forsythe (126) and Sawyer Wilkenson (285) were fifth.

Petry was pleased with how he and the Timberwolves wrestled.

“Pins was really what we needed as a team,” Petry said. “I think our whole team worked really hard tonight. This is a big third place for us. I think we could’ve done a little better. Getting those pins in the finals is really what matters.”

Mount Ayr placed eighth with 52 points. Brock Shaha (106) and Jaydon Knight (170) were champs for the Raiders. Tucker Larson (195) finished fourth with Jayden Levy (132) and Ayden Miller (285) sixth-place finishers.