Youth wrestlers bring home 3 golds

After a season of preparation, the youngest wrestlers have their opportunity for the spotlight at the AAU State Championships. The boys competed Feb. 28-March 1 at the Casey’s Center in Des Moines while the girls were at the Alliant Energy Power House in Cedar Rapids from March 6-8.

More than a dozen Creston wrestlers competed, some under the Creston Express Wrestling club and some under other clubs. Two of the boys came away with gold medals — fourth grader Brooks Malmanger and seventh grader Sam Smith. For the girls, fourth grader Rahzalyn Mullin came away with a title. Sam and Rahzalyn both wrestle for Sebolt Wrestling Academy in Jefferson.

Brooks cruised to the 50-pound title, his closest margin being 11 points. In the finals, Brooks pinned Holten Smith in three minutes.

“He was looking really good and very confident that whole weekend,” Express coach Matt Buck said. “And he just stayed on his offense, even though he’s just a fourth grader. He’s very good and very natural and just honestly just stayed on the offensive the whole entire weekend.”

Brooks improves from a fourth-place finish in the same division and weight class in 2025. This is his first title outside of PeeWee.

Sam came in as a returning state champion from the 86-pound fifth- and sixth-grade division. In the 85-pound division as a seventh grader, Smith came away with three technical falls before winning his last two matches in decisions.

“He’s just unbelievably fundamentally sound in technique and a wrestler that just never gets out of position,” Buck said. “His toughest battle was a kid from the semifinals that was a returning state champion from the prior year, just like Sam was.”

In the semis, Sam faced off against Rylan Halverson, wrestling for Moyer Elite. No one scored in the first period, and Rylan earned one point in the second for an escape.

In the third, Sam tied it up with an escape of his own. It looked like the match might have to go to overtime, but with 15 seconds left, Smith scored three on a takedown.

“Those two kids, it was awesome. When they wrestled in that semifinals, they basically could have put on a sprawl clinic,” Buck said. “It looked like a collegiate match. Their fundamentals and shot defense were pretty out of this world. But again, Sam just kept staying on that offensive, just shooting, taking good shots, taking care of opportunities, controlling the center of the mat. And then he finally got in a deep single and worked his way around and capitalized on it and completed it for a takedown for three.”

At the girls championship, Rahzalyn improved from a silver last year to the coveted gold at 59 pounds. Though Buck wasn’t at the girls tournament, he said Rahzalyn is a spectacular wrestler and a great listener.

“Every time she’s out there, she’s going for it and she adapts well,” he said. “She’s becoming extremely fundamental sound, very, very athletic, very strong, very athletic, smart too. So she’s got a lot of good things working for her.”

In her first two bouts, Rahzalyn pinned her opponents in the first period. In the semifinals, it was a 3-0 decision over Etta Burke of Immortal Athletics. Her finals match was a breeze, Rahzalyn cruising to a 13-1 win over Vivienne Sengphong of Viking Wrestling Club.

Also wrestling at the Girls AAU Championships was Creston senior Grace Keeler, competing for Grandview Wrestling Club in the All-Stars division at 127.

The Iowa Lakes Wrestling commit not only won her bracket, she was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler, an award given to one out of more than 1,600 girls.

It was 4-0 on the day for Keeler, three victories coming from pins and one from a 16-0 tech fall. This tournament comes on the heels of Keeler placing sixth at the Iowa High School Girls State Wrestling Tournament a month prior.

Placewinners

Other wrestlers for Express came away with medals, led by fourth grader Drew Buck who took the silver at 72 pounds.

“Drew did spectacular,” Buck said. “He even started picking up steam probably in that quarterfinals and then semifinals, he looked really good. And then we knew that kid that he was getting into with the final because we knew that’d be a tough match.”

Drew won his first match in a technical fall, his second in a pin and the next two in major decisions. In the championship bout, Brock Becker of DC Elite came away with the 12-3 major decision.

“That kid got onto his offense first and then Drew was just kind of trying to play catch up, but overall, I mean, spectacular performance,” Buck said. “I think Drew got seventh last year. He increased his placement.”

Placing third was Eli Buck at 60 pounds. This is two years in a row the young wrestler has earned the bronze.

“He had a tough quarterfinals match. He was up on his kid up until the very last few seconds,” Buck said. “We’ve wrestled that kid a lot. Eli didn’t get him, but he kind of knew coming in that that one was going to be tough.”

After that loss, Eli needed to win three straight matches to make the third-place bout. He did just that, pinning two of the opponents and defeating on in a 9-1 major decision.

Also coming away in third was Hank Shinn, another Sebolt wrestler. Shinn pinned his way to the 7th-8th grade semifinals at 75 pounds but was defeated by Ryer Manny of Indianola Mat Tribe 9-3.

Shinn went straight into the consolation semis where he won in an 11-5 decision. In the third-place bout, Shinn topped Garrett Mather of Powerhouse Wrestling Club in a narrow 7-6 decision.

“He’d had a couple losses to that Shanandoah kid [Mather] throughout the year, but he got him in districts and he got him at state this year,” Buck said. “I always say the best wrestler got first and the toughest wrestler gets third.”

Two more Express wrestlers placed — Carter Buck placed fourth after a tough semifinals loss at 93 pounds and Harris Samo came away seventh at 103 pounds.

Buck said all the boys put together great performances, several of them being first-time qualifiers.

Results for the girls and boys AAU tournaments can be found on Track Wrestling.