Glenwood punches eight tickets to state wrestling


Glenwood’s Trent Patton (left) was one of eight Rams to punch tickets to state at Saturday’s Class 2A district wrestling meet in Glenwood.

Call it a home mat advantage.

Glenwood didn’t win the district title - that went to Atlantic - but the Rams had five individual champions and punched eight tickets to state at the Class 2A state qualifying meet in Glenwood Saturday.

The Rams eight qualifiers – Vinny Mayberry, Briten Maxwell, Matt Beem, Reese Fauble, Kellen Scott, C.J. Carter, Mason Koehler and Trent Patton – are their most since sending eight in 2017.

Glenwood coach Tucker Weber, whose team has struggled with injuries all season and rarely had a full lineup, has said all year when his team got healthy, they were going to be dangerous.

“We had 13 kids wrestling and eight made state so I’m very happy with that,” he said. “I’m pretty satisfied with that and I think that’s top three in the state as far as qualifier goes. The more people we have there, the better chances we have of taking home a trophy.”

The hunt for that trophy begins Thursday at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. The Rams will take to the mat in the Class 2A portion beginning at 1:30 p.m.

Atlantic, the Hawkeye 10 Conference champions nipped Glenwood 198 to 196 in the points standings to secure the team title. The Trojans qualified seven wrestlers for state.

The Rams’ eight qualifiers included five champions with No. 6 ranked Mayberry (120), No. 2 ranked Been (132), No. 5 ranked Carter (195), No. 6 ranked Koehler and unranked Fauble (145) winning their weight classes.

Patton (285), Scott (160) and Maxwell (126) were runners-up.

The two top finishers at districts move on to state.

The Rams’ Carter, wearing a heavy brace on his left knee, looked confident and every bit the 195-pounder who has been ranked as high as No. 1 in the class this season. The senior edged No. 4 ranked Zane Bendorf of Harlan 13-7 in the finals for his district title.

This was the fourth meeting between the two with Carter now winning the last two.

“That was a really good match,” Weber said. “He (Carter) came out and got right after him and got him on his back and almost pinned him. The crowd was going nuts. Being a senior and getting that one was nice for him.”

Weber said Carter showed no ill effects of the knee injury he suffered two weeks ago.

“That was the best he’s looked,” Weber said. “We got him that brace and it’s really helping out. Everyone is banged up right now. You can’t really use an injury asn excuse when you’re a senior. You have to fight through it.”
Carter was the runner up at last season’s state meet at 195.

Fauble (21-9), who entered unranked, had one of the more dramatic – and strangest – finals in the district meet. The sophomore appeared to have won the match 4-2 over Shenandoah’s Jacob McGargill in overtime but an officiating error meant the pair had to wrestle the final 30 seconds of the match over.

“In the 30 second overtime, the rule is you can’t choose neutral, you have to choose top or bottom and the Shenandoah kid chose neutral and they didn’t figure it out until after the 30 seconds was up,” Weber said. “So they to re-do the whole thing unfortunately but it worked out in our favor.”

Fauble was able to hold off McGargill’s second chance and punch his first ticket to state.

Weber had never seen a “do over” before in a match.

“At least they caught it and got it right,” Weber said. “There wasn’t any argument. It was unfortunate but they got it right. If it had gone the other way I might have felt differently.”

Mayberry (32-1) notched a 12-5 win over Southwest Iowa’s Seth Ettleman in his final and Beem was dominant winning his class. The junior (25-1) needed just a combine 1:33 to pin Clarinda’s Landen Carson in the semifinals and Southwest Iowa’s Gabe Johnson in the finals.

“He turns it on at the right times and he’s looked as good as he has all year,” Weber said of Beem, who was the runner up at state last season at 126 pounds. “It’s a good time to be wrestling at your best.”

Koehler (43-7), a freshman, had a strong showing, shutting out Atlantic’s Miles Mundorf 3-0 in the finals to earn his first state bid.

“He doesn’t wrestle like a freshman,” Weber said. “He has a lot of moves in her arsenal and he’s a hard guy to scout. He got the nine seed so he’ll need to wrestle well.”

Patton earned his first state bid despite being likely one of the smallest heavyweights in any class.

“He’s 207 (pounds),” Weber said. “You have to weigh over 195 to wrestle heavyweight so he’s smaller but he’s not afraid of the weight. He’s a physical, strong kid and a good football player.”

Weber has looked at his team’s draws and like most coaches, sees good match ups and bad match ups. One thing for sure, however, his team will wrestle whomever they face.

“What we focus on is if you want to win a state title, you have to be anybody that’s there,” he said.

Among the changes to this year’s state meet format from a three day event to four days and 24 qualifiers in every weight class, are byes for the top eight seeds to the second round. The change means the opponents with a bye will get to see their first round opponent prior to their match and no one’s day ends on the first day, as a loss in day one is a bye on the backside of the bracket.

“It’s going to be an adjustment,” he said. “We haven’t gone through them yet so I’m not sure how I feel about them.”
 
2A Districts
Team Results

1. Atlantic, 198. 2. Glenwood, 196. 3. Shenandoah, 99. 4. Harlan, 88. 5. Clarinda, 83. 6. Red Oak, 70.5. 7. Southwest Iowa, 62. 8. Audubon, 24.
 
State Qualifiers
106: 1. Braxton Hass, Atlantic 2. Jesse Jens, Harlan. 113: 1. Aiden Smith, Atlantic 2. Spencer Fink, Harlan. 120: 1. Vinny Mayberry, Glenwood 2. Seth Ettleman, Southwest Iowa. 126: 1. Kyler Sandholm, Red Oak 2. Briten Maxwell, Glenwood. 132: 1. Matt Beem, Glenwood 2. Gabe Johnson, Southwest Iowa. 138: 1. Easton O’Brien, Atlantic 2. Brody McKinley, Harlan. 145: 1. Reese Fauble, Glenwood 2. Jacob McGargill, Shenandoah. 152: 1. Owen Laughlin, Shenandoah, 2. Adam Baier, Red Oak. 160: 1. Dawson Bond, Red Oak, 2. Kellan Scott, Glenwood. 170: 1. Jarrett Armstrong, Atlantic, 2. Jayden Dickerson, Shenandoah. 182: 1. Karson Downey, Clarinda, 2. Brenden Casey, Atlantic. 195: 1. CJ Carter, Glenwood, 2. Zane Bendorf, Harlan. 220: 1. Mason Koehler, Glenwood, 2. Miles Mundorf, Atlantic. 285: 1. Evan Sorensen, Atlantic, 2. Trent Patton, Glenwood,

 

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