Greene County will have three wrestlers at the 2015 State Tournament Feb. 19-21 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. Abe Yoder, Jordan Challen, and Hunter Ruth advanced from the Class 2 A District 8 wrestling tournament in Webster City. Yoder and Challen won district titles while Ruth advances as the district runner up. It’s the third trip to State for Challen and the first for Yoder and Ruth.
Senior Abe Yoder (132) is ranked ninth and faced number eight Carter Barkema for the district title. They met in Eldora last month with Yoder winning by a point on a late takedown. This time, it was close again, but a late Yoder takedown sealed the victory, 8-4, over the H-D Bulldogs. Yoder never trailed in the title bout and is now 39-5. Yoder won by fall in the opening round in 4:40 over Maverick Freerksen of Forest City. He wins a District title for the first time and he’ll make his first State tournament appearance on Feb. 19 during the 1:30 p.m. Class 2A first round.
Senior Jordan Challen, ranked sixth at 138 and he met number 10 Pierce Gelhaus of Forest City in the finals at 138. After a scoreless first period in which Challen was the aggressor, the Ram scored two points on a reversal early in the second period. He dominated on top the rest of the period, but was not able to score more points and it was a 2-0 match into the third. Gelhaus chose the down position and quickly escaped for a 2-1 score. The rest of the match was tight, tense, and scoreless with Challen holding off Gelhaus for the one-point victory. The Ram is 37-5 and he makes his third State trip and he wins his second District title. Challen won a 16-4 major decision in the opening round over Spencer Orr of Clear Lake.
Sophomore Hunter Ruth wrestled in the finals at 195 vs. Tyler Case of Pocahontas Area. Case went into the match 2-0 with two falls this season vs. Ruth, and the third meeting was for the District title at 195. It was close, but Case won 5-3. The first period was scoreless, with Case starting in the bottom position to start period two and scored a quick escape and takedown for a 3-0 lead. Ruth escaped for 3-1, but Case scored another takedown for a 5-1 lead. Another escape by Ruth Made it a 5-2 match after two periods. The Ram chose underneath to begin the last period and escaped again to make it 5-3, and that was the final. Ace Walton of Clear Lake won the consolation match and since Ruth beat Walton 4-2 in the opening round, the Ram soph advances to the State tourney as the district runner-up without having to wrestle back. He’ll take 21-14 mark to Wells Fargo Arena.
Junior Tommy Bradshaw (35-4) is ranked fourth, but suffered a fall in 1:26 in the opening round vs. Austin Lewis of Forest City. Bradshaw did not take the mat for his consolation match and he finishes in fourth place.
The Rams placed sixth among 11 teams with 47 points.
In the opening round of the State tournament, a champion from one district wrestlers a second place finisher from another district.