The 7:30 p.m. session at the Iowa High School State Wrestling Tournament began with semifinals in Class 3A along with consolation third round matches. The evening finishes with 2A semifinal and consolation third round matches. Winners in the semifinals wrestle tomorrow night for State titles. All wrestlers listed below have become place winners in the top eight and will be medal winners and Grand March participants.
For the second time in as many years, Greene County wrestler McKinley Robbins will wrestle for a Class 2A State Championship. He was second at 106 in 2020 and he’ll take on top seed Blaine Frazier of Notre Dame/West Burlington/Danville, a junior who is 46-3. Robbins, a sophomore, is 33-0 this season and 70-2 in his career. It’s the number one and two seeds at this weight meeting for the title.
Tyler Brown of Winterset is a finalist after winning a wild 17-14 decision over Griffin Molle of ND/WB/Danville. He took advantage of four penalty points from his opponent and won by three. Brown is 32-4 and in the finals after placing fifth last season. He’ll meet Jack Gaukel of Sergeant Bluff-Luton for the title Saturday night.
Panorama’s Wyatt Appleseth is 46-0 this season after he won his 160 lbs. semifinal over Garrett Seaba of Clarion-Goldfield-Dows by a 3-1 score. Appleseth is just the second finalist in Panorama’s wrestling history and the school has never had a wrestling State Champion. He’ll meet two-time State Champ Hayden Taylor of Solon.
Riley Hoven of Winterset was pinned by Union of La Porte City’s Adam Ahrendson, the top seed in 1:59 in his semifinal.
Waukee entered the session with a 77.5-75 lead in 3A over Waverly-Shell Rock in Iowa’s biggest class, but when the round was done, it was W-SR with 134.5 and Waukee 126. Coach Chad Vollmecke’s Warriors had seven wrestlers in the semis, the most in the Class and they went 4-3 in those matches, and 0-2 in consolation matches. Those in the semifinals were Carter Freeman (106), Koufax Christensen (113), Thurman Christensen (126), Cole Ferguson (138), Griffin lbs Gammell (182), Tanner Spyksma (195), and Ben Reiland (285). Carson Kelly (132) and Colin Driscoll (152) are also top eight place winners and will be in the third consolation round.
Jacob Fistler, a Dallas Center-Grimes sophomore, is in the consolation third round at 126 lbs.
In 2A, there are four area wrestlers in the semifinals, but none on the consolation side. The quartet is made up of McKinley Robbins (120) from Greene County, Tyler Brown (152) and Riley Hoven (182) of Winterset, and Panorama’s Wyatt Appleseth (160).
3A semifinal matches (all are from Waukee):
106 Carter Freeman, fr., 27-0 won 6-4 over Dru Ayala, Ft. Dodge, fr., 26-4
113 Koufax Christensen, fr., 25-2 won by fall 3:04 over Kaden Karns, Waterloo West, sr. 40-2
126 Thurman Christensen, sr. 20-4 won 6-2 over Grant O’Dell, Iowa City West jr. 14-0
138 Cole Ferguson, sr. 28-1 lost 7-5 to Dylan Whitt, Cedar Falls, jr. 12-3
182 Griffin Gammell, jr., 26-2 won by fall 1:16 over Aiden Grimes, Southeast Polk, sr. 21-6
195 Tanner Spyksma, jr, 19-5 lost 19-5 major decision to Ben Kueter, Iowa City, City so. 9-0
285 Ben Reiland, jr., 13-3 lost 3-1 to Griffin Liddle, Bettendorf sr. 25-1
3A Consolation third round matches:
126 Jacob Fistler, Dallas Center-Grimes, so, 46-4 won 5-4 over Carter Fecht, Waverly-Shell Rock, jr. 29-7
132 Connor Kelley, Wau., sr. 17-8 lost 8-3 to Ayden Kingery, SE Polk, sr. 23-3
152 Colin Driscoll, Wau., so., 26-6 lost 5-4 to Abraham Dirkx, Carroll, sr. 39-6
Class 2A semifinal matches:
120 McKinley Robbins, Greene County, so., 33-0 won 4-2 over Keaton Zeimet, Central DeWitt, sr., 37-3
152 Tyler Brown, Winterset, sr. 41-4 vs. Griffen Molle, Notre Dame West Burlington/Danville, sr. 47-1
160 Wyatt Appleseth, Panorama, sr., 45-0 vs. Garrett Seaba, Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, jr. 33-2
182 Riley Hoven, Winterset, jr., 32-6 vs. Adam Ahrendson, Union (La Porte City) 21-0
2A Consolation third round matches:
none