Waukee leads Class 3A after the quarterfinals of Iowa High School State Wrestling Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. The Warriors won seven of nine quarterfinals matches and have three wrestlers going on the consolation side of the bracket. Prior to the second consolation round, Coach Chad Vollmecke’s Warriors had 74 points to 65.5 for second place Waverly-Shell Rock.
There were two area 1A wrestlers in the quarterfinals in Tegan Slaybaugh of ACGC at 106 lbs. and Elliott Cooney of Nodaway Valley at 120 lbs. Kolton Munson of Ogden at 106 and Gunnar Larsen of ACGC at 132 wrestled a quarterfinal round loser in the second consolation round. None of the seven area competitors in 1A made it to the semifinals.
Slaybaugh lost his quarterfinal to top seed Kale Petersen of West Fork, Sheffield, by a 19-5 major decision. Cooney fell 13-6 to Garrett Funk, Don Bosco, Gilbertville. Both will have consolation second round matches.
There were 10 Class 3A area wrestlers in the quarterfinals comprising nine matches. At 126 lbs., Thurman Christensen of Waukee meets Jacob Fistler of Dallas Center-Grimes in a match up of area competitors. The others in the quarterfinals were all from Waukee and they include Carter Freeman at 106, Koufax Christensen 113, Cole Ferguson 138, Colin Driscoll 152, Jermaine Sammler 160, Griffin Gammell 182, Tanner Spyksman 195, and Ben Reiland 285. Luke Stover of DC-G at 106 and Connor Kelley of Waukee at 132 went straight to the second consolation round against a loser of a quarterfinal match.
Waukee started strong with a 20-4 technical fall for Freeman over Benjamin Hansen, of Ankeny Centennial, and a major decision for Koufax Christensen over Cael Winer, of Centennial, 11-2. Thurman Christensen made it three for three for Waukee to begin the quarterfinals with a 5-3 victory over the Mustang. It went to four for the first four when Cole Ferguson won 8-1 over Josh Connor of North Scott.
The next two Warriors lost in the quarters and will have consolation matches. Caleb Rathjen of Ankeny won by fall in :28 over Driscoll, followed by Tate Naaktgeboren, Linn-Mar’s victory over Sammler by a technical fall 21-6. Gammel got Waukee their fifth semifinalist with an 8-1 victory over Evan Surface of Western Dubuque. Spyksma made it six in the semis with an 11-7 win over Gabe Hemsted of Carlisle, a turnaround from the district last Saturday. The final Warriors’ semifinalist is Ben Reiland at 285, a winner by fall in 2:55 over Cody Huisman of Pella in a match that was 12-9 in favor of the Warrior when the fall took place.
The 1A consolation second round saw Ogden’s Kolton Munson win 6-2 over Slaybaugh to guarantee a top eight finish in 1A at 106. The ACGC freshman finished his season at 36-10. Cooney is the second top eight place winner from the area in 1A with a fall in 3:00 over Paul De Jong of North Mahaska in the second consolation round.
Luke Stover of DC-G lost by fall in 3:01 to Zane Behrends of Waverly-Shell Rock in the consolations and Stover ends his junior season with a 23-14 record.
Waukee with have Driscoll, Sammler, and Connor Kelley (132) in the 3A second consolation round. Kelly won 4-3 over Kael Scranton of Iowa City West to become a top eight place winner. Driscoll won 8-6 over Theron Castle of Valley, West Des Moines, and he’ll be on the podium Saturday night. A close 3-2 loss for Sammler to Carter Cahill of Ankeny Centennial put the senior out of the tournament. Nine Warriors will place eighth or higher and seven of them will be sixth or better.
Play-by-play can be heard on all three Raccoon Valley Radio Stations and streamed on www.raccoonvalleyradio.com. Class 2A wrestlers begin their day at 2:30 p.m.