Greene County placed twelfth among 17 teams and had two individual champions at Saturday’s Rollin Dyer Invitational wrestling tournament in Atlantic. Highly ranked individuals were common from all three of Iowa’s classes, as well as some from Nebraska, and both Rams that were undefeated on the day stayed that way.
Senior Kale Petersen and Underwood’s Gable Porter had the marquee match of the tournament, perhaps of the entire state, when they met for the title at 132 lbs. Petersen is top ranked in Class 2A and Porter is number one in 1A. Both are two-time State Champions, both were 22-0 entering the match, and both are committed to wrestler in college at Division I programs- Petersen to Iowa and Porter at Virginia. In a down-to-the-wire contest, Petersen prevailed 7-6 to improve to 23-0 this season and 36-0 for Greene County since gaining eligibility late last season after transferring from Class 1A West Fork (Sheffield).
Senior McKinley Robbins, ranked first in 2A, is now 26-0 after winning all four of his matches on Saturday at 138 lbs. After winning by fall in rounds one and two, Robbins handed Class 3A Bondurant-Farrar’s Nolan Fellers his only loss of the season by a 10-5 score, then topped Underwood’s Blake Allen, ranked number two in 1A, by a 9-5 score in the finals. Every point Robbins allowed on Saturday was an escape because he intentionally released his opponent. Robbins totaled nine takedowns combined in the semis & finals against highly regarded competition.
Three other Rams placed in the top six with sophomore Brent Dennhardt finishing third at 145 lbs., sophomore Gavyn Winters fifth at 106, and sophomore Jacob Harmeyer 6th at 113. lbs. The Rams only entered eight of the 14 weight classes. Among the missing was junior Gavin Scheuermann, a two-time State qualifier, who stayed home due to illness.