Andrew Flora of ADM and Zach Stewart of Perry win State Wrestling titles

Posted By: Ben Butler
February 17, 2018 @ 7:02 pm
Feature, Today's Local Sports

The Raccoon Valley Radio area had four wrestlers in the 2018 high school state tournament finals with two winning titles and two finishing in second place. Raccoon River Activities Conference wrestlers Zach Stewart of Perry and Andrew Flora of ADM are state champions while Perry’s Kaleb Olejniczak of Perry and Cody Fisher of ADM finished their seasons as state tournament runners-up.

ADM junior Andrew Flora is a wrestling state champion! Flora won the Class 2A 113 lbs. title 1-0 over Nathaniel Genobana of Centerville Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. Flora scored the only point of the match with a third period escape. The lanky junior had ridden out the much shorter Genobana the entire second period following a scoreless opening two minutes. Flora ends the season with a 46-1 record. He advanced to the title match for the first time in his career with a 4-3 victory in Friday’s semifinal over Grayson Kesterson of Williamsburg, the 2017 106 lbs. state champion.

Perry senior Zach Stewart won 2-1 at 138 lbs. in 3A over Deville Dentis of Des Moines East to win the title. He becomes the Blue Jays first 3A winner in the school’s first year in the largest of Iowa’s three wrestling classes. Perry has the smallest 3A enrollment. A first period takedown for Stewart stood up. Both wrestlers added escapes. Stewart becomes a state place winner for the first time. He was ranked number one in the final rankings and finishes 54-5. Dentis was ranked number one earlier in the season.

Perry had two finalists. Kaleb Olejniczak at 126 lbs. lost by fall in the 3A title match in 1:11 to Brody Teske of Ft. Dodge. Teske became the 26th wrestler in Iowa high school history to win four individual state titles. The Perry junior ends the season with a 48-6 record.

Madrid sophomore Cody Fisher at 195 wrestles for Woodward-Granger in 2A and he lost by fall in 1:04 to Bryce Esmoil of West Liberty. The same two met last year in the same weight class in the finals with Esmoil winning by technical fall.Fisher finishes his season with a 54-3 record.