NV/OM wrestling sends ‘spectacular six’ to state

It was a banner day for the Nodaway Valley/OM wrestling team as half a dozen of the 13 NV wrestlers at last Saturday’s district wrestling meet at Riverside High School advanced on to the state tournament.

The Wolverines captured two district titles and four others were runners-up at their respective weight classes.

“I’m excited. We had a good weekend and this week is state wrestling week. We have six guys going and that is the most in awhile,” said NV/OM head coach Brad Honnold. “Our goal is to always take one more state qualifier than the year before and we got two more this year after four qualifiers last year.”

Winning district titles were junior Ashton Honnold at 215 pounds and senior Trent Warner at 285. Both are ranked No. 1 in Class 1A at their weight classes and both were 3-0 at the tournament.

Honnold improved to 48-0 and won by a tech fall in 44 seconds in the quarterfinals and pinned his semifinal and final foes in 1:01 and 1:47.

Warner improved to 44-1 and pinned all three of his foes in less than a minute.

Finishing second and finishing as district runners-up were Josh Nelson at 106, Ty Strode at 120, Keyin Steeve at 126, and Caleb Christensen at 190. Three of the four advanced to state as runners-up without wrestlebacks after falling in the finals.

Nelson improved to 37-15 but lost in the finals to Justice Norman from East Union.

Strode improved to 36-5 and fell in the finals to Mount Ayr’s Brock Shaha.

Steeve improved to 38-6 and fell in the finals to Davis Bramman from Riverside.

Christensen improved to 42-11 and fell in the finals to Jayden Dickerson from Shenandoah. He faced a wrstleback where he faced Riverside’s Gaven Hackett and won in 1:41 with a fall to advance.

The six wrestlers were part of nine placewinners for the Wolverines. Other place winners were Trevyn Colton taking fourth at 113, Eli Harris taking third at 150 and Matthew Nelson taking fourth at 157. Wrestling at the meet but not placing were Jett Christensen at 138, Bram Dahl at 144 and Derek Raasch at 165.

The Wolverines were the runner-up team in the 11-team meet with 154 points. Riverside won the meet with 206 points. Shenandoah was third with 116 points and Lenox fourth with 109.

The Class 1A portion of the state tournament begins at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19. First-round consolations also will be held during that session. The 1A quarterfinals and more consolation matches are Thursday. The 1A semifinals are Friday. Saturday at 9:00 a.m. are consolation semifinals and finals for all classes with the grand march and finals in all classes at 5:15 p.m.

First-round matches are now known. At 106, Nelson is seeded 20th. He will face East Union’s Justice Norman in the first round. Norman is seeded 13th and 44-12. The two met last week for the district title at 106.

At 120, Strode is seeded 14th. He will face Emmetsburg’s CJ Rodriguez in the first round. Rodriguez is seeded 19th and 23-13.

At 126, Steeve is seeded 14th. He will face Kane Forseen from New London who is seeded 19th and is 28-5.

At 190, Christensen is seeded 18th and will face Carter Richter from ACGC who is seeded 15th and 33-13.

At 215, Honnold is the top seed and will have a bye in the first round. He will get the winner of a match between Underwood’s Grady Joens and Lisbon’s Jacob Walerius. Jones is seeded 17th and 32-13 and Walerius is seeded 16th and is 34-16.

At 285, Warner is also seeded No. 1 and will have a bye in the first round. He will face the winner of a match between Jace Pedersen from South Central Calhoun, who is seeded 17th and is 17-4, and ACGC’s Jack Sheeder, who is seeded 16th and is 20-12.