January 23, 2025

Mount Vernon wins Panther Invitational

By CHEYENNE ROCHE
Creston freshman Colt Key holds Devin Webb of Martensdale St. Marys to the mat. Key won the 106-pound bout 12-9.

Creston freshman Colt Key holds Devin Webb of Martensdale St. Marys to the mat. Key won the 106-pound bout 12-9. (CNA photo by CHEYENNE ROCHE)

Creston entered 24 wrestlers into their home invitational Saturday, 15 of them earning top-eight spots.

Mount Vernon won the 11-team tournament with 199 points, edging out Algona’s 194 points. Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont was third with 182. The Panthers finished sixth with 134 points.

December rankings had all three top teams in the Class 2A top-10 for dual teams. “This tournament is not an easy win,” Creston coach Cody Downing said. “We ended up being right in front of North Polk.”

Medalists

Creston was led by junior Lane Travis (26-7) who was the only Panther to make it to the championship bout. Travis wrestled his way through the 132-pound bracket, pinning CJ Martin (13-13) of Mount Vernon in the quarterfinals and winning a 12-3 major decision against Nolan Mercer (16-10) of Mount Vernon in the semifinals.

In the finals, Travis faced Riverside, Oakland’s Drew Anderson (25-2). Anderson scored on four takedowns while Travis only scored on the four escapes, giving Anderson the 12-4 major decision. Travis’s second-place finish scored Creston 21 points.

“He got a little too far behind that kid,” Downing said. “But at that tournament with that level of competition, making the finals is a feat.”

At 138, junior Brodrick Phelps (25-12) came back from a semifinals loss to place third. In the first two rounds, Phelps won by first period pin. He defeated Mount Vernon’s Chasen Caskey (10-16) in 1:42 and Treynor’s Rylan Sengmeny (2-10) in 40 seconds.

Brodrick Phelps of Creston pins Kellen Oliver of Riverside Oakland in the 138-pound third-place match.

Brodrick Phelps of Creston pins Kellen Oliver of Riverside Oakland in the 138-pound third-place match. (CNA photo by CHEYENNE ROCHE)

In the semifinals, he earned the first takedown against Sawyer Smeltzer (14-8) of North Polk, but Smeltzer came back to score 12 unanswered in the final two periods, sending Phelps to the consolation bracket.

“Brodrick gets in positions where we are giving up six points and then trying to dig out of that,” Downing said. “He was disappointed he wasn’t in the finals. We thought he could have won it. But a lot of times, people lose in the semis and skid all the way to sixth place.”

In the third-place match, Phelps faced Kellen Oliver (11-12) of Riverside, Oakland, pinning him in 1:16 to claim third. Phelps scored 20 team points for the Panthers.

Also earning bronze was freshman Ben James in the 113-pound bracket. In the semifinals, James fell to Simon Bettis (23-2) of EBF who would go on to win the bracket. Bettis won the bout in a third-period 17-2 technical fall.

In the consolation bracket, James won with his own technical fall against Preston Dowd (3-17) of North Polk before facing Noah Bergan (9-14) of Crestwood in the third-place match. James won in a 12-2 major decision, scoring a total of 12.5 team points for the Panthers.

Creston’s Ben James throws Noah Bergan of Crestwood in the 113-pound third-place match Saturday at the Panther Invitational. James won the bout 12-2.

Creston’s Ben James throws Noah Bergan of Crestwood in the 113-pound third-place match Saturday at the Panther Invitational. James won the bout 12-2. (CNA photo by CHEYENNE ROCHE)

“Ben’s been a great addition to the team,” Downing said. “He’s consistently top three or four in every tournament. He’s starting to understand the sport a little better. He works hard in the room.”

Rounding out Panther medalists was Jackson Pettegrew (20-12) who took fourth at 157. In the quarterfinals, Pettegrew pinned Luke Engebretson (17-13) of North Polk in 3:11. In the semifinals, Pettegrew faced bracket-winner Tate Slagle (18-2) of Algona who won the bout in a 17-2 technical fall.

In the consolation semis, Pettegrew pinned Nile Owen (15-8) of Algona in a late first-period pin to advance to the third-place match. His final bout was with Lenox’s Chase England (26-4). England scored 10 unanswered points in the first two periods. In the third period, Pettegrew earned a takedown, but still fell in an 11-3 major decision. Pettegrew’s scored 16 team points in his fourth-place performance.

“He came back and got fourth,” Downing said. “Those middle weights are really tough weight classes.”

Top Eight

Weston Trapp (165), Landon Lillie (126) and Gunner Martwick (215) all came back to win fifth-place bouts. Freshman Colt Key (106) placed sixth.

Winning the seventh-place matches were Kylen Parsons (120), Colby Brammer (144) and Maddix Leppla (190). Taking eighth were Zadek Engdahl (126), Noel Ornelas-Perez (175), Michael Wofford (190) and Drake Wilson (285).

Tonight Creston competes at a Hawkeye 10 triangular in Denison with Shenandoah. This weekend Corning hosts the John J. Harris tournament.

Cheyenne Roche

CHEYENNE ROCHE

Originally from Wisconsin, Cheyenne has a journalism and political science degree from UW-Eau Claire and a passion for reading and learning. She lives in Creston with her husband and their two little dogs.