Creston takes bronze at Hawkeye 10 tournament

DENISON — For a young team with nine first-year varsity wrestlers, the Panthers put together a great performance at the Hawkeye 10 tournament Saturday in Denison, 11 wrestlers placing in the top-four of their weight class.

As a team, Creston took third (193) behind Atlantic (236.5) and Lewis Central (227).

The Panthers had a fantastic quarterfinals round to start the day, advancing 11 of 14 wrestlers to the semifinals. After that round, Creston led team scoring with 91.5 points. Atlantic was behind with 83 and Lewis Central had 72.

The semifinals was a tough round for Creston, falling significantly behind in the team scores as only three of the 11 won their bouts to advance to the finals.

The consolation semis was where Creston climbed back up, beating their projected seed with multiple wrestlers.

Jose Avila, Nate Bentley, Jackson Pettegrew and Gunner Martwick all defeated higher-seeded wrestlers that round to advance to the third-place bout despite all being seeded fifth.

Heading into the final round, Creston and Lewis Central were tied at second with 189, trailing Atlantic.

“We were right there in the hunt for the title most of the day,” Creston coach Cody Downing said. “You’d like to leave with a champion or two, but we had three finalists and a bunch of guys in the third and fourth place round. Overall, it was a solid day.”

Downing said the win was a good rebound from a disappointing Thursday performance where they went 1-2 on duals at Lewis Central, falling to the host and Winterset while beating Harlan.

“We had a rough night Thursday so we had to regroup Friday,” he said. “We had to talk about some things and fix a few things in the room. In a 36-hour time, that was a great response.”

Finalists

Freshman Colt Key (23-19) won his semifinals match over Harlan’s Nathan Sandquist in a 12-7 decision. Sandquist started with a 3-0 lead after a takedown in the first 20 seconds, but Key quickly took back control of the match to advance to the finals. Sandquist was the two-seed with Key as the three-seed.

In the championship bout, he faced Atlantic’s Keaton Schroeder, No. 11 ranked 100-pounder in the state.

Schroeder went up 10-0 on Key after the first period and scored another two in the second period.

In the final period, Key found a perfect throw, landing Schroeder on his back and Key nearly pinned him before Schroeder wiggled out of the hold. Schroeder ended up winning in a 14-10 decision.

Downing said Key has been getting better and better as the year has gone on.

“He’s wrestled Schroeder from Atlantic probably dozens of times growing up, and he said that’s the first time he hasn’t been pinned. He had a chance even to pin him at one point during that match,” Downing said. “It was good to see him in the gold singlet. He made the Hawkeye 10 finals; that’s a great accomplishment.”

Junior Lane Travis (35-11) was a finalist for the Panthers at 132 after defeating two opponents in first-period pins.

He faced Lewis Central’s Carter Schorsch in the finals, a senior who is ranked seventh in Class 3A at 132.

Travis went down 7-0 after one and 10-0 after the second period.

“We’ve got to get Lane back on the offensive attack. That’s been our goal here for the last couple of weeks,” Downing said. “It seems like when he gets behind in matches against somebody good, a high-level state place-winner opponent, we just run out of time. Effort and conditioning has never been an issue with Lane – it’s can we keep it close and get to our offensive attack, so that’s going to be the focus with him the next couple of weeks.”

The last finalist was senior Weston Trapp (36-14) who came in seeded second.

Trapp pinned his first opponent and defeated his second in a 10-4 decision to advance to the finals against Shenandoah’s undefeated Jacob McGargill.

With 49 wins on the season, McGargill is ranked second in Class 1A at 165.

Though Trapp lost the match in a late third-period pin, Downing was glad to see him in the finals.

“Every time I watch him wrestle, I’m glad he decided to come out and join this team. The success we’ve had when nobody really thought we’d have it, Weston’s had a huge hand and a huge impact in that,” he said. “Honestly, I don’t think McGargill had been taken down all year, and Weston took him down as basically a first-year wrestler. That just tells you his athleticism.”

Third and fourth

Though seven of the eight wrestlers in the third-place match fell to fourth, Downing said it was almost by design.

“We were probably wrestling guys we weren’t supposed to beat because we wrestled so good early in the day,” he explained.

In the final round, Jackson Pettegrew (29-16) was the only Panther to come out with a third-place victory.

Despite being a five-seed coming in, Pettegrew’s only loss on the day was to Adam Baier of Red Oak who won the title and is ranked eighth in Class 2A at 157. Pettegrew was the only opponent of the day Baier didn’t pin.

In the third-place match with Dreven Smith of Atlantic, Pettegrew won in a first-period pin.

Placing fourth were Avila, Bentley, Martwick, Ben James, Kylen Parsons, Brodrick Phelps and Colby Brammer.

Martwick and James were the unfortunate recipients of stacked brackets at 215 and 113, respectively.

The 215-pound bracket featured Mason Koehler of Glenwood, the top-ranked wrestler in Class 2A; Mason Nally of Clarinda, the No. 7 in Class 2A and Joseph Monge of Lewis Central, the No. 9 in Class 3A.

Koehler and Monge faced off in the finals while Martwick was paired with Nally in the third-place match.

No points were scored in the first period. In the second period, Nally opted to go down and escaped for a point. In the third, Martwick opted for down in hopes to at least tie it up with an escape. Nally caught him in a two-point near fall, ending the match 3-0.

“Gunner was right there in that third-fourth place match,” Downing said. “If we could do that match over again, maybe we take neutral on our feet; we were kind of talking about that. Nally’s ranked and we’ve had him on the ropes twice this season. Gunner’s right there. He’s got a chance to be in the state tournament. He’s been maybe our most improved wrestler this season.”

Downing was especially happy with freshmen Avila and Bentley who took fourth as freshmen in heavier weights.

“Nate Bentley weighs 160, so wrestling 175 and to get fourth place as a freshman, I’m really happy with those guys,” he said. “Those are guys we can build around in those upper weights as the years go by here.

Landon Lillie placed sixth after medically forfeiting his final match while Drake Wilson and Jayden Myers each won their seventh-place bouts.

Creston returns to action tonight at Sergeant Bluff-Luton for the regional duals.

No. 24 Creston must defeat No. 15 Ballard for a chance to dual No. 4 Sergeant Bluff-Luton.

“We’re obviously an underdog probably in both duals,” Downing said. “First things first, let’s see what we can do against Ballard and take it one match at a time after that.

The team that wins the second match advances to the state duals Saturday.