Three Panthers advance to state tourney

CENTERVILLE — The Panthers put up a great performance Saturday at Class 2A district wrestling — 12 in the top four, nine in the top three and three advancing to this week’s state meet. The team placed second behind Burlington Notre Dame.

“You want more guys to go to state, but to take three, two that were seeded third, it gives us a nice group going to state,” Creston coach Cody Downing said. “To place second as a team, get three state qualifiers and do some of the things we did this year with our lack of experience, that’s probably a good season.”

Qualifiers

Earning a spot at the state tournament were juniors Lane Travis, Brodrick Phelps and Gunner Martwick. Travis is a returning state medalist and Phelps is a returning qualifier.

Travis came in seeded first at 132 after Burlington Notre Dame’s CJ Davis bumped down to 126 pounds.

“He got bonus points and dominated every match,” Downing said. “He looked like a state placer — solid day for Lane.”

In the first round, Travis (39-10) defeated James Neff of Keokuk in a first-period pin. In the semifinals, Travis won with a 15-0 tech fall over Albia’s Kayden Henderson. In the finals, Travis pinned Burlington’s Jared Glendenning with only one second left in the first period to win the district title and advance to state.

He comes into state as the nine seed at 132. His first match will be against No. 24 Dane Owen of Anamosa. With a win, he advances to face No. 8 Brett Johnson of Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont. Last year, Travis placed eighth after coming in the 18 seed.

Despite coming in as the three seed, Phelps (34-20) had only one loss Saturday to the No. 1 ranked 138-pounder, Kaiden Dietzenbach of Burlington.

In the first round, Phelps pinned Xaiver Nelson of Keokuk in the second period to advance to the semifinals. In the semis, he wrestled two-seed Anthony Knott of Centerville.

“Knott from Centerville had beat a couple kids at John Harris that Brodrick lost to so that gave him the seed,” Downing explained. “We did do quite a bit of film study on him to just get a solid game plan... He stuck to it, wrestled a smart match. I don’t think we’ve seen the best of Brodrick this year and Saturday we did.”

Phelps earned the first points in an early takedown. Late in the period, Knott escaped for a point. Knott chose bottom in the second period and was unable to earn the escape point. Phelps chose bottom in the third and escaped for a point. Knott earned a stalling point late in the third, but Phelps walked away with the 4-2 victory to advance to the finals.

Dietzenbach was Phelps’ finals opponent, a 42-1 senior seeded second at the state meet. Phelps was pinned in the second period, but with Knott winning the third-place bout, there was no wrestleback and Phelps automatically qualified for state.

“The kid in the finals from Notre Dame is about as clear cut a state finalist as we’ve seen,” Downing said. “I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t win state.”

Phelps comes in seeded 18th at state and will wrestle No. 15 Nile Benge of Winterset in the first round.

“We’ve split with him this year,” Downing said. “Brodrick needs to be going to Des Moines thinking that’s a winnable first round match.” The winner will advance to face Dietzenbach.

Martwick (33-21) was one of only three Creston wrestlers to not qualify for state last season, and Downing said that’s been part of motivating him this year.

“He wasn’t looking the greatest to start the season off,” Downing said. “At Riverside maybe we saw a little bit, and he’s been in the top three in about every tournament since then.”

Martwick also drew the three seed in his bracket, but was able to earn a spot in the finals after a narrow 6-5 win over No. 2 Markel Zapiensz of Columbus Junction in the semifinals.

A takedown by Martwick late in the first period earned the first points of the match. In the second period, Zapiensz chose bottom, and while he was unable to escape, he earned a point on a penalty. In the final period, Martwick chose bottom, but Zapiensz opted to give up the escape point to start neutral. He was able to get a takedown fairly quickly, tying the score at four.

While on bottom, Martwick earned a penalty point to take the lead and then escaped, leading 6-4 with about 30 seconds left. In order to avoid losing on a takedown, Martwick gave up a stalling point to advance to the finals.

Martwick faced Dre Smithburg of Fairfield in the finals, each earning a takedown to tie the score at three in the second period. While down, Smithburg earned a reversal and an eventual pin to win the district title. Martwick watched as Zapiensz wrestled the third-place match. If Zapiensz won, there would be no wrestleback and Martwick would earn his first state ticket. When Zapiensz won the bout, Martwick celebrated the victory with coaches.

“He’s that classic kid that’s put in his time and he’s right there,” Downing said. “He’s a junior so he can come back again next year. I think he’s going to have a good state tournament.”

Martwick earned the No. 19 seed at state. In the first round, he will wrestle No. 14 Parker Jordan of Oskaloosa. The winner will advance to face No. 3 Lucas Feuerbach of Solon.

“He’s got a first-round match that I think is winnable,” Downing said. “He’s wrestled I think eight guys in the tournament and beat a couple of them. He belongs.”

Third place

Creston had six third-place finishers, five of whom earned a wrestleback but were unable to clinch the spot at state.

The Panthers’ two seniors each earned third place in their first year of high school wrestling.

Weston Trapp (39-15) came in the two seed at 165, but a mishap in the semifinals sent him to wrestle for third. Though he won the bout in a first-period pin, he didn’t get a chance to wrestleback.

“I think nerves maybe got the best of Weston. He was doing things he hadn’t been doing all year. A little bit of that is experience; he hadn’t been in the district environment before,” Downing said. “It was still a great season – nearly 40 wins in one year of wrestling. My heart aches for him. I think he’s a state placer if you do that over again. I wanted to see him in that environment because he’s not a kid you want to draw first round if you’re in the state tournament. I think he’s dangerous.”

Out of seven wrestlers in the 190-pound bracket, Jayden Myers (13-30) came in seeded sixth. In the first round, Myers lost to three-seed Trevor Phillips of Columbus Junction in a 10-2 major decision.

From there, the comeback began. In the consolation bracket, Myers pinned No. 7 Cole Keegel of Albia and No. 4 Brody Lyons of Fairfield to advance to the third-place match. This bout would be a rematch with Phillips and this time, Myers won in a second-period fall, earning a wrestleback. Though he fell to two-seed Bridge Anderson of Burlington Notre Dame that round, his third-place performance was a great way to end his career.

“Every match Saturday he got better and better,” Downing said. “I just wish we had another year with those guys. Our dual team and our team in general is not the same without those two guys. I’m glad we got them when we did rather than not getting them at all.”

Like Myers, some wrestlers had fantastic days, ending at third. Freshmen Landen Lillie and Jose Avila both performed well throughout the day to take bronze.

In two cases, the third-place finish was heartbreaking. Freshman Ben James came into the toughest weight class of the tournament, three wrestlers ranked in the top-seven competing for two state spots.

Though James was not one of these three ranked wrestlers, he shocked everyone by earning a spot in the 113-pound finals. His semifinals was an upset as he beat ranked Tucker Ball of Davis County in a 10-3 decision. In the finals, he fell to No. 1 ranked Cael McCabe of Fairfield, forcing a wrestleback with ranked Rowan Berndt of Burlington Notre Dame.

The match was long as Berndt had an out-of-control nosebleed after James went up 3-0 in the first. “I think the blood time in that match kind of took Ben out of his element, out of his game plan a little bit,” Downing said. “He wrestled a little different after that.”

Berndt won the bout in a 15-6 major decision to take second and advance to state.

“I know he’s bummed. What a district — what a loaded district,” Downing said. “Sometimes you just can’t control those things. I hope Ben uses that as fuel in the offseason. Now he’s been in the districts; he knows what it takes. He definitely belongs in the state tournament, but that’s just the way it falls sometimes at districts.”

Another heartbreaker was Kylen Parsons, a wrestler who has nearly qualified the last two years. A semifinals loss to Colt Boyles of Burlington Notre Dame had Parsons working for a wrestleback.

He defeated Jacob Nelson of Columbus Junction in an 11-3 major decision in the 120-pound third-place bout, but in the wrestlebacks, he was defeated by Matt Genobana of Centerville in a 10-0 major decision.

“Second place in a district with a lot of new faces in our lineup, I think it’s been a solid season,” Downing said. “Now let’s just go try to get three medals.”

Class 2A wrestles the evening session Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. The sessions are from 6-9 p.m. Saturday, consolation semifinals and finals are from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Awards are at 5:15 and finals for all classes are at 5:30.