Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

The Wrestlers

Area Qualifiers/Opening Round Opponents

106 – Grant O’Dell (31-13) Fr., West High vs. No. 1 Trever Anderson (38-1) Fr., Ankeny

106 – No. 3 Ethan Wood-Finley (32-3) Jr., City High vs. Jackson Helmkamp (29-11) Fr., Ankeny Centennial

120 – No. 2 Hunter Garvin (36-3) Fr., West High vs. Cael Bredar (23-23) Jr., North Scott

120 – No. 9 Kael Scranton (36-9) Fr., Clear Creek Amana vs. No. 1 Cullan Schriever (18-1) Jr., Mason City

126 – Keaton Speicher (20-10) Sr., West High vs. Noah Blubaugh (28-10) Sr., Ankeny Centennial

126 – Samual Stevens (31-15) Jr., Clear Creek Amana vs. No. 7 Matthew Jordan (28-5) Sr., Des Moines East

138 – No. 8 Graham Gambrall (35-9) Soph., West High vs. No. 6 Ian Heise (31-7) Sr., Waverly-Shell Rock

145 – No. 7 Andrew Rohret (41-7) Sr., Clear Creek Amana vs. Vincent Vass (33-6) Sr., Ottumwa

152 – No. 6 Kyle Hefley (35-6) Sr., City High vs. Julius Boimah (7-3) Sr., Waterloo West

170 – No. 8 Ashton Barker (17-4) Soph., Liberty High vs. Tristen Duncan (20-13) Soph., Norwalk

170 – Joe Ring (21-11) Sr., City High vs. No. 3 Blake Underwood (30-3) Jr., West Des Moines Valley

182 – No. 7 Will Hoeft (34-6) Jr., West High vs. Ryan Cook (15-25) Jr., Cedar Rapids Xavier

220 – No. 8 Landon Green (35-8) Sr., West High vs. No. 5 Nate Heckart (31-5) Sr., Norwalk

285 – No. 4 Jacob Murry (29-4) Sr., City High vs. Kail Shannon (30-9) Sr., Storm Lake

Returning State Champions

Current Weight/Wrestler/2017 Championship Weight

120 – Cullan Schriever, Jr., Mason City (106)

126 – Nick Oldham, Sr., West Des Moines Valley (113)

160 – Cade DeVos, Sr., Southeast Polk (145)

Undefeated Wrestlers

113 – Drake Ayala (37-0) Soph., Fort Dodge

145 – Deville Dentis (5-0) Sr., Des Moines East

152 – Lance Runyon (34-0) Sr., Southeast Polk

160 – Cade DeVos (33-0) Sr., Southeast Polk

160 – Jacob Herrmann (45-0) Sr., Waverly-Shell Rock

195 – Ashton Stoner-DeGroot (21-0) Jr. Cedar Rapids Prairie

Who to Watch

West High 120-pounder Hunter Garvin has already put together an impressive freshman season.

Garvin (36-3) will attempt to put the finishing touches on his spectacular debut campaign by becoming the Trojans’ first freshman champ in more than a decade.

Ranked second at 120-pounds, Garvin has lost just once to in-state competition, a 4-2 loss to fourth-ranked Aiden Evans of Bettendorf that he avenged a month later.

The other two losses for Garvin both came to the Jeremiah Reno of Liberty, Missouri, the third-ranked 113-pounder in the country by Intermat.

Garvin has won nine straight since a 10-9 loss to Reno on January 12 with nine all but one of those victories coming via pin or tech fall.

Joining Garvin on the bottom half of the 120-pound bracket is third-ranked Thomas Edwards (37-4) of Johnston who has won nine straight matches since dropping to 120 pounds.

Likely waiting on the top half of the bracket is two-time defending state champion Cullan Schriever of Mason City who (18-1) is attempting to win a third straight title in return from an injury that kept him out for much of the season.

Weight Class to Watch

Ethan Wood-Finley has everything a coach looks for in a potential state champion.

That list of attributes for the City High junior 106-pounder now includes state meet experience following a fifth-place finish last season.

One of only three juniors in a 106-pound field this season that is, as always, loaded with freshman Wood-Finley hopes to use his experience to his advantage as he attempts to give the Little Hawks a state champion for the second year in a row.

Wood-Finley (32-3) is the top seed in the 106-pound bracket that features seven freshmen making their state meet debuts.

It will be anything but an easy route for Wood-Finley in a bracket that features a pair of one-loss freshmen ranked No. 1 and No. 2.

Ankeny freshman Trever Anderson (38-1) enters top-ranked and handed Wood-Finley his first loss this season via fall on January 5.

Waverly-Shell Rock freshman Aidan Riggins (44-1) is a likely semifinal opponent for Anderson on the bottom half of the bracket.

Wood-Finley has been dominant over the last several weeks winning 13 straight matches including 10 by fall.

A semifinalist a year ago, Wood-Finley faces Ankeny Centennial freshman Jackson Helmkamp (29-11) in the opening round and would face Lewis Central sophomore Tanner Wink (35-10) or Mason City freshman Jace Rhodes (12-3) in the quarterfinals.

A rematch from the MVC championship match with sixth-ranked Linn-Mar sophomore Brandon O’Brien (26-4) is a semifinal possibility.

The Teams

District Champions (State Qualifiers)

Bettendorf (12); Southeast Polk (11); Cedar Rapids Kennedy (7); Ankeny Centennial (9); Waukee (10); West Des Moines Valley (5); City High (4); Waverly-Shell Rock (11)

2018 Top 5 Team Finishers – 1. Fort Dodge 144; 2. Waukee 139; 3. Southeast Polk 134.5; 4. West Des Moines Valley 106.5; 5. Glenwood 76.5

Last 5 Team Champs

2018 – Fort Dodge

2017 – Southeast Polk

2016 – Southeast Polk

2015 – Southeast Polk

2014 – Bettendorf

What to Watch in the Team Race ­­

Fort Dodge edged Waukee to win its first state title since 1985 last season ending a three-year reign atop of Class 3A for Southeast Polk.  

With its title last season Fort Dodge became the first team other than Southeast Polk, Bettendorf or Waverly-Shell Rock to win a 3A title since West High won the second of back-to-back titles in 2007.

This year those three perennial 3A powers figure to once again battle for supremacy in the state’s largest class.

Bettendorf qualified a 3A-best 12 wrestlers for the state meet but the team title will likely turn into a two-team race between Southeast Polk and Waverly-Shell Rock which each enter with 11 qualifiers.

Southeast Polk is chasing its fifth title, all since 2013, and has five of its 11 qualifiers ranked in the top five including three top-ranked Wrestlers.

Waverly-Shell Rock won four consecutive 3A titles from 2008 to 2011 but hasn’t finished higher than third since and was a disappointing 16th last season.

The Go-Hawks have reloaded or another title run and bring seven wrestlers ranked second or third to the state meet.

West High and City High finished seventh and eighth respectively last season and will need strong showings to return to the top 10.

City High has three of its four qualifiers ranked in the top six while West High has four ranked wrestlers among its six qualifiers.

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