Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – The opportunities were there for Kael Kurtz in a loss to fourth-ranked Brayden Parke last week but the points never materialized.

Kurtz got the rematch he was waiting for on Saturday and this time the City High sophomore finished.

Kurtz posted a pair of takedowns in a 5-3 win over Parke in the 126-pound title match at the Mississippi Valley Conference meet at Cedar Rapids Jefferson.

“Ever since that Thursday dual against Linn-Mar I’ve been focusing on finishing my shots,” Kurtz said. “That was a big problem when I had trouble in my match with him (Parke) on Thursday. I figured I’d be in this spot today so I worked on finishing my shots.”

Parke fended off every offensive attempt from Kurtz on his way to a 1-0 win back on January 20.

“I was in on three or four shots,” Kurtz said of the first meeting. “I just didn’t finish.”

In Saturday’s rematch Kurtz finished.

The seventh-ranked sophomore scored the first takedown less than 50 seconds into the match and snapped a 2-2 tie with another takedown with 34 seconds left in the second period.

“In the last dual we got to his legs but we didn’t finish and we didn’t get out on bottom and we’ve been working a while on finishing and he’s getting better,” City High coach Cory Connell said. “Every day he is coming to practice with a purpose and getting better and he’s right there.”

Kurtz (31-4) spent the last week focused on finishing shots.

He stayed after practice and spent time working with heavier partners. Anything to improve his finishing.

The work paid off on Saturday.

“That first takedown gave me a lot of confidence, I knew that I could take him down,” Kurtz said. “I knew my practice had paid off and I knew it could take him down again in that second period.”

The title for Kurtz was one of three on the day for City High and helped the Little Hawks to a fifth-place team finish with 135 points.

Linn-Mar won the team title with 233 points followed by West High with 173.5, Cedar Rapids Prairie with 167.5 and Dubuque Hempstead with 148.5.

“We had some ups and downs today,” Connell said. “We had some positives and some things we need to get better at.”

City High went 3-1 in finals matches with sophomore Cale Seaton winning a title at 120 pounds and Ben Kueter cruising to the crown at 220.

Sophomore Jake Mitchell finished runner-up at 138 falling to sixth-ranked Grant O’Dell of West High in the title match.

“Jake Mitchell looked really good today I was really proud of him,” Connell said. “He’s been coming on lately and every single time he steps on the mat I’m proud of him.”

Third-ranked Seaton (33-2) was dominant on his way to the 120-pound title.

Seaton had back-to-back second-period pins to reach the finals where he racked up 10 takedowns in a 23-8 tech fall of Cedar Rapids Prairie’s Alex Bumba.

Seaton had 31 takedowns in three wins on Saturday.

“I’m trying to score as much as possible,” Seaton said. “That’s always what I want to do.”

Kurtz followed Seaton with his win over Parke in the 126-pound finals to give City High multiple conference champions for the third time in the past four MVC meets.

“It’s a lot of fun to watch when you put in a lot of work with someone and then you see them succeed,” Seaton said of Kurtz. “He lost to that kid a couple of weeks ago and we worked on that single-leg position all week and to see him finish really made me happy.”

Top-ranked Kueter put an exclamation point on the day for City High with a 21-5 tech fall over No. 12 Joseph Lewis of Dubuque Hempstead.

Kueter (29-0) reached the finals with a tech fall and a pin.

Nick Marker added a fifth-place finish for City High at 182 pounds.

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