Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

 DES MOINES – The opening day of the state wrestling meet is in the books.

Championship brackets have been cut to eight and there are eight Your Prep Sports area athletes still in the hunt for state titles.

By the time the dust settles on a busy Friday of wrestling the 2022 championship matches will be set.

Before the focus can shift to Friday night’s semifinals or state title matches wrestlers have to take care of business on Friday morning.

Here are five of the best quarterfinal matchups on Friday that feature Your Prep Sports area wrestlers.

Gage Marty (Solon) vs. Cameron Geuther (West Delware) 

Standing in the way of Marty and the first state semifinal appearance for the top-ranked Solon senior is a meeting with a familiar foe.

No. 1 Marty (46-2) will face West Delaware junior Cameron Geuther (31-13) for the third time this season in the 2A quarterfinals on Friday morning.

Marty won a 5-1 decision over Geuther in December and posted a 14-2 major decision in the most recent matchup in the WAMAC semifinals last month.

Geuther advanced with a third-period pin of No. 10 Skyler Young of Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont.

Kael Kurtz (City High) vs. Ben Hansen (Ankeny)

A pair of sophomore standouts and returning state medalists meet for the third time in their short prep careers with a berth in the 3A semifinals on the line.

Kurtz and Hansen have split a pair of matches the past two seasons.

Kurtz win a 9-1 decision in the 106-pound seventh-place match at state last season and Hansen earned an 8-2 decision his year in the semifinals of the Jack Mendenhall Invitational on January 8.

Seventh-ranked Kurtz (36-4) stretched his winning streak to 13 with a second-period pin in his state meet opener on Thursday and owns victories over a pair of top-four ranked wrestlers during that stretch.

Grant O’Dell (West High) vs. Chase Fiser (Bondurant-Farrar)

A deep Class 3A 138-pound bracket will be filled with quality matchups starting on Friday in the quarterfinals.

Seventh-ranked West High senior Grant O’Dell (40-5) meets third-ranked Chase Fiser of Bondurant-Farrar in perhaps the best of those matchups.

A three-time state medalist, O’Dell has won 15 matches in a row after an opening-round pin of City High sophomore Jake Mitchell.

Fiser (37-4) advanced with a 3-1 sudden victory win over No. 12 Logan Stotts of Waukee Northwest.

Ronan Poynton (Regina) vs. Owen Huehnergarth (Dyersville Beckman)

Poynton (35-5) already has one win over a top-10 opponent, returning to the 1A quarterfinals for the second consecutive season with a 9-2 win over seventh-ranked Chase Wickwire of Belle Plaine in his 195-pounder opener on Thursday.

The ninth-ranked Regina sophomore will be seeking his first state semifinal appearance on Friday when he faces fifth-ranked Owen Huehnergarth (33-8) of Dyersville Beckman in a

Poynton has won seven matches in a row while six of the eight losses for Huehnergarth have come to top-two ranked wrestlers.

A state semifinalist last season, Huehnergarth has four losses to second-ranked Cayden Miller of Midland and one each to 2A top-ranked Wyatt Voelker of West Delaware and 1A No. 1 Carson Tenold of Don Bosco.

Logan Wright (West Branch) vs. Matthew Francis (West Hancock)

Wright got a win in his state meet debut on Thursday with a 9-0 decision over Wyatt Hanna of Lake Mills.

Things get significantly more difficult for ninth-ranked Wright (45-6) on Friday when he faces top-ranked and unbeaten Francis (53-0) for a spot in the semifinals.

Francis, who was third at 195 pounds last season, has won his last eight matches via fall and has had just three matches go a full three periods this season.

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