Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

The wrestling postseason opens around the state on Saturday with a slightly different format than previous years.

Gone are the sectional meets in Classes 1A and 2A with district meets in all three classes on Saturday signally the start of the postseason.

In Classes 1A and 2A the top two qualifiers from 12 districts around the state advance to the state meet in the first season of 24-person state meet brackets.

As postseason wrestling begins we take a quick look at all six district meets featuring teams from the Your Prep Sports area.

Class 2A, District 11

When: Saturday, 10 a.m.

Where: West Delaware High School

Teams: Solon; Anamosa; Camanche; Central DeWitt; Maquoketa; Monticello; Dubuque Wahlert; West Delaware

Ranked teams: No. 3 West Delaware

What to watch: Solon has several wrestlers that should compete for top two spots on Saturday in an interesting mix of a district at West Delaware High School in Manchester.

Third-ranked West Delaware heavyweight team in District 11 with eight ranked wrestlers and coming off a runner-up finish at the 2A state dual tournament last Saturday.

Among the state meet hopefuls for a young Solon team is junior 126-pounder Lawsin Sinnwell (26-13).

Sinnwell joins No. 12 Jax Miller (28-9) of West Delaware and Dubuque Wahlert junior Jerren Gille (32-4) in an intriguing 126-pound bracket.

Miller won the only regular season match against Lawson 8-2 on January 7.

Gille is coming off a third-place finish at the Mississippi Valley Conference meet last month.

Who to watch: Solon sophomore Jordan Schmidt is seeking a return trip to the state meet after going 0-2 in his state meet debut a season ago.

Schmidt (28-8) has improved as the season has gone on and has won 13 of his last 17 matches entering the postseason.

All four losses for Schmidt during that stretch have come to ranked opponents including a pair of losses to No. 10 Carter Lamont of Vinton-Shellsburg.

Fifth-ranked Royce Butt (29-5) of Central DeWitt is the favorite at 132 pounds at District 11 but Schmidt has proven he can compete against some of the best as evident by a 1-0 loss to fourth-ranked Bo Koedam of Sergeant Bluff-Luton at the Herb Irgens Invitational last month.

Anamosa freshman Ayden Antonelli (37-10) and Monticello sophomore Tait Luensman (31-16) are others to watch in the 132-pound bracket.

Weight class to watch: Third-ranked West Delaware senior Will Ward (37-2) is the prohibitive favorite in the 195-pound bracket.

With Ward, a returning state medalist the favorite, the battle at 195 pounds could be for the second state tournament spot.

The rest of the bracket is crowded with several wrestlers capable of earning a spot at state including Solon senior Braydon Hoffman (32-17).

Expect the competition at 195 to be fierce all day with at least five wrestlers entering with winning records.

Monticello junior Dylan Monk (41-7) won a title at the River Valley Conference meet last month and Anamosa junior Tayte Peterschmidt (32-22) was sixth in that bracket.

Central DeWitt’s Layton Slaymaker (22-13) and Dubuque Wahlert’s Andrew Slaught (19-13) don’t have sparking records but have seen solid competition all season.

Ranked wrestlers

113: No. 3 Braden Maury (West Delaware) Jr.

No. 11 Jonah Luensman (Monticello) Jr.

120: No. 8 Carson Less (West Delaware) Sr.

126: No. 12 Jax Miller (West Delaware) Soph.

132: No. 5 Royce Butt (Central DeWitt) Jr.

138: No. 12 Carson Turnis (West Delaware) Sr.

145: No. 8 Kale Hansen (Monticello) Sr.

No. 12 Hudson Scranton (Anamosa) Fr.

152: No. 4 Brent Yonkovic (West Delaware) Soph.

160: No. 8 Logan Peyton (Wes Delaware) Sr.

170: No. 4 Austin Scranton (Anamosa) Soph.

195: No. 3 Will Ward (West Delaware) Sr.

285: No. 2 Cameron Geuther (West Delaware) Sr.

No. 4 Sam Gravert (Central DeWitt) Sr.

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