Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – Cory Connell won a pair of individual Mississippi Valley Conference titles as a City High wrestler and helped the Little Hawks to the MVC team title in 1999.

Neither of those accomplishments compared to what the Connell-led Little Hawks did on Saturday.

City High had five finalists and crowned two champions on its way to its first MVC Super Meet title since 2002.

The Little Hawks’ fourth Super Meet title comes just four years removed from consecutive 13th place finishes in Connell’s first two seasons leading the program.

“When we won it when I was in high school it was an expectation, when I took over the program as coach that expectation was not there, we got 13th out of 14 my first year here,” Connell explained. “It means a lot more now just knowing from my first year here where we were and what we have built in to.”

Ethan Wood-Finley and Kyle Hefley each won individual titles via fall as City held off five-time defending champion Cedar Rapids Prairie for the team title.

City High got runner-up finishes from Joey Harney, Lance Bormann and Jacob Dykes while rolling up 221 points, 18 more than runner-up Prairie.

 “This is huge for our team,” Wood-Finley said. “It’s been a while since we’ve being doing stuff like this and I think we are going to be continuing to do these things for years to come.”

The Super Meet title capped an impressive week for the surging City High program.

City High secured its first MVC regular season title on Thursday with a thrilling 31-30 win over Dubuque Hempstead.

On Saturday the Little Hawks added to their season hardware haul.

“It’s been a huge week,” Hefley said. “Thursday we were coming off a high and we had to tone it back down and get ready to go for today and we came out and wrestled really strong.”

It has been a steady climb to the top of the MVC mountain for Connell and the Little Hawks.

City High finished 13th in both 2013 and 2014 and was 10th in 2015.

The Little Hawks made big Super Meet jumps the past two seasons climbing to fifth in 2016 before a runner-up finish a year ago.

City High used its depth to overtake Prairie atop the Super Meet standings.

Dubuque Hempstead had three individual champions while City High, West High, Cedar Rapids Kennedy and Prairie all had two.

However, City High had a top-six finisher at 10 weights including seven top three finishers to emerge from a balanced field.

They went out there and battled,” Connell said. “They wanted it, you could tell how a lot of them competed. They wanted it for the team and for everybody. They wrestled for each other.”

Wood-Finley and Hefley each capped strong showings with their first MVC titles.

Class 3A ninth-ranked Wood-Finley (35-4) went 3-0 to win the 106-pound title.

Wood-Finley needed sudden victory to down Teme Larson of Waterloo West 4-2 in the quarterfinals and edged No. 10 Bailey Roybal of Cedar Falls 3-0 in the semifinals.

He claimed his first MVC title with a first-period pin of Cedar Rapids Prairie sophomore Austin Kegley.

“I’m very happy,” Wood-Finley said. “Today was a big tournament to win and I’m really glad to have wrestled well and won it.”

Hefley (37-1) pinned his way through the 152-pound bracket to collect his first MVC title.

Sixth-ranked Hefley led Waterloo West senior Jacob Oliver 8-0 before putting Oliver on his back with a minute left in the second period.

“It’s huge to win this tournament,” Hefley said. “It’s a huge step in the right direction of this program.”

Dykes, Harney and Bormann all settled for runner-up finishes.

Bormann (31-6) dropped a 11-3 major decision to No. 9 Graham Gambrall of West High at 132 and Harney (31-5) fell to fifth-ranked Trenten Wennermark of Cedar Rapids Prairie 13-3 in the 138-pound final.

Dykes (34-1) dropped his first match of the season 12-4 to second-ranked Tyrell Gordon of Waterloo East in the 195-pound title match.

Top-ranked Dykes led 3-2 with a minute left in the match when Gordon got a takedown and three nearfall points for a 7-3 lead.

Wilfred Kadohou (32-6) finished third at 160 pounds and Reece Caven was third at 126 for City High.

“It’s really big for our whole team,” Wood-Finley said. “We are continuing our momentum and we are going to try to keeping it going.”

MVC Super Meet

Team scores – 1. City High 221; 2. Cedar Rapids Prairie 203; 3. Dubuque Hempstead 193.5; 4. West High 162.5; 5. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 155; 6. Cedar Falls 140; 7. Dubuque Senior 118; 8. Linn-Mar 115; 9. Dubuque Wahlert 97.5; 10. Cedar Rapids Jefferson 88.5; 11. Waterloo East 70; 12. Cedar Rapids Xavier 62; 13. Waterloo West 53.5; 15. Cedar Rapids Washington 52.

(Championship matches; Area placewinners)

106 – 1. Ethan Wood-Finley (ICH) pinned Austin Kegley (CRP) 1:08; 5. Hans vonRabenau (ICW)

113 – 1. Dillon Gottschalk (DH) dec. Jakey Penrith (CF) 4-0; 7. Garrett Bormann (ICH)

120 – 1. Conrad Braswell (CRP) major dec. Keegan Schultschik (CRX) 12-2; 6. Michael Santoro (ICH);  

126 – 1. Joe Pins (DH) major dec. Cam Shaver (CRK) 20-8; 3. Reece Caven (ICH); 8. Keaton Speicher (ICW)

132 – 1. Graham Gambrall (ICW) major dec. Lance Bormann (ICH) 11-3  

138 – 1. Trenten Wennermark (CRP) major dec. Joey Harney (ICH) 13-3

145 – 1. Mat Connolly (DS) pinned Jaxon Bentley (WE) :38; 7. Jack Anson (ICH); 8. Collin Leavy (ICW) 1:10

152 – 1. Kyle Hefley (ICH) pinned Jacob Oliver (WW) 3:09; 5. Jo Dixon (ICW) 3:17

160 – 1. Nelson Brands (ICW) pinned Josh Ramirez (DW) 3:20; 3. Wilfred Kadohou (ICH)

170 – 1. Ben Sarasin (CRK) dec. Jacob Wempen (LM) 7-4; 6. Brandon Lalla (ICH); 8. Ashton Stumpf (ICW)

182 – 1. Cade Parker (CRK) dec. Will Hoeft (ICW) 5-1

195 – 1. Tyrell Gordon (WE) major dec. Jacob Dykes (ICH) 12-4; 6. Enutifia Gamia (ICW)

220 – 1. Boone McDermott (DW) pinned Francis Duggan (ICW) 5:09; 7. Jason Lemus (ICH)

285 – 1. Dylan Olson (DH) pinned Josh Vis (CRK) 1:19; 3. Guy Snow (ICW); 4. Jacob Murry (ICH)