Taking a Quick Look at Class 3A District Wrestling Meets
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
The postseason sprint is here in wrestling.
It starts with district meets across all three classes on Saturday with the state meet set to run February 19-22 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
Before the action gets rolling on Saturday Your Prep Sports takes a look at every district meet featuring an area team.
Here is a look at the three Class 3A districts that feature teams from the Your Prep Sports area.
Class 3A, District 1
When: Saturday, 10 a.m.
Where: Bettendorf High School
Teams: Liberty High; Bettendorf; Clinton; Davenport Central; Davenport North; Muscatine; Pleasant Valley; Western Dubuque
Ranked teams: No. 2 Bettendorf
What to watch: Liberty High qualified three wrestlers for the state tournament last season and will look to improve on that number on Saturday.
Junior Landon Bell (19-3) is a returning state qualifier and leads the way in a list of Liberty High wrestlers seeking to earn a spot at the state meet in Des Moines.
Sophomore 106-pounder Connor McGonegle (24-11), sophomore 120-pounder Benjamin Rosen (22-11) and freshman 132-pounder Rex Edmonds (26-7) will all push for top-three finishes on Saturday.
Who to watch: Liberty High junior Landon Bell (19-2) just seems to get better every time he steps on the mat.
Bell went 29-10 last season while qualifying for the state meet at 157 pounds.
Bell enters the postseason ranked fourth at 175 pounds and coming off an impressive run to the Mississippi Valley Conference title earlier this month.
On his way to the MVC crown Bell earned wins over eighth-ranked Philip Jacobs of Linn-Mar and fifth-ranked Louden Bloxham of Cedar Rapids Prairie.
Top-ranked Lincoln Jipp (41-2) of Bettendorf is the favorite in the 175-pound bracket but Bell is in strong position to secure another trip to the state meet.
Weight classes to watch: The 144-pound and 190-pound brackets at District 1 each feature a pair of ranked wrestlers making a top-two finish a challenge.
However, it is the top three finishers that secure a spot at the state meet and Liberty High has wrestlers capable of cracking into the top three at those two weights in seniors Mason Karam and Ethan Barber.
Karam (15-9) will try to jump into the mix at 144 pounds in a field that features seventh-ranked Duncan Harn of Bettendorf and No. 11 Danny Peters of Clinton.
Look for Barber (18-16) to compete for a state qualifying spot at 190 pounds in a tough field highlighted by third-ranked Bettendorf sophomore Brayden Koester of Bettendorf and fourth-ranked Muscatine junior Andy Franke.
Ranked Wrestlers
106: No. 10 Lucas Reeder, Jr., Pleasant Valley
113: No. 11 Landon Gottschalk, Soph., Bettendorf
120: No. 1 Jake Knight, Jr., Bettendorf
126: No. 5 Carter Siebel, Sr., Pleasant Valley
126: No. 11 Kellen McKenna, Soph., Western Dubuque
132: No. 2 TJ Koester, Sr., Bettendorf
138: No. 3 Cody Trevino, Jr., Bettendorf
138: No. 11 Collin Frost, Sr., Davenport Central
144: No. 7 Duncan Harn, Sr., Bettendorf
144: No. 11 Danny Peters, Jr., Clinton
150: No. 8 Brady Jennings, Sr., Clinton
150: No. 10 Mark Kelsall, Soph., Pleasant Valley
157: No. 5 Joe Hirsch, Jr., Western Dubuque
165: No. 12 Chase Cournoyer, Sr., Pleasant Valley
175: No. 1 Lincoln Jipp, Jr., Bettendorf
175: No. 4 Landon Bell, Jr., Liberty High
190: No. 3 Brayden Koester, Soph., Bettendorf
190: No. 4 Andy Franke, Jr., Muscatine
285: No. 12 Cary Cox, Soph., Pleasant Valley
Class 3A, District 3
When: Saturday, 10 a.m.
Where: Cedar Rapids Jefferson
Teams: Clear Creek Amana; City High; Burlington; Cedar Rapids Jefferson; Davenport West; Dubuque Hempstead; Dubuque Senior; Fort Madison; North Scott
Ranked teams: None
What to watch: City High and Clear Creek Amana have both already had impressive seasons.
Both program will attempt to put the finishing touches on those strong seasons with big finishes over the next week.
City High won a Mississippi Valley Conference divisional dual title and finished fifth at the MVC tournament earlier this month.
The Little Hawks have three wrestlers returning from a list of eight state qualifiers last season.
Senior 120-pounder Kendall Kurtz (31-5) leads the way and is doing the best wrestling of his career over the past several weeks.
Kurtz finished eighth at the state meet last season and enters the postseason ranked fourth after an impressive regular season that included an MVC tournament title.
Senior 175-pounder Mason Tilley (25-10) is a returning state qualifier as is junior 132-pounder Chris Davis (13-15).
Junior Kane Willey (20-5) is ranked eighth at 285 pounds and junior 215-pound Raph Etuma (28-10) is ranked eighth at 215 pounds.
Keep an eye on 165-pound freshman Marshall Sheldon (24-14) as well as senior Laith Alawneh (28-14) at 150 pounds and junior Donovan Gipson (18-8) at 138 pounds for City High.
Clear Creek Amana will be attempting to replicate the success of last year’s postseason when it qualified an impressive 11 wrestlers for the 3A state meet.
The Clippers are led by a pair of ranked returning state medalists.
Senior Cale Nash (33-6) is ranked 10th at 132 pounds after a seventh-place finish at state last season while senior Nolan Howell (39-8) is ranked sixth at 144 pounds after also finishing seventh at state a year ago.
Sophomore 120-pounder Jose Mendieta (27-24), sophomore 126-pounder Malachi Clement (31-19), senior 150-pounder Trace Robertson (29-19) and senior Vinnie Keller (21-7) are all returning state qualifiers.
Freshman 106-pounder Cole Kasparek (38-11) should be in the mix for a state tournament spot along with senior 157-pounder Ben Haughey (30-14) and junior 215-pounder Dylan Schrock (30-15).
Who to watch: Clear Creek Amana senior 132-pound Cale Nash enters his final postseason as one of the most successful wrestlers in program history.
Nash eclipsed the 150-win mark for his career last month and claimed a WAMAC conference title earlier this month.
Seventh-ranked Nash joins Mitchell Murphy (30-2) of Dubuque Hempstead as ranked wrestlers in the 132-pound field.
Nash has won 20 of his last 22 matches entering the postseason with the lone losses during that stretch coming to the second and sixth-place wrestlers in Class 3A.
All six losses for Nash this season have come to ranked wrestlers including five losses to wrestlers ranked in the top six.
Weight class to watch: With three top-10 ranked wrestlers the 215-pound bracket at District 3 should be a fun one to watch.
Seventh-ranked Camden Smith (30-4) of Dubuque Hempstead leads the field and is coming off a runner-up finish at the MVC tournament that included a 13-9 win over Etuma in the semifinals.
Smith also won a 7-2 decision over Etuma in the finals of the Zimmerman Invitational on January 4.
North Scott senior Jace Tippet (20-7) is ranked 10th and will be in the mix for one of the three state tournament spots in what should ben an entertaining 215-pound field.
Ranked Wrestlers
106: No. 3 Braxton Hutchinson, Sr., Burlington
106: No. 6 Abe Heysinger, Fr., Dubuque Hempstead
120: No. 4 Kendall Kurtz, Sr., City High
120: No. 7 Mitchell Pins, Sr., Dubuque Hempstead
132: No. 7 Mitchell Murphy, Sr., Dubuque Hempstead
132: No. 10 Cale Nash, Sr., Clear Creek Amana
138: No. 10 Will McDermott, Jr., North Scott
144: No. 6 Nolan Howell, Sr., Clear Creek Amana
144: No. 9 Kepler Carmichael, Fr., North Scott
150: No. 11 Evan Ralfs, Sr., North Scott
157: No. 8 Cole Green, Jr., North Scott
165: No. 11 Benjamin Lightle, Jr., North Scott
190: No. 7 Treyton Feist, Soph., North Scott
215: No. 7 Camden Smith, Jr., Dubuque Hempstead
215: No. 8 Raphael Etuma, Jr., City High
215: No. 10 Jace Tippet, Sr., North Scott
285: No. 8 Kane Willey, Jr., City High
Class 3A, District 8
When: Saturday, 10 a.m.
Where: Waverly-Shell Rock High School
Teams: West High; Cedar Falls; Linn-Mar; Marion; Mason City; Waterloo East; Waverly-Shell Rock; Cedar Rapids Xavier
Ranked teams: No. 7 Waverly-Shell Rock
What to watch: Of its eight state qualifiers last season five return for the Trojans this year highlighted by returning state medalists Alexander Pierce and Justin Avila.
Pierce (41-2) and Avila (43-3) lead the way but the Trojans have plenty of firepower behind them including senior Cole Krutzfeldt (37-4) and sophomores Charles Barnhouse (27-14) and Matthew Tran (37-12).
Krutzfeldt is ranked fourth at 138 pounds and Tran is sixth at 120 pounds joining Avila (third at 150) and Pierce (2nd at 113) as top-six ranked wrestlers for the Trojans.
Junior 157-pounder Campbell Janis (29-17) is a returning state qualifier and senior 285-pounder Randale Kelly (30-16) is one of five Trojans with at least 30 wins this season.
Who to watch: Already a two-time state finalist junior Alexander Pierce (41-2) will be looking to add to an already prep resume next week in Des Moines.
Pierce started the season at 120 pounds but made the drop to 113 pounds, where he was state runner-up last season, in mid-January.
Since dropping to 113 Pierce is 13-0 with seven pins, five tech falls and a 10-3 major decision over fifth-ranked Dylan Munson of Cedar Rapids Prairie.
The top challenger to Pierce in the 113-pound bracket on Saturday could be seventh-ranked Waverly-Shell Rock freshman Kipton Lewis.
Weight class to watch: The 165-pound bracket is one of six brackets in District 8 with multiple ranked wrestlers.
Fourth-ranked Ethan Bibler of Waverly-Shell Rock and sixth-ranked Barrett Mieras of Linn-Mar highlight the 165-pound field but keep an eye on West High senior Sterling Warren as a contender for the third state qualifying spot at 165.
Warren (25-21) is coming off a runner-up finish at the Mississippi Valley Conference tournament where his lone loss was to Mieras in the title match.
A state qualifier as a freshman at 120 pounds, Warren missed a return to the state meet last season by one win, falling in the third-place match.
Look for a determined performance from the West High senior on Saturday.
Ranked Wrestlers
106: No. 7 Chase Miller, Fr., Cedar Falls
113: No. 2 Alexander Pierce, Jr., West High
113: No. 7 Kipton Lewis, Fr., Waverly-Shell Rock
120: No. 6 Matthew Tran, Soph., West High
126: No. 4 Malik DeBow, Sr., Linn-Mar
126: No. 6 Easton Jorgenson, Fr., Waverly-Shell Rock
126: No. 8 Evan Simpson, Sr., Cedar Falls
132: No. 3 Ryker Graff, Sr., Waverly-Shell Rock
138: No. 4 Cole Krutzfeldt, Sr., West High
138: No. 12 Hud Turner, Soph., Linn-Mar
144: No. 12 Isaac Lomas, Sr., Waterloo East
150: No. 3 Justin Avila, Sr., West High
150: No. 7 Noah Howk-Erwin, Soph., Linn-Mar
157: No. 2 Bas Diaz, Sr., Waverly-Shell Rock
165: No. 4 Ethan Bibler, Sr., Waverly-Shell Rock
165: No. 6 Barrett Mieras, Soph., Linn-Mar
175: No. 7 Dane Melchior, Sr., Cedar Rapids Xavier
175: No. 8 Phillip Jacobs, Jr., Linn-Mar
190: No. 10 Dusty Cook, Soph., Cedar Rapids Xavier
215: No. 4 Jean Ngoma, Sr., Cedar Rapids Xavier
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