The Washington, Mid-Prairie and Columbus Junction wrestling teams all wrestled at the sectional meet this Saturday at Washington, and all three teams will see kids go on to wrestle at districts.
Washington got eight guys through, while winning two weight classes. Fletcher Green was the champion at 120 and Tristan Pohren won at 132. The Demons had six runners-up, with Andrew Waite at 106, Kyle Anderson at 113, Jarek Brown at 138, Alex Gonzalez at 145,Tanner Knupp at 152, and Brad Skubal at 182.
Demon head coach Brent VanWeelden said after the matches that he thought maybe 10 could have gone, but eight it a pretty good day.
“I thought a great day would be 10, that was the number I set in my mind, [but] eight, I’m happy with eight. We are extremely happy for the eight guys that are moving on, and a little bit disheartened for some of the guys that aren’t, but you know we wrestle hard week in and week out, and the kids that didn’t make it through, it’s not because they didn’t battle, it’s not because they didn’t try, it just wasn’t there day today,” VanWeelden said.”
For Mid-Prairie, they only advanced one wrestler in Phirom Peterscmidt at 182, who was the champion at that weight.
Mid-Prairie head coach Justin Garvey said after the tournament that not many people saw Peterschmidt as a threat, but he came in and got the job done.
“Everybody has doubts Phirom all year long, toady people thought they were better than him, he beat the Mediapolis kid, he pinned Skubal, and he shows up and performs week in and week out, and next week is going to be the next test, there is the next kid from the other side from PCM, Monroe, and we’re going to have to back and battle again, maybe we’ll have to wrestle Skubal again, we don’t know, but we just have to come back out and win two more matches, and get back tot he state tournament,” Garvey said.
Columbus also had four wrestlers move through, with Josh Keller winning at 106, Tucker Morrison at 170, Mark Ramirez, the champion at 220, and Kyle Davis who won 285.
These wrestlers move on to the district meet next Saturday for their chance to go to Des Moines. Washington will also wrestle tomorrow at the district dual meet, when the Demons go to Mediapolis to face Mount Vernon, and maybe Mediapolis in the championship to go to the state dual meet.