Tomorrow marks the start of the 2019 state wrestling tournament at Wells Fargo Arena, and after Saturday’s district round, the Highland wrestling team will have four guys taking their shot at a state title.

Geoff Streb punched his ticket first, taking second in the 132 weight class.  He won his semifinal match against Pekin’s Michael Jones by an 11-7 decision.  Then it was on to the first-place match, where Streb took the loss by just two points to Wapello’s Christopher Ewart.  Jones won the third-place match, however, so there was no wrestle-back to be had, and Streb was in.

Brady Hahn was next, breezing through the 145 weight class to take first.  He started off against WACO’s Robert Frazer, who he pinned in just 20 seconds.  He pinned Pekin’s Cael Baker in the second period of the first-place match to qualify for state with a 34-3 record.

Cory Stewart followed suit by taking first at 152.  He pinned his semifinal opponent, Caden Benz of Mediapolis, in 54 seconds to advance to the first-place match.  There, he wrestled a tightly-contested match against Cardinal’s Kade Chance, winning in a 3-2 decision to punch his ticket to state.

Last, but not least, Dan Burton got the job done at 160.  His day was the most dramatic of them all, pinning Pekin’s Hunter Conger in the semis and losing in the first-place match to the sixth-ranked wrestler in the state in Mepo’s Caleb LaLonde.  Conger fell in the third-place match to Northeast’s Aaron Schoon, which meant Schoon would see Burton in a wrestle-back.  Burton dominated, ending with a 10-3 decision to keep his second-place spot and his spot in the state tournament.

All four of those guys will start off their state tournament runs tomorrow afternoon at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.  The first round of 1A action is set to begin at 1:30 p.m.