The class 2A section of the state wrestling tournament included six wrestlers from the KCII listening area Thursday.

Three of those wrestlers won their opening match to advance on the championship side of the bracket in their weight classes. Mid-Prairie junior Cael Garvey was a winner in dramatic fashion by 11-9 decision over No.7 Matthew Wirtz of Emmetsburg. Golden Hawk head coach, and Cael’s dad, Justin Garvey broke down the match Thursday night for KCII sports. “I think I aged five years during that match. We had a two point lead and unfortunately we squandered it away on stall calls. The kid was tall, he was posting up on our shoulder. We didn’t want to give in, they wanted us to circle back to the right so they could hit an ankle pick so instead we just backed out and got dinged. So then they got a take down so we are down 9-7 and on bottom. He’s riding Cael with a claw ride and Cael moved his hips, sucked his arm underneath, hipped over for a reversal and scored two back points, a four point move with literally eight seconds on the clock.”

Garvey will wrestle in the quarterfinals today against No. 3 Jacob Reicks of New Hampton Turkey Valley who was a winner by fall Thursday. Also coming up with wins to open their tournament were both wrestlers from Columbus. Lane Scorpil, ranked No. 2 at 113lbs rolled to a 16-5 major decision win over Tytan Guerrero of Williamsburg. His teammate Chance Malone got by Nick Bronstad of Okoboji by 5-0 decision. Scorpil will meet No. 4 Tucker Stangel of Osage who was a winner by fall Thursday. Malone draws No. 4 Jordan Ver Meer of West Lyon who was a winner by fall Thursday.

Two other wrestlers remained in the tournament bracket on the consolation side after splitting matches on Thursday. Washington’s Ayden Frazer started his time in Des Moines with a loss to No. 1 Adam Ahrendsen of Union, La Porte City by fall, but rebounded to win his consolation match over Mid-Prairie’s Ben Meader by 7-5 decision. Frazer will await quarterfinal results Friday before finding out his next opponent. Mid-Prairie’s Josh Wallington was beaten in his opener Thursday at 220lbs by Kain Nelson of Clarion Goldfield Dows by fall. Wallington came back on the consolation side with a win over Nick Wacha of Ballard by fall. Wallington will await quarterfinal results Friday before finding out his next opponent. Golden Hawk senior Ben Meader saw his tournament come to an end Thursday with losses in his first two matches.

Listen to AM and FM KCII through the day on Friday and Saturday for hourly updates with results from the state wrestling tournament in Des Moines.