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Random Keith Young Notes from Schares
- As always is the case for tournaments early in the year, there were a few wrestlers who didn’t compete due to various reasons. Also a few wrestlers are up a weight or two while they work on their descent plans.
- WDM Valley has 3 tough freshman Spencer Hutchinson got first at 106, Joel Shapiro finished 5that 126 with his only loss coming to Jackson Gallagher of Bett 5-2, Grant Stotts finished 2nd at 120 taking out two #3 ranked wrestlers before falling to Jacob Schwarm of Bett 4-1 in the finals.
- Another freshman who looked good Saturday was Ben Sarasin of CR Kennedy. He finished 3rd at 138 knocking off the #4 ranked wrestler Mac Spotts of Mason City 7-6. He also pinned a returning state qualifier in Colton Deitrick of Union.
- How do we go about establishing a fund to get mat #3 to get a scoreboard so that more than half the gym can see the score or even just how much time is left?
- It’s fun to see new teams coming into this tournament. This year the newcomers Union, La Porte City did not disappoint edging out Bettendorf by 5.5 points. WDM Valley finished 3rd with 4 seniors, 3 juniors, 4 sophomores, and 3 freshman.
- The finals did not disappoint as we got to see two matchups that featured both wrestlers being nationally ranked (145 & 160), and another where both wrestlers were returning state champs (170).
- Two Keith Young Champs you might not recognize if you don’t follow high school wrestling outside of Iowa are Dayton Racer of Bettendorf at 160 and Brady Heusinkvelt of Denver-Tripoli at 285. Racer is a Minnesota State Champ and Heusinkvelt is a 3rdplace finisher at the Nebraska State Tournament.
- Another name that might sound familiar is Darien Collins of Pleasant Valley. Two years ago Collins was a state qualifier for Davenport Assumption.
- The Stroker/Thomsen match lived up to the hype. Some may say the lack of scoring made it less exciting, but when you have two wrestlers of that quality it is tough for them to get through each others head/hands defense. There were also some great scrambles. Both wrestlers got in deep on each others legs at least once. Stroker getting in deep in the first period and Thomsen doing it late in the 3rd. Neither wrestler was able to finish though. What won the match for Thomsen was his ability to ride Stroker. I’m still not sure how he was able to hold on to Stroker after both of the standing rolls he hit.
- The next time Stroker and Thomsen could meet up would be the Clash. IAwrestle will be at “The Clash” this year fyi
- The Racer/Steiert match was also a close match. The difference ended up being Racers ability to score from the front headlock as well as ride Steiert tough.
- One last finals match that featured 3 top wrestlers was the 170 final between Jacob Holschlag of Union and Isaiah Patton of Dowling. Holschlag nearly got the takedown to beat Patton in regulation, but the refs agreed to wave off the takedown to send it to overtime where Holschlag ended up winning.