106
As is usually the case with the 106 weight class, we will have a lot of wrestlers new to the state tournament in this bracket. There will be 2 first round matches people will have their eye on at this weight. Those two matches will be #1 Will Portis of Rockford vs. #3 Donny Schmit of Wapsie Valley and #2 Gable Fox of Don Bosco vs. #4 Jaymus Wilson of Alburnett. On paper Portis looks like the favorite over Schmit since Rockford wrestler placing 5th at state last year while Schmit was left at home finishing 3rd at districts. Portis has two wins over Schmit, a 5-3 win this year in January and a 5-3 win last year in the district wrestleback. The other big matchup first round will be on the bottom side of the bracket with Fox and Wilson. These two have yet to meet in high school, but Fox has wins over wrestlers that beat Wilson. Look for the finalists to come from these two matchups.Pfantz and Krager are both returning qualifiers that are favorites to make the podium.
Eric- Fox over Schmit
Lars- Fox over Portis
Kirk – Fox over Portis
113
#1 Brock Henderson of North Linn will have a rematch with last years 3rd/4th place match at state last year with Tate Bluml of Riverside Oakland. Henderson got the best of Bluml twice last year at state. It doesnt get any easier for the winner of that match in the quarterfinals where they will likely face Josh Tibbits of Martensdale. If you are wondering how tough the freshman from Martensdale is just take a look at some of his wins this year. He has beaten some very highly ranked wrestlers in all classes. Look for an exciting quarterfinals match between the undefeated Henderson and Tibbits. Jeremiah Colon of Newman will be one of the favorites to come out of the bottom of this bracket. Keep an eye on Nate Phillips of I-35 who took out last years runner up at 106, Blake Bauer of SEW, in the district wrestlebacks.
Eric- Tibbits over Colon
Lars- Henderson over Colon
Kirk – Tibbits over Colon
120
More great first round matches at 120 only this match will have huge implications on the team race. #3 Cooper Siebrecht of Lisbon will square off against #4 Ben Moyer of Alburnett. The Lisbon wrestler is 3-0 against Moyer this year though winning 10-9, 5-0, and 5-1. Cole Allison of St. Eds and Brady Kyner of Southeast Warren could be a decent quarterfinal match up on the top side since they are both returning state placewinners at 113 last year (Kyner 4th, Allison 6th). The returning state champ from last year at this weight is in the bracket again, Bryce West of Highland is a heavy favorite to make the finals. He is undefeated on the year and will look to make 2 straight titles.
Eric- West over Kyner
Lars- West over Kyner
Kirk – West over Kyner
126
Here is the deepest weight in class 1A. All year long it has been almost impossible to find room in the rankings for all of these guys. With all of that said, up until a week ago, most people thought this was a 2 horse race between #1 Thomsen and #2 West. #3 Wally Zernich of Lisbon showed everyone at districts that he is capable of making some noise at this weight. Zernich nearly had the go ahead takedown on Drew West as time expired. Wally Zernich vs. Alex Thomsen of Underwood could very well be the best first round match in the entire tournament. Kody Kugel of Dike vs. Jake Wulf of OABCIG and Colin Schrader of Wapsie Valley vs. Ben Freese of Nodaway Valley will be two other first round matches to keep your eye on at this weight.
Eric- Thomsen over West
Lars- Thomsen over West
Kirk – Thomsen over West
132
And now we get to the weight that is total chaos. This is one of those weights where you could wrestle it 10 times and get 10 different outcomes. It’s a great example of A beats B, B beats C, and C beats A. This bracket is a little different than most in that almost every has wrestled each other or has wrestled a common opponent. We could have 3 or 4 great first round matchups here. The first 3 quarters of this weight look extremely tough with 3 or 4 quality wrestlers in each. The last quarter might be the easiest, but it may also have the best wrestler, #2 Drake Halblom of Alburnett. #1 Cole Needham, a returning runnerup, has look solid all year long, but does have 1 blemish on the year losing to #7 Nick Mangrich of Don Bosco. This bracket would require far more than a paragraph to breakdown.
Eric- Halblom over Needham
Lars- Needham over Halblom
Kirk – Needham over Halblom
138
There are too many great first round match ups in 1A to mention all of them. This weight will have 4 more between ranked wrestlers. Nick Williams of Lisbon is the top ranked wrestler of this weight, but he will be part of probably the best first round match at this weight against #4 Cooper White of West Marshall. #2 Bryce Ackerman of Wapsie Valley finds himself in another great match right away Thursday morning. He will face #5 Skylar Solko of Alta. Ackerman is Williams lone loss on the year. Those 4 wrestlers are all in the same quarter. Jacob Krakow of Iowa Valley has a strong argument for the top spot he is in probably the 2nd toughest quarter of this bracket though. First round he will have #8 Reno Chiri of New London. Then the winner of that match will face the winner of #6 Tucker Franklin of Alburnett and #7 Payton Stizmann of St. Eds.
Eric- Williams over Krakow
Lars- Krakow over Ackerman
Kirk – Williams over Krakow
145
How about all of these great first round match ups, folks!!! #2 Trent Johnson of Dike vs. #3 Trey Brisker of Wilton right out of the gates. The winner of that match will likely have #4 Dylan Schuck of Sibley-Ocheyedan in the semis. The top half is pretty tough at this weight, but then again the bottom half has the 3 time defending state champ Carter Happel of Lisbon. Happel will look to become the 25th 4-time Iowa High School Wrestling State Champ and the 3rd in his schools history.
Eric- Happel over Johnson
Lars- Happel over Schuck
Kirk – Happel over Brisker
152
#2 Connor Shulista of Alburnett came in to the year as the favorite to win this weight class after his runner up finish last year. He was the top ranked guy most of the year until #1 Zach Axmear of English Valley pinned him in mid January. The match was very close at the time of the fall though. Those two are on opposite sides. #3 Karsen Seehase of SumFred will face #6 Dalton Nelson of North Butler in their first match. Which will be the best one of the first round at this weight. Don’t forget about #9 Tanner Greenwald of Wilton. He has shown he is capable of beating some top ranked guys at the state tournament.
Eric- Axmear over Shulista
Lars- Axmear over Shulista
Kirk – Axmear over Shulista
160
#1 Bryce Paul is the lone defending state champ at this weight. He will have to get through #2 Sal Arzani of I-35 in the quarters and #3 Garrett Saylor of Sibley-Ocheyedan in the semis to make it back to the finals. Most people would probably agree it will get easier from there for him in the finals since the top 4 ranked wrestlers are all on the top half of the bracket. This is where Lee Corso would give you a, “Not so fast my friend”. #5 Taylan Entriken of Hudson could turn a lot of heads if he can make it out of the bottom side of this bracket.
Eric- Entriken over Paul
Lars- Paul over Entriken
Kirk – Arzani over Peters
170
#1 Joey Schwenn of Belle Plaine had been cruising along this season beating all 1A opponents and #9 Jared Johnson of West Marshall had suffered a few tough or even head scratching losses. That all changed when they met each other at districts and sectionals with Johnson winning both of those matches. We should see 3 or 4 great quarterfinal matches at this weight. The only 2 undefeated wrestlers at this weight are in the top half #2 Logan Schumacher of Martensdale and #4 Noah Huber of Hudson. If you are having trouble finding #3 Tanner Sloans state results from last year its because you are looking too high. He was the 5th place finisher at 138lbs last year making the 32lb jump this year. It will be a lot of fun watching him meet up with some of the higher ranked guys at this weight. #7 Zach Ryg of Central Springs could make some noise in the thinner bottom side of this bracket. Ryg is only a freshman.
Eric- Schumacher over Johnson
Lars- Schumacher over Kruger
Kirk – Schumacher over Johnson
182
We werent sure if you knew this yet, but there are a lot of great first round matches in 1A. The top quarter has #3, #5, #7, #9 in it. The quarter below that has #2 and #4 along with once ranked Mason Lyon of Bellevue. The man to beat at this weight though resides on the bottom half of the bracket #1 Daniel Bishop of Hinton finish 4th place at 170 last year even though he was only a Sophomore.
Eric- Bishop over Lentz
Lars- Bishop over Lentz
Kirk – Lentz over Oveson
195
Another tough quarter at this weight. You have 4 ranked wrestlers at the very bottom of the bracket. That quarter include #1 Lander Kuboushek of South Winn. This weight has a lot of wrestlers that might have slightly underachieved last year, but have come on strong this year. #2 Slade Sifuentes was in a tough district last season and didnt make it out. #5 Jordan Challis of Tipton and Kuboushek are the lone returning placewinners from last year. There will be a lot of room for guys to make the podium for the first time at this weight.
Eric- Sifuentes over Kuboushek
Lars- Kuboushek over Sifuentes
Kirk – Kuboushek over Sifuentes
220
Another wide open weight with only 2 returning placewinners. #1 Rylan Richardson of South Central Calhoun was 4th at 195 and #7 Matt Naig of Sibley Ocheyedan was 5th at 220. Naig dropped down from 285 at the beginning of the season. Look for Naig to make some noise since he lost in overtime a few weeks ago to Richardson. There is a great chance we could see that match in the semis.
Eric- Richardson over Hansen
Lars- Richardson over Hansen
Kirk – Richardson over Hansen
285
Heavyweight might be one of the top 3 deepest weights in class 1A. I’ll repeat that again if you didnt catch it, heavyweight might be one of the top 3 deepest weights in class 1A. It is lead by undefeated Junior Jared Brinkman of IC Regina. He might be tested early too. First round he will have #10 Michael Young of AGWSR who he beat by 7 earlier in the year, but then Brinkman will most likely have #2 Luke Worden of Belmond-Klemme in the quarters. This will be a rematch from earlier when Brinkman edged out Worden in Sudden victory. #5 Kyler Schott of North Linn is another undefeated wrestlers that will likely be waiting for the winner of Brinkman/Worden in the semis. On the very top of the bracket #7 and undefeated Cole Jensen of Maple Valley will have #6 Brian Sadler of Jesup in likely the best match of the first round at 285. #4 Sawyer Hulshizer of St. Ansgar will likely meet #3 Tim Butcher (is there a better name for a 285lber?) from Manson NW Webster
Eric- Brinkman over Butcher
Lars- Brinkman over Hulshizer
Kirk – Schott over Butcher
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