The USA Wrestling/Cliff Keen Cadet and Junior folkstyle national titles took place this past weekend in Cedar Falls at the UNI-dome. The state of Iowa finished the weekend with 31 medalist at the tournament, with 16 of those coming from the Cadet division, and 15 from the Juniors. Perhaps even more impressive this weekend was the fact that of those 31 medalist, 12 of those wrestlers competed in their weight’s finals bout, though only Cullan Schriever of Sebolt Wrestling Academy and Carter Isley of Youngbucks Wrestling Club managed to come home with the coveted stop sign shaped national title trophy.
Coming into this season, Schreiver has already been discussed at length, and one of the biggest reasons is the fact that he was one of the few wrestlers in the entire country that managed to win a national title in every style for his grade level. Dubbed the “triple crown” of wrestling, Schriever won the Schoolboy folkstyle, freestyle and Greco-Roman titles in 2015.
His 2016 season is off to a similar start, after he won the lightest weight-class in the Cadet division, 88-pounds, with a 3-2 decision over Emilio Haynes. Schriever is now one third of his way into the journey of trying to win a triple crown in the Cadet age level.
Oddly enough, not only did Iowa get a champion at the lightest weight, but its only other champion came at that largest, book-ending the finals for Iowa. Albia standout Carter Isley downed fellow Iowan Aaron Costello, 3-1 in the finals of the Junior 285 weight-class.
Iowa received many other stand out performances on the weekend, with additional Cadet finalists coming from Evan Yant (94), Clear Lake’s 2016 state runner-up Eric Faught (100), Drake Doolittle (120), Harlan Steffensmeier (132), and Spencer Trenary (285).
In addition to Isley and Costello making the finals in the Juniors, Iowa also got finalists from Waukee state champ Kyle Biscoglia (113), Brenden Baker (120), Council Bluffs-Thomas Jefferson state champion Colton Clingenpeel (170), Dubuque-Epworth state champion and Max Lyon (182).
All four wrestlers that finished runner-up fell to national ranked opponents, with #4 Danny Vega taking out Biscoglia, #3 Roman Bravo-Young besting Baker, #6 Drew Hughes defeating Clingenpeel, and #14 Kyle Betourne winning over Lyon.
Clingenpeel’s weekend was rather unexpected after the future North Dakota State couldn’t make 160-pounds, he elected to go up to the 170-pound weight. The biggest win for Clingenpeel was his 6-3 decision over Ames two-time state champion Marcus Coleman, who was the Cadet champion at 160-pounds last year.
For Lyon it’s the second straight year that he finishes runner-up at the 182-pound weight. Lyon actually carried a 3-0 lead heading into the final period, before Betourne was able to put Lyon on his back in a go-ahead move.
Iowa Cadets
Name, Club – 2016 Place
88 Cullan Schriever, Sebolt Wrestling Academy – 1st
94 Evan Yant, Waverly Area WC – 2nd
94 Daniel Kimball, Elite Takedown Club – 6th
100 Eric Faught, Sebolt Wrestling Academy – 2nd
113 Jeremy Ayala, Sebolt Wrestling Academy – 5th
113 Gable Fox, Elite Takedown Club – 7th
120 Drake Doolittle, Sebolt Wrestling Academy – 2nd
120 Gabriel Ruepke, Sebolt Wrestling Academy – 4th
132 Harlan Steffensmeier, Eastern Iowa WC – 2nd
160 Jacob Wempen, Eastern Iowa WC – 7th
170 Cameron Rasing, Elite Takedown Club – 8th
195 Mitchell Stahlberg, Elite Takedown Club – 6th
195 Areon Day, Elite Takedown Club – 7th
285 Spencer Trenary, Team Valley – 2nd
285 Korby Keehner, MFL MARMAC – 7th
285 Liam Stone, Knights WC – 8th
Iowa Juniors
Name, Club – 2016 Place
106 Dillon Gottschalk, Young Guns – 6th
113 Kyle Biscoglia, Waukee – 2nd
120 Brenden Baker, Elite Takedown Club – 2nd
132 Keaton Geerts, Elite Takedown Club – 8th
138 Zachary Barnes, Southeast Polk – 6th
145 Jackson Gallagher, Agoge – 3rd
145 Austin Yant, Waverly Area WC – 8th
170 Colton Clingenpeel, SWIFT 2nd
170 Marcus Coleman, Ames – 4th
182 Max Lyon, DC Elite – 2nd
182 Zac Stork, Atlantic – 7th
195 Donovan Doyle, Eastern Iowa WC – 8th
220 Slade Sifuentes, Team Valley – 3rd
285 Carter Isley, Youngbucks – 1st
285 Aaron Costello, Basement Boys WC – 2nd