Southeast Valley High School

Wrestling

3 Jag Wrestlers Punch Their Tickets to State

Three Jags wrestlers punched their tickets to the prestigious Iowa High School State Wrestling Tournament held at Wells Fargo Arena on February 17th-19th. 120 lbs Caelan Oakes-Sudish and 285 lbs Aaron Graves both advanced to their second State Tournament and 160 lbs Harley Bryson punched his ticket as a Sectional runner up advancing to his first State Wrestling Tournament. # 7 ranked Oakes-Sudish put together a dominant performance winning his first District crown by pinning Clayton Meyers of Saydel in the first period, then wrestled a dominant match against DJ Muir of Humboldt winning 11-1. Graves survived a scare in his first match against Cole Sanger of North Polk as Sanger hit a side roll and caught Graves on his back, but Graves fought off his back and put the clamps on his opponent pinning him in the first period. In the finals, Graves wrestled a complete match, beating #7 Dugan Tolley of Winterset 10-4 for this Second District Championship. Bryson proved anything is possible in the sport of wrestling after dropping his opening match to #8 Logan Fairchild of Winterset 10-0 but bounced back in his third place match by defeating Dustin Harney of Woodward-Granger 7-4, earning a wrestleback against #11 ranked Heston Johnson, where Bryson caught Johnson in a scramble pinning Johnson in the first period earning his first trip to the State Tournament. 

   170 pounder Zack Miller road took a different path as he wrestled a smart match upsetting #9 ranked Cale Engebretson of North Polk 6-3 in the first round but lost a close bout 3-1 in the finals to Brady Barringer of Winterset after getting taken down in the last 15 seconds of the match. Roland Story's #12 ranked Eli Thorson earned a wrestleback against Miller and took advantage of his situation as Miller couldn't rebound, losing to Thorson finishing in third place. 195 pounder Rylie Ferrari lost his first round match to Carter Smuck of Winterset 11-2, rebounded with a big pin in his third place match against his ADM opponent setting up his wrestleback opportunity against Henry Christensen of Ballard. Rylie wrested hard but couldn't quite finish a couple of shots losing 5-2 finishing in third place. 126 pounder Kaden Holder dropped his first round match to Abe Bushong of Winterset by fall but like Harley and Rylie rebounded to score a fall against his Woodward Granger opponent earning a wrestle back opportunity against Jayden Gargano of Humboldt, but lost the match by fall finishing in third place. 

   "Lost in the excitement of qualifying three wrestlers and heartbreak of a few others not qualifying, the Jags quitely finished as runner ups for the District title behind Winterset. The Jags ecliped many strong programs in the team race giving a glimpse on how hard the guys battled today. I don't remember a District tournament where all participants won a match and finished third or higher. This is a special group of guys who gave it their all on the mat win or lose."

   Class 2-A first round wrestling begins Thursday morning at 9:00 AM. Oakes-Sudish opens with Brodie Conner(37-5) of Albia, Bryson opens with Nicholas Fox(47-3) of Osage, and Graves wrestles Quinten Fuller(19-14) of Clarinda. Good Luck to all Jag Wrestlers!