It was a huge day in high school wrestling across Iowa Saturday as State qualifying District tournaments were held. The Mahaska Zone Network listening area will be very well represented on the mats next week at the State Wrestling Tournament and you’ll hear all the action live on 99.5 FM /740 AM KMZN, and you can also listen live at radiokmzn.com or on the KMZN mobile app.

As heard live on KMZN Saturday in Class 3A, Oskaloosa qualified three wrestlers for State, but the big story from Burlington was Ottumwa who won the tournament and leads the area with seven state qualifiers. Oskaloosa crowned two District champions including Josh Diehl who will make his first trip to state at 113 and Callan Tomlin at 220 for the second consecutive year, while Drew Sams will make his third trip to State after finishing runner up at 132. Jason Beebe just missed out finishing third at 170.

Ottumwa was in a battle all day with Iowa City, City High for the championship and edged them in the end by 2 ½ points. The Bulldogs lone champion was Isaiah Cox at 182,  however six  Bulldogs finished runner up to advance to state including  Alec Clark at 120,  Johnathan Morales at 126, Collin McConnell at 138, Justus Skinner at 145, Wyatt Schlotter at 152, and Tyler Bookin-Nosbisch at heavyweight. Also in Class 3A, Pella’s Keegan Poole qualified for state finishing runner up at Heavyweight in Johnston. As a note of interest, in probably the toughest District meet in the state featuring two of the top three rated teams in 3A and numerous ranked wrestlers, Southeast Polk edged WDM Valley by 2 ½ points for the team title and both teams qualified nine wrestlers for state, while Little Hawkeye Conference teams Dallas Center Grimes qualified four, Newton advanced two and Norwalk was unable to get any state qualifiers.

In Class 2A in Knoxville, Albia, PCM and Knoxville finished 3-4-5 in the team points and to no surprise Albia qualified their big four as each won championships including Aden Reeves at 106, Bryce Leshen at 145, Blake Lawless at 152, who avenged a loss to PCM’s Wes Cummings in last week’s Sectional beating him 8-6 in the finals, and Carter Isley at heavyweight. PCM will also send four wrestlers to State including two champions, Lucas Roland at 138 and Jarron Trausch at 170 as well as  runners up Xavier Miller at 145 and Cummings at 152.

Davis County and Knoxville each qualified two wrestlers. For Davis County, Walker Henderson at 132 and Dylan Henderson at 170 were both runners up. For Knoxville, Jordan Beal was champion at 195 while Travis Poffenbarger was runner up at 220. In another Class 2A District at Clear Creek Amana, Mid-Prairie  advanced two wrestlers, both champions, Duncan McCain at 113 and Levi Duwa at 220 while Washington qualified four including champion Trey Van Weelden at 152 and runners up Andrew Waite at 126, Austin Hazelett at 138 and Tristin Westphal-Edwards at 160. Also in Class 2A, Grinnell was only able to qualify two of their seven who advanced to Districts as Tanner Hoffstetter was champion at heavyweight and Joe Simon finished second at 106.

In Class 1A action at Pleasantville, Sigourney-Keota was part of a very close three team race for the title, however West Marshall won with 85 points, Iowa Valley had 81 and S-K finished with 80. Sigourney-Keota did qualify four wrestlers for State including Lane Boender who was champion at 145 and runners up Luke House at 113, Kaleb Reeves at 182 and Noah Boender at 195. Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont qualified two wrestlers as Adam Proctor was champ at 113 and Alex Hanna finished runner up at 132.

In big news for North Mahaska wrestling, the Warhawks will send two wrestlers to state including Jarrett Stodghill who was champion at 126 and Tyler Strasser who finished runner up at 120. Tri County/Montezuma and English Valleys each qualified two as well including Zach Axmear who was champion at 152 and Cooper Andreassen runner up at 106 for EV, while TCM’s Travis Lewis at 126 and Hunter Foubert at 220 each finished second. Also in Class 1A at Truro, Moravia qualified three wrestlers, all champions, including Nicholas Martin at 126, Briar Cochran at 132 and Quinton Castell at 220.

Congratulations to all these Mahaska Zone Network area State Wrestling qualifiers and good luck at State next week. The State Wrestling Tournament begins Thursday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. Class 1A gets underway at 9am with first round and first round consolations, followed by Class 3A at 1:30pm, then Class 2A at 6pm. You can hear live coverage all day of each session with Jamie Brockman and Brett Sams on 99.5 FM/740 AM KMZN, and you can also listen live online at radiokmzn.com or listen using the KMZN mobile app. Our coverage begins at 8:45am Thursday from Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

Story provided by Jamie Brockman