March 28, 2024

Going to The Well: six area prep wrestlers punch tickets to state meet

Two Newton High Cardinal wrestlers and four Prairie City-Monroe wrestlers earned a trip to The Well. The six area high school wrestlers placed in the top two of their respective weight division at their respective district wrestling tournaments Saturday.

The six punched their tickets to the 2016 Iowa High School Activities Association State Wrestling Championships Thursday through Saturday at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

Newton seniors Duncan Lee and Hunter Versteegh are going to cap their Cardinal wrestling careers at a second Class 3A state tournament for each of them. Lee, who qualified as a junior at 195 pounds, captured the Class 3A District 5 championship at 182 pounds. Versteegh reached the district 113-pound title match, lost it, but claimed second by rule with no wrestle-back match.

Lee (44-5) pinned ninth-ranked Kameron Padavich of Southeast Polk in the semifinals. Lee notched his 3A district championship with a 5-3 win over 10th-ranked Hunter England of Norwalk. Lee had been ranked No. 8 in 3A 182 until last week.

Versteegh (35-9) was ranked No. 6 in 3A 113 going into the district tournament. He posted a 5-0 decision over Valley’s Spencer Hutchinson in the semifinals to reach the district title match. Versteegh lost 4-1 to Southeast Polk’s Gauge Perrien, who is ranked No. 3. Hutchinson won the third-place match so by rule, Versteegh is awarded second place.

Versteegh recorded his 100th career match win at the district tournament Saturday. He went to state as a sophomore.

Newton had five other wrestlers place in the top six of their weight classes — Caleb Kite third at 220, Brady Smith fourth at 170, Cole Peters sixth at 132, Parker Schuster sixth at 138 and Blake Cockerton sixth at 106.

The top two wrestlers in each weight advance to the state meet.

At Knoxville in the Class 2A District 6 tournament, PCM’s Lucas Roland (40-2) and Jarron Trausch (38-5) captured district titles at 138 and 170, respectively, earning 2A state meet berths. Xavier Miller (41-6) and Wes Cummings (35-3) reached the championship matches for 145 and 152, respectively, They both lost then won their wrestle-back matches to claim second and earn state meet berths.

Collins-Maxwell/Baxter’s lone competitor at the 2A District 6 tournament was Charles Robertson. He won the third-place match but by rule lost the wrestle-back match.

At Pleasantville in the Class 1A District 5 meet, Colfax-Mingo’s Ben Mead was third at 220, not receiving a wrestle-back, and Lynnville-Sully’s Carson Dunsbergen placed fourth at 132.

Read Monday’s Newton Daily News for stories on the area wrestlers at districts.