Tish, Lee win LHC wrestling championships

Bryce Tish got redemption. Duncan Lee took care of business. The two Newton High junior wrestlers accomplished the same feat in different manners Saturday in Newton High’s gymnasium.

Tish (26-12) and Lee (29-9) became first-time Little Hawkeye Conference champions.

Tish, who placed third a year ago, captured the 145-pound conference title with a 4-1 decision over Grinnell’s Jake Simon. Tish had pinned Brady Beerbower of Oskaloosa in 54 seconds in a quarterfinal match, then defeated Norwalk’s Ryley Smith 7-2 in the semifinals.

“He (Simon) beat meet a few weeks ago, so it was a little redemption out there for me,” Tish said. “It feels great and to get win the championship at home was great. I really didn’t know the score or the situation in the final. I just went out and did what I do.”

Lee was seeded No. 1 heading into the tournament in a 195-pound bracket with three wrestlers. He received two byes to reach the championship match, waiting the full day before wrestling. Seely defeated Andrew Seim of Dallas Center-Grimes, 12-5, in a semifinal match.

“It’s never hard to get ready for a championship match, but it was tough warming up at 9 a.m. then waiting five hours to wrestle,” Lee said following winning the 195-pound title match. “I just got ready to go out and do my stuff.”

Lee said after getting the first takedown of the match against Seely, he focused on getting his offense going on the mat. Lee led 4-2 after the first period and built up a 9-2 lead going into the third period. Less than 30 seconds into the final period, Lee caught Seely in a cradle hold and pinned him.

“It’s great to win a conference championship here at home in front of our crowd,” Lee said. “I didn’t win a varsity match last year, so to see all the hard work in over the summer pay off is great. I came into this season knowing I was going to win. I went out today to get ready for districts because Norwalk is in our district.”

The Cardinals finished sixth in the conference tournament with 134 points. Grinnell won the LHC tournament championship with 205 points, edging out Norwalk with 202 points. DCG was third at 191.5 followed by Oskaloosa at 156.5 and Pella at 140.5.

“It was a fun day and a very good day for our team. We wrestled to seed or better in all our weight classes,” said Andy Swedenhjelm, Newton head coach. “This was a great environment all day with good wrestling. This conference has a lot of good teams in it.”

Newton had one other wrestler reach a championship match. Junior Hunter Versteegh, the defending LHC champion at 113-pounds, was unseated by Zane Mulder of Dallas Center-Grimes. The title bout was a rematch of Thursday’s dual match between Newton and DCG.

Mulder went on the offensive with a takedown and finally turned Versteegh for a pin in the second period. Versteegh (34-5) did not have to face a wrestle-back for a true second place since he had already defeated Cody Lehman with a pin in 5 minutes, 40 seconds of a semifinal match.

Five Newton wrestlers earned medals and All-Little Hawkeye Conference honors Saturday. The top three wrestlers in each weight class receive medals and honors.

Freshmen Reece Thurmond at 138 pounds and Tristin Langmaid at 160 pounds finished third in their respectively weight divisions. They join Versteegh, Lee and Tish as All-LHC wrestlers.

“Hunter had a tough kid. but Hunter knows if he wants to get where he wants to be, he’s got to overcome those things. He has to go out and wrestle his match and not allow other people get in his head,” Swedenhjelm said.

“Going from a fourth seed to winning it today for Bryce is pretty impressive. It speaks volumes of his mental toughness and focus. Duncan was just taking care of business. He wrestled at 160 a year ago, which was his first year in wrestling, and didn’t win a varsity match. He worked as hard as anyone in the weight room and put on 30 pounds of muscle. Duncan’s work ethic is second to none and it is showing right now.”

Thurmond lost a quarterfinal match by a 15-4 major decision to Norwalk’s Jack Livingston to open the day at 138 pounds. After a bye, Thurmond chalked up his own major decision win, 19-9, over Zac Randau of Oskaloosa. In the third-place match, Thurmond defeated Jacob Murillo of DCG, 11-5.

Langmaid won his 160-pound quarterfinal match with a pin of Sean Kelly of DCG in 1:20, then was pinned by Norwalk’s Zach Cook right at the end of the first period of a semifinal match. Langmaid moved to the third place match via a bye and met Kelly again, winning on a 13-4 major decision.

Neither Thurmond (11-14) or Langmaid (19-14) had a wrestle-back opportunity for a true second place finish in their weight classes by rule. They had already lost to the second-place finisher.

Sophomore Aren Sorenson lost his third-place match at 106 as he was pinned by Alannah Vetterick of Norwalk in 2:25. Sorenson (11-11) had a bye, was pinned by Max Tracy of DCG in 2:40, then won by a 12-2 major decision over Talon Munger of Oskaloosa to reach the third-place match.

Brady Smith, a sophomore, lost a major decision, 12-2, to Nick Brushaber of DCG in the 152-pound third-place match. Smith (23-20) was pinned by Garret Jay of Grinnell in 1:43 in a semifinal match then defeated Austin Bragg of Pella, 13-8, in a consolation semifinal match.

Placing fifth for Newton were juniors Jacob Smith (12-17) at 182 pounds and Jordan Henning (12-14) at 220 pounds. Taking sixth for the the Cardinals were sophomore Jonathon Lawton (14-16) at 120 pounds and junior Harley Walker (10-26) at 170 pounds.

Jacob Smith was pinned by Kyler Salazar of Oskaloosa in 4:45 of a quarterfinal match at 182, had a bye, was pinned by Isaiah McAlexander of Grinnell in 1:24 and took fifth with a bye.

Henning was pinned by Oskaloosa’s Callan Tomlin in 5:34 of a 220 quarterfinal match, had a bye and was pinned by Norwalk’s Trystan Minnis in 35 seconds in a consolation semifinal. Henning claimed fifth with a pin of Carter Terpstra of Pella in 1:58.

Lawton lost by a pin to Bryce Murano of DCG in 3:38 in a 120-pound quarterfinal. After a bye, Lawton lost a 15-0 technical fall to Tyler Hirl of Norwalk in consolation action and was pinned by Ethan Speltz of Pella in 1:11 in the fifth-place match.

At 170, Walker was pinned in 1:28 by Blake Hoover of Norwalk in the quarterfinal round. Walker was pinned by Ashton Messer of Pella in a consolation semifinal, then lost 7-3 to Alex Winter of DCG in the fifth-place match.

“We’ve started to turn it on and things are starting to click,” Tish said of his teammates. “We’re all on the same page heading into districts.”

Newton is joined by Norwalk, Pella, Southeast Polk, Marshalltown, Des Moines Lincoln, Ankeny and host Ankeny Centennial in a Class 3A district tournament Feb. 14. The top two wrestlers from each weight class advance to the Iowa state wrestling tournament, Feb. 19-21, at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535
or jsheets@newtondailynews.com