Newton’s Weter secures place in 3A state wrestling tournament

NORWALK — There was a chance Wyatt Weter could have advanced to the state wrestling tournament without defeating one of the two ranked wrestlers in his bracket.

But Weter decided to make a statement.

The Cardinal junior clinched his spot inside Wells Fargo Arena next week with a narrow win over Class 3A No. 11 Isaiah Kellow of Indianola.

Weter lost in the finals to another state-ranked grappler, but his 2-1 day was enough to advance.

“Wyatt has put in a tremendous amount of time this offseason in preparation for this year,” Newton head wrestling coach RJ Brown said. “There was nobody at more of our open mats and he was a beast in the weight room.”

Weter was the lone Newton wrestler to clinch a state tournament berth. The Cardinals finished seventh in the eight-team field at the 3A District 8 tournament on Saturday. Newton scored 33 points after registering five total wins.

“Our guys wrestled their tails off,” Brown said. “We were in one of the toughest districts in the state, but our guys were not afraid. We are a young team which will continue to improve our skill, but our focus was locked in.”

Weter (21-13) finished 2-1 for the day. Besides his 10-7 win over Kellow, he also had a 6-2 victory and lost by fall in the championship match.

The next best finish came from Thomas Stadelmann at 220 pounds. Stadelmann lost his first match 5-2. His win by fall earned him a spot in the third-place match, but he fell short of state following an 11-9 loss.

Stadelmann was wrestling at 220 for the first time this season.

Class 3A No. 1 Southeast Polk won the district championship with 249 points. The Rams came into the weekend with 10 ranked wrestlers and qualified for state in 13 of the 14 weights.

Indianola (196.5), Norwalk (179), Urbandale (116) and Boone (62) completed the top five and Des Moines East (45), Newton (33) and Des Moines North-Hoover (1) rounded out the field.

Indianola has five ranked wrestlers, Norwalk’s lineup features four and Boone sports a pair of ranked grapplers.

Class 3A District 8 had four ranked wrestlers at 138 pounds, three at 106 and two each at 120, 182 and 285.

Southeast Polk, Indianola and Norwalk all featured a full lineup, while Urbandale and Newton filled12 of the 14 weight classes.

“We competed well, but we just came up a bit short with our results,” Brown said. “All we ever ask of those guys is to give us their best effort and they did that today.”

Kaiden Rogers (113) and Lane Rozendaal (152) each went 1-2 at their weight classes. Rogers’ win came by fall and Rozendaal won 13-1.

Lucas Cockerton (106), Sebastian Sorenson (120), Seth Adams (126), Aiden Robson (132), Jesus Murillo (138), Avery White (145), Nathan Milburn (170) and Arion Seiser (195) all finished 0-2. The Cardinals were open at 160 and 285.

Both of Adams’ losses were by decision and White’s second loss came in overtime. He lost 12-8 in SV-1.

Weter (21-13) earned the 17th seed for his first state tournament appearance. He faces 16th-seeded Kaden Phan (32-12) of Clear Creek-Amana in the opening round.

The winner of that match advances to face top-seeded and top-ranked Gabe Arnold (37-0) of Iowa City High in the next round.

The Class 3A portion of the Iowa High School State Wrestling Championships begins at 6 p.m. on Wednesday inside Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

“The beginning of the year started out rough for him, but he worked his tail off to get better,” Brown said. “I’m really proud of the work he put in and the effort and focus he had to get to this point.”