Four Bolts punch tickets to state wrestling tournament

PLEASANTVILLE — Aiden McFadden became the Bolts’ first-ever state wrestling qualifier as a freshman four seasons ago.

Since then, the Baxter boys’ wrestling team has added another qualifier to the bucket each year, and the Bolts will have a program-record four grapplers in this year’s state tournament.

Callyn Bishop joins McFadden as a three-time state qualifier and the duo will be joined by two-time state qualifiers Ayden Beck and Ruger Kincaid.

Bishop and Beck both advanced to the state tournament as Class 1A District 8 champions on Saturday, while Kincaid and McFadden finished second at their weights.

Four of the Bolts’ eight wrestlers will compete in this year’s Iowa High School State Wrestling Championships and those eight grapplers finished fourth as a team with 105 points.

West Branch’s 13 wrestlers scored 206 points to win the district championship.

Host Pleasantville was second with 152 and the rest of the top five were North Mahaska (124), Baxter (105) and Iowa City Regina (82.5).

Colfax-Mingo finished sixth and the remaining field included Sigourney-Keota (62), English Valleys/Tri-County (46), Van Buren (41), Pekin (29) and Lone Tree (18).

Beck (41-3) had the most impressive day for the Bolts. The eighth-ranked wrestler at 120 pounds was 2-0 with two pins. One of those pins came in the finals against 10th-ranked Lincoln Edwards (26-5) of West Branch.

Beck was a state qualifier at 113 in 3A for Dallas Center-Grimes last season.

Bishop (39-5) won the district title at 175. He was 3-0 with two pins and a win by major decision.

Kincaid (32-15) returns the state tournament after a 2-1 day at 150. He won once by pin and once by a 15-5 major decision. Kincaid finished 1-2 at 120 at last year’s state tournament.

McFadden, who is ranked 12th at 285 and won three matches at state last season, returns to the state tournament after going 2-1 with two first-period pins on Saturday. He spent 1 minute, 3 seconds on the mat in those wins.

The loss for McFadden (40-7) was a 14-3 defeat against No. 5 Logan Wright of West Branch.

The other four Bolts in the district tournament were Alex Dille (113) Koltin Hurd (132), Jack Anderson (144) and Skyler Stoll (157). The top two finishers in each weight class in each 1A district advanced to state.

Anderson (42-8) had the next best finish after taking third following a 2-2 day. He registered a 43-second pin but lost in the finals, 6-2, to No. 10 Zane Mullenix (43-5) of Pleasantville.

Anderson was forced to wrestle back for a true second. And he lost that bout 3-1 in SV-1.

Hird was 1-2 at 132, while Dille was fourth despite going 0-2 at 113 and Stoll finished 0-2 at 157. The Bolts were open at 106, 126, 138, 165, 190 and 215.

The 1A portion of the state wrestling tournament begins at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.