HARLAN — Perry sent three wrestlers to Saturday’s Class 2A District 3 tourney, all of them expected to secure a spot at the state tournament, either as a champion or a runner-up in their weight class.
Expectations met, with plaudits.
Junior Zachary Thompson earned his third appearance in the big stage in as many seasons by winning a hotly-contested 120 pound bracket, with sophomore Kaleb Olejniczak winning the 113 pound class to earn a second consecutive trip, while junior Zach Stewart decided he would rather not miss out on all fun and earned the third Perry spot with the championship at 132.
Ranked sixth, Thompson (48-5) had finished just that — sixth — in both of his prior trips to Wells Fargo Arena. He made short work of Red Oak’s Cam Vanderhoof (29-20) of Red Oak by scoring a pin, in 2 minutes, 53 seconds, in his semifinal.
That allowed Thompson, along with a packed gym, to watch a thrilling showdown in the other semifinal, pitting Atlantic’s Carter Cox (48-3) against Bedford/Lenox’s Jared Hensley (45-2) in a battle to No. 2 vs. No. 3 in the state. Hensley led, in extra time, 3-1, but Cox scored an escape and swift take down with four seconds left to steal the match, 4-3, in Tiebreaker 1.
Cox had pinned Thompson, in overtime, in the Council Bluffs Classic in early December, but Thompson avenged himself with a 6-5 decision in the sectional finals and said that victory had raised his confidence.
“I know I can wrestle with anybody in the state,” he said. “The confidence I got last week carried over to this week and I knew my style would beat his style every time if I wrestled smart. I knew what he was good at and how I could score and I did.”
Thompson made it two straight over No. 2 with a 6-4 win. Hensley had pinned Vanderhoof in the third-place match, and because Cox owned the prior win, the Atlantic grappler also advanced by ‘rule.’
Olejniczak (50-4) is ranked fourth, and knew he would face a ranked foe in the finals if he could dispatch Southwest Iowa’s Colton Hauschild (36-9), which he did with a pin in 1:11.
The Bluejay standout already owned wins, without a loss, over each grappler in the other semi, which ended suddenly when 10th-ranked Kole Hansen (38-8) surprised fifth-rated Jacob Goodson (42-5) of Creston/Orient-Macksburg with a pin in 2:51.
That set two foes quite familiar with each other to the finals, and a low-scoring affair resulted, with Olejniczak waiting for his moment, then scoring a quick take down in the third period for a 3-1 win. Hansen advanced by ‘rule’ after Goodson scored a 15-4 major decision over Hauschild in the consolation match.
“This was the third time I have wrestled him and I majored (major decision) him in sectionals, but I knew it would be a close match because we know each other pretty well,” Olejniczak said. “He never really got a good shot at me and I finally finished one of my own.”
Stewart (47-8) faced less drama in his bracket, in which all four grapplers were unranked, though Stewart had been rated 10th earlier.
He posted a 5-2 decision over Creston/Orient-Macksburg’s Kelby Luther (35-24), then scored an 8-4 decision against Clarinda’s Austin Gutknecht (40-4) in the finals. Gutknecht also advanced by winning a wrestle-back match with Luther.
“The first match I was pretty nervous,” Stewart admitted, “but by the second match the nerves were gone and I was ready to go.”
Gutknecht was doing a good job of keeping Stewart at bay through most of two periods, but eventually began to wear down, with Stewart scoring repeatedly.
“Of course you want to score early, but I am confident that I will still be good to go if it goes to a third period because of all the conditioning I have put in,” Stewart said. “I felt good about the match and knew I just needed to keep taking my shots.”
A total of 12 schools were represented at the tourney, with C/O-M’s 139 points easily securing the top team honors. Atlantic was a distant second at 100, with Van Meter third at 60, Harlan fourth at 56 and Perry fifth at 52.
The Class 2A first round and first round consolation matches will be held Thursday in Session 3, which begins at 6 p.m.
