PANORA — The Panorama wrestling team has had a successful season by any measure. Saturday’s Class 1A District 7 tournament in Underwood will give eight Panthers the opportunity to turn their season from ‘successful’ to ‘outstanding.’
Danny Nordquist (120 pounds), George Appleseth (132), Tyler Van Houten (152), Gunnar Grunsted (170), Dalton Holmes (195) and Dan Jensen (285) advanced to the district tourney with championships at the AC/GC Sectional, with Emry Colby (138) and Ondrej Komora (160) also qualifying by finishing as a runner-up in their weight class.
Appleseth, Van Houten, Grunsted and Jensen all wrestled at the state tourney last year, at 120, 145, 152 and 285, respectively. Van Houten was 1-2, the others 0-2; all will be seeking redemption Saturday.
The district format calls for sectional champions to wrestle sectional runner-up finishers from their paired sectional — in this case Guthrie Center and Riverside. Winners face each other in the finals, losers in the consolation bout.
The champion earns a spot in the state tourney, but so does the district runner-up. If the loser of the finals had already beaten the consolation winner, he would advance by ‘rule’ or ‘prior.’ If the finals loser/consolation winner did not meet in the semifinals, they will have a wrestle-back match, with that winner securing the second state spot at that weight.
Nordquist (35-13, Jr.) faces Underwood’s Blake Thomsen (40-10, Fr.), with AC/GC’s Zachary Fees (18-15, Jr.) to meet sixth-ranked Tatem Bluml (44-5, Sr.) of Riverside.
Tenth-ranked Appleseth (40-7, Sr.) opens against Tri-Center’s Bryson Freeberg (30-11, Fr.), with Shawn Swain (31-19, Jr.) of Griswold battling Michael Baker (25-14, So.) of Underwood.
Colby, an 8-5 freshman, has drawn Guy Sudmann (36-15, Sr.) of Underwood, while the top half of the 138-pound bracket has WCV’s Tye Joint (35-7, Jr.) facing Clarinda Academy’s Gabe Surles (26-7, Sr.).
Van Houten (47-3, Sr.) is ranked eighth at 152. He begins his quest for a state spot against Jackson Dunning (21-14, Jr.) of CB St. Albert while Cole Sackett (21-19, So.) of WCV facing Luke Stortenbecker (38-5, Sr.) of East Mills.
Komora (12-6, Jr.) will be tested by Tyler Paulson (28-6, Sr.) of Tri-Center at 160, with seventh-ranked Gabe Pauley (42-1, So.) of AHST meeting Nolan Hansen (22-14, Jr.) of East Mills.
Grunsted (39-9, Jr.) starts his journey against Blade Chenet (13-13, Fr.) of Clarinda Academy, with the bottom half pairing Cole Bruns (32-16, Sr.) of Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton against Otis Matejka (31-15, Sr.) of Riverside.
Panther junior Holmes (41-8) opens against Treynor junior Jayden Thiel (16-13), with WCV senior Carsen Scheller (28-16) to meet CB St. Albert senior Elijah Finn (30-8) in the other side of the bracket.
Heavyweight Dan Jensen (24-17, Jr.) faces Kendrick Umphreys (13-19, Sr.) of Treynor while Alex Wells (21-23, Jr. ) of WCV will meet eighth-rated Coy Maher (46-5, Sr.) of Riverside.
The Class 1A State Tournament begins Feb. 16 at 1:30 p.m. (Session 2) at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
