Fisher second, Vermaas sixth for Woodward-Granger

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Woodward-Granger's Cody Fisher battles to turn West Liberty's Bryce Esmoil in the Class 2A State Championship at 195 pounds.

DES MOINES — Freshman Cody Fisher and senior Tanner Vermaas combined to make Woodward-Granger school history Saturday by being the first Hawk teammates to medal in the same state tournament.

Along the way, Vermaas finished his prep career by adding to his school-record career victory total, which will stand at 157. He finished sixth at 182 pounds.

If anyone takes it down, it may very well be Fisher, who had a 46-6 season end with a loss in the 195-pound state championship bout.

Fisher ran into a real buzzsaw in top-ranked junior Bryce Esmoil of West Liberty. Esmoil ended the match in 3 minutes, 45 seconds with a 15-0 technical fall to win the title. He was overheard afterwards in an interview praising Fisher for having reached the finals as a freshman.

W-G’s Cody Fisher finished second at the state tournament. Unranked, Fisher (46-6) was the only freshman out of 48 overall state qualifiers at 195 pounds and was joined by Webster City’s Caleb Olson (eighth) as the only underclassmen to medal at the weight.

“We are very young as a team,” head coach Dave Smeltzer said. “Fisher will be back and he will be a state champion, two or three times. Austin Scharlau made it here this year, and I expect to see him down here next year, and then Tanner — he had a great career, and while it didn’t go the way he wanted, he got a medal for sixth place. This was a great day for our program.”

Smeltzer praised Esmoil, calling him “extremely talented” and “deserving of winning the title” while holding nothing back in his admiration for what Fisher had accomplished.

“He came down here unranked and showed everyone he is for real,” the coach said. “To do what he did as a freshman is just short of incredible. I know Cody, and this is just going to motivate him even more, and — wow, look out for this kid’s future.”

Fisher said wrestling in the state finals was quite the experience.

“It is a big deal and I am glad I had the chance to do it,” he remarked. “I learned tonight that I have some work to do. This was a great experience. I’m proud to have made it to the finals, but I want to win it, and I’m going to be working on doing that.”

Woodward-Granger senior Tanner Vermaas ended his prep wrestling career with a school-record 157 wins and sixth place at the state tourney.

Vermaas finished his final season 48-5. He was topped in the consolation semifinals by No. 9 Boone McDermott (35-6, Jr.) of Dubuque Wahlert before dropping a 6-4 decision in the fifth-place match to 10th-ranked Nick Foss (41-10) of Harlan.

Smeltzer said the success of Fisher, Vermaas and Scharlau would carry over to the rest of the team.

“This will be a big boost to our program,” he stated. “The other guys will be fired up by this and hopefully the younger kids in our junior high and youth programs will look at these three guys and see that hard work can pay off and that you can do big things at Woodward-Granger.”

 

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