HUMBOLDT — The first of two trips north is out of the way, and for four Woodward-Granger matmen, the opportunity of having their second trip north turn into a happy drive southeast is very much alive.
Class 2A second-ranked Tanner Vermaas punched his ticket to the district tourney in Webster City by winning the 182-pound weight class at Saturday’s Sectional meet, with fellow Hawk Cody Fisher also advancing by winning the title at 195 pounds.
They will be joined by Austin Scharlau (152 pounds) and Gabriel Yingst (145), who both finished second in their division and also earned the right to move on.
A first or second place finish Feb. 11 will send any wrestler accomplishing the feat to the state tourney in Des Moines, which begins Feb. 16.
The foursome were nearly joined by a veritable flight of Hawks, as six W-G grapplers just missed moving on by placing third. Two others were fourth and two fifth as the team finished third with 204.5 points, just missing a spot in the Dual Team regionals Tuesday.
Webster City scored 242 points to win the team title, with Humboldt second at 222.5 Southeast Valley followed W-G with 142 points for fourth, with Greene County (130) fifth and Roland-Story (70) sixth.
“All 14 of our kids wrestled really well today and came up just short,” W-G head coach Dave Smeltzer said of the team effort. “We were in the running for second most of the day as it went back-and-forth. We had six boys place third, some of them losing pretty close wrestle-back matches.”
Vermaas (43-2) pinned Humboldt’s Logan Moser in 1 minute, 11 seconds before securing his crown with a 10-5 decision against Greene County’s Isaiah Yoder.
Fisher (41-5) pinned Brandon Johnson (HMB) in 2:25, then claimed first place with an 8-3 decision over Caleb Olson (WC).
Scharlau (39-15) opened with a pin of Liam Scheuermann (R-S) in 1:44 before suffering a 4-3 loss in the title match to Jaden Kampen (HMB). He drew a wrestle-back against Harrison Hayes (WC), advancing to district with a win by pinfall in 1:54.
Yingst (27-25) stuck Cade Felts (WC) in 44 ticks before dropping an 11-1 major decision to Elijah Torres (HMB) in the title bout. However, he won automatically by “rule” when Felts won his consolation match, and because Yingst had already defeated Felts, he advanced as runner-up on a “prior.”
The reverse played out to stop both Hunter Pierce (32-20) at 106 and Cale Pritchett (23-24) at 160, as each won their third-place match, but were not given a shot at second as each would have had to face an opponent to whom they had earlier lost.
Dilynn Lewiston (9-18 at 113), Tate Lettow (21-24 at 120) Cole Carman (23-24 at 138) and Aaron Sperling (22-12 at 170) all earned a second-place match, but, unfortunately, were turned aside, ending their seasons.
Tyler Lawernson (20-29) and Alex Kirton (20-21) each finished fourth, at 220 and 285, respectively, with Devonante Calderon (5-8) and Jayden Dorenkamp (13-30) both finishing fifth, the former at 126 and the latter at 132.
“Our four guys heading to districts can get it done,” Smeltzer said, “but we need to push it this week and take it one match at a time.”
