GUTHRIE CENTER — The Panorama wrestling team had nine athletes compete Saturday at their Class 1A Section 3 tourney at AC/GC. When all the sweating was done, seven Panthers had earned the right to advance to the district tourney Feb. 9 in Truro.
AHSTW won the team competition with 217.5 points, with AC/GC second at 177 and Panorama third at 158. Nodaway Valley (155) was fourth, West Central Valley (147) fifth and Ogden (104) sixth.
Three Panthers won their weight class, with Logan Christe (113 pounds), Wyatt Appleseth (145) and Hunter Holmes (285) all finishing atop the podium. Four others — Noah Kirtley (152), Emry Colby (160), Garret Fox (170) and Cooper Anderson (182) — all advanced after finishing second in their respective brackets.
Ryan Fees (17-13 at 132) and Jacob Holwegner (7-15 at 138) were also in action. Fees lost his only match, with Holwegner suffering a loss while posting a win by fall. Neither were able to advance.
Panorama did not contest the 106, 120, 126, 195 and 220-pound divisions.
Appleseth (36-3), ranked eighth in 1A, moved on with a pair of pins. He stuck AHSTW’s Jaeden Rasmussen (16-10) in 1 minute, 45 seconds, then dispatched AC/GC’s Gabe Rowley (38-11) in 59 seconds.
Christe (23-18) pinned Ogden’s Owen Van Cannon in 4:83, then secured his title with a 2-0 decision over Nodaway Valley’s Ben Breheny (24-18).
Holmes (25-18) punched his ticket with falls in 1:24 and in 58 ticks. WCV’s Rush Rowen (15-21) was his first victim, with AC/GC’s Gage Butler (23-23) his opponent in the finals.
All four of the Panther runner-up finishers advanced by “rule” after avoiding a wrestle-back. Each of the four (save Kirtley) recorded pins in their first match, dropped their title duel, but then moved on as the opponent they had previously defeated won in the consolation round, preventing the requirement of a wrestle-back.
Kirtley (30-14) had to score two consecutive wins to set up his advancing by rule. He stuck Ryan Wilson (4-14) of Nodaway Valley in 52 seconds and then pinned Jacob Kathmann of Ogden in 3:28. He dropped a 7-0 decision in the finals, but his prior win over Kathmann secured his trip to districts.
Colby (25-12) had pinned Tyler Brehney (16-18) of NV in one minute, Fox (30-13) had stuck Gabe Madsen (15-8) of AHSTW in 4:35 and Anderson had needed just 1:33 to nail Xander Soder (12-21) of Ogden before losing by fall to top-ranked Gabe Pauley (31-2) of AHSTW in the 182-pound finals.
Sectional champions will face the runner-up finisher from the Southeast Warren sectional at Interstate-35, with the AC/GC sectional runner-ups drawing the SE Warren titleists. Teams competing at SE Warren included I-35, Moravia, Wayne, Mt. Ayr, East Union, Central Decatur and Bedford-Lenox.
District winners and runner-up placers both advance to the state tournament.
