PANORA — The Panorama wrestling team had two champions and one runner-up at the Feb. 6 Class 2A Sectional 6 tourney in Winterset, with the trio advancing to Saturday’s District 3 tourney in Creston.
Each weight bracket champion will face off in a four-man district bracket against the runner-up from the Sectional 5 meet in Glenwood, with the Winterset second-place finisher opening against the Knoxville tourney champ.
Winners reach the finals, with the loser of the finals still temporarily still alive. The semifinal losers also meet, with that winner moving into the wrestle-back against the loser of the finals. If the finals loser had previously defeated the consolation semi winner, the former will advance on a ‘prior.’ If the two wrestle-back grapplers have yet to meet, they will battle it out, the winner moving on to Des Moines.
Senior Wyatt Appleseth (41-0) is in search of a fourth consecutive appearance on the big stage. He is 161-18 in his career, having placed eighth at 132 as a freshman, missing the podium at 145 as a sophomore and then standing third at 152 as a junior.
Ranked second, he opens against Zander Hayes (29-10) of Glenwood, with Zander Reed (40-8) of Central Decatur to meet Briley Hayes (34-11) of Creston in the other semifinal at 160 pounds.
Panther junior Cooper Anderson (35-2) is ranked eighth at 220 pounds. He will square off against SW Iowa-Sidney’s Samuel Daly (23-19), with the other semifinal pitting third-ranked Crew Howard (42-1) of Clarinda against Jake Smith (25-3) of Clarke.
Winterst sectional runner-up Cayden Van Meer of Panorama, a freshman who is 18-20, will begin his district test against Clarinda’s Kale Downey (38-7). The opposite side of the bracket has Jensen Kaldenberg (18-10) of Winterset against Garon Wurster (19-6) of Creston.
Action will begin at 12 p.m.
