WEBSTER CITY — Woodward-Granger senior Tanner Vermaas (182 pounds), junior Austin Scharlau (152) and freshman Cody Fisher (195) will compete in front of thousands Thursday in the first day of the Class 2A State Wrestling Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
Second-ranked Vermaas (45-2) and Fisher (43-5) both won their respective weight classes at Saturday’s 2A District 8 tourney, with Scharlau (40-16) advancing as a runner-up.
Hawk sophomore Gabriel Yingst (27-27 at 145) was also in action, but suffered a technical fall (16-0) in 4 minutes, 12 seconds to top-ranked Ryan Leisure (33-0) of Clear Lake in the semifinals before being handed an 8-3 loss by decision to Elijah Torres of Humboldt to finish fourth.
Vermaas earned a second consecutive trip to the big stage with his title, which came on career victory 154. He opened with pin of Philip Minkler of Pocahontas in 65 seconds, then posted a 7-0 decision over Clarion-Goldfield-Dows’ Mason Carpenter to advance.
Fisher pinned his way to a spot at state, a rarity for a freshman at his weight. Of the 16 grapplers in his state bracket, nine are seniors, five are junior and one is a sophomore.
He opened his trek to Des Moines with a pin of Clear Lakes’ Dalton Mennenga in 3:36, then stuck Webster City’s Caleb Olson in 1:39.
Scharlau started with a 6-4 decision over C-G-D’s Dakota Hennigar. He dropped a 5-2 decision in the finals to Humboldt’s Jaden Kampen, but when Hennigar scored a 6-0 win against Tyler Reis of Pocahontas (who Kampen defeated) Scharlau automatically advanced by ‘rule’ as he had previously defeated Hennigar.
A total of 12 teams were represented at Saturday’s tourney. C-G-D scored 99.5 points to edge Webster City (96) for top honors, with Humboldt (69) third, Pocahontas fourth (52)and W-G fifth (50).
The Class 2A first round and first round consolation matches will be held Thursday in Session 3, which begins at 6 p.m.
