WOODWARD — Four Woodward-Granger wrestlers will have their fates in their own hands Saturday, as two wins at the Class 2A District 8 tournament in Webster City will qualify a grappler for the state tournament.
Senior Tanner Vermaas is ranked second at 182 pounds and will be seeking a return trip to the mats at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. Vermaas was 0-2 at 182 in the 2016 state tourney.
Hawk junior Austin Scharlau (152 pounds), sophomore Gabe Yingst (145) and freshman Cody Fisher (195) will all be seeking an inaugural appearance on the big stage.
Vermaas and Fisher each advanced after winning championships in the Humboldt sectional, with Sharlau and Yingst grabbing spots as a sectional runner-up.
The district format calls for sectional champions to wrestle sectional runner-up finishers from their paired sectional — in this case Humboldt and Algona. Winners face each other in the finals, losers in the consolation bout.
The champion earns a spot in the state tourney, but so does the district runner-up. If the loser of the finals had already beaten the consolation winner, he would advance by ‘rule’ or ‘prior.’ If the finals loser/consolation winner did not meet in the semifinals, they will have a wrestle-back match, with that winner securing the second state spot at that weight.
Vermaas (43-2), who has 152 career victories, will begin his quest to return to state by facing Pocahontas Area junior Philip Minkler (20-7), with Mason Carpenter (32-9, Jr.) of Clarion-Goldfield-Dows facing Isaiah Yoder (36-8, Sr.) of Greene County in the top half of the 182 bracket.
Fisher (41-5) will square off with Dalton Mennenga (16-23, Jr.) of Clear Lake, with the winner to battle either Caleb Olson (21-3, So.) of Webster City or Ben Powers (17-13, Sr.) of C-G-D.
Scharlau (39-15) opens against C-G-D’s Dakota Hennigar (25-15, Sr.), with the other semifinal pitting Jaden Kampen (35-7, Sr.) of Humboldt against Tyler Reis (31-14, So.) of Pocahontas Area.
Top-ranked Ryan Leisure (33-0, Sr.) of Clear Lake awaits Yingst (27-25), with Elijah Torres (31-8, Jr.) of Humboldt squaring off with Clayton Reis (34-11, Sr.) on the other side of the bracket.
The Class 2A State Tournament begins at 6 p.m. Feb. 16.
