Sailors Finish 2nd in District 2, Advance 4 to State

The road to State is a long and winding one, but for the Sailor wrestlers, all roads would lead through Denver. The Sailors would meet up with 9 area schools and battle it out for 28 available spots in the state tournament. District week has a little different feel this year as this is the first year since the elimination of sectionals. Where in years past, districts would be comprised of four man brackets, this year everyone qualifies for districts with a maximum of ten man brackets. The Sailors brought a strong lineup to the tournament, for the first time this year they were at full strength, filling 13 out of the possible 14 weights. Having that strong lineup paid dividends, as they would finish the day as the second place team in the district, and four individuals will be heading to Des Moines next week to compete in the individual state tournament.

Carson Hartz had one of the most anticipated matchups of the day in the finals matchup. After earning a fall and a tech fall to land in the finals matchup, he would face of with #1 ranked McKade Bloker of North Butler Clarksville. This would be a matchup of #1 vs #2 and would likely determine the top overall seed next week at state. Carson would surrender the first takedown on a slick little slide by in the first period. Carson would get an escape and start the second period trailing 2-1. He would choose the bottom position to start the second, and would get the escape to tie the score. Neither wrestler was able to get a takedown in the second. Bloker would take down to start the third, and would escape to regain the lead. Carson was unable to break through in the third period, but with ten seconds remaining, Carson hit a flurry of attacks on the edge of the mat. He would take his opponent feet to back earing an additional 5 points at the final whistle to secure the win.

Mason Knipp and Max Magayna were both dominant in their performances. Both wrestlers pinned their way through the field, claiming first place finishes at 220 and 170 pounds respectively. Magayna defeated Giles Cowell from Tripoli. Cowell dropped down a weight class from 182 pounds when the Sailors and Panthers met up earlier in the year. Mason Knipp finally broke through and qualified for Des Moines. After being a district qualifier as a freshman, and then being eliminated in sectionals a year ago, a state tournament bid has been a long time coming. He punched his ticket with a fall in the finals over Luke Schneider of Alburnett who jumped up two weight classes after wrestling at 182 pounds for most of the year.

At 132 pounds, Gavin Reed matched up with #2 ranked Tanner Arjes of North Butler Clarksville. The first period began with a couple of scrambles that ate up a good portion of the clock. Gavin finally got the breakthrough with 12 seconds to go in the period and took a 2-0 lead into the second. After choosing down, Gavin was unable to hit a switch for the reversal and was unable to get the escape, getting ridden out for the period. In the third, Arjes took down and got a quick reversal to tie the score at two each. Gavin got an escape a few seconds later, but was unable to defend Arjes final shot, giving up a takedown and dropping the match by a close 4-3 margin.

Coach Boleyn was pleased with his team’s performance overall. “We come out today and had a really strong start, I think we were in first after the first round. We had some guys wrestle above their seed, which is always good. We finished second in the team standings and had three district champs which I think is the first time that’s happened since 2005, so we love that for the guys. It’s a little bitter sweet to be honest, I’m happy that we had four guys earn their way to state, they took their shot and made the most of the opportunity that was presented to them. I thought we had a couple guys that were right on the edge of getting down there, and we saw today that they had the opportunity to be in position to qualify, and it just didn’t work out that way. We would’ve obviously loved to have 6 or 7 going down to Des Moines, but I think the qualifiers we do have are going to be in really good shape to get some things done next week.”

Sailors will be wrestling in the opening session of the State Tournament, beginning in Wednesday Feb 15th at 9 am. Tickets can be purchased through the Wells Fargo ticket office.