It was two-team race here at the Red Owens Holiday Invitational at Southeast Polk on Saturday. Iowa City West made the trek westward as the favorite, ranked third in 3A in the latest Predicament tournament team rankings. The unranked home team, however, refused to let rankings dictate the final outcome.

Both ICW and SEP put eight men in the finals; Iowa City West the first eight weight classes, while Southeast Polk dominated the upper weights. Of their eight finalists, Ram Wrestlers came away with five champions compared to Iowa City West's four. The main difference was in the consolations and by placing all fourteen wrestlers in the top four, the Rams were able to blow the scoring open finishing on top 248 to ICW's 203.5.

Ram head coach Jason Christenson was very pleased with the performance of his team as a whole. "We've got a pretty young squad; I'm impressed with the way they wrestled today… overall we had all fourteen in the top four, and only one fourth and everyone else was in the top three." When asked about the leaders of his team, Coach Christenson talked about how no captains had been delegated and that each member of the team was leading.

Iowa City West coach Mark Reiland was happy with the performance of his lower weight grapplers, and hopes the upper weight wrestlers will come around as the post-season nears. "The lighter guys did their job and put everybody in the finals… those upper weight guys, we need to get going." ICW is going to have to be at the top of their game by postseason time, as they will have to go through North Scott of Eldridge and Iowa City High in order to qualify for the State Dual Team Tournament.

There were several upsets on the day. The first to occur happened in the semifinals of the 112lb weight class. Fourth seeded and sixth ranked Mikel Munro of Valley used a third period takedown and two-point near fall to upset first seeded and fourth ranked (103) Eric Thavonekham of Des Moines East. On the bottom side of the bracket, sixth seeded Trevor Lord came out ahead on top of a 20-19 shootout against 1A eighth rated Heath Deforest of Pleasantville to reach the finals.

Lord was also in position to upset Munro in the championship match, leading nearly the entire first two periods before getting pinned with ten seconds remaining in the second period.

At 135lbs, Kody Pudil of Iowa City West kept his undefeated season in tact, winning by technical fall in the semis and then by pinning 10th ranked (130lbs) Dusty McAninch of Des Moines East. Pudil is top-ranked and gunning for his first state championship which would add to his fifth and runner-up medals. About his goals for the remainder of the year, Pudil stated, "I need an undefeated season, to be on top, and hopefully every match is a major (decision) or better."

Austin Boehm, 189lb wrestler for Urbandale cruised through his first two matches in a combined time of 1:49. Boehm, who is second-ranked in 3A, then dominated his championship match against Rob Schiernbeck of SEP by way of an 8-4 decision. Boehm, who is son of head coach Wes Boehm, intends to join his brother, Bryce, next season at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

The 215lb weight class had the most anticipated match up of the day as top-ranked Nick Shandri of Southeast Polk was pitted against Matt Sixta of West Des Moines Valley. Sixta, who is ranked 4th at 275lbs, made 215 for today's tournament and won his showdown with Shandri by a score of 4-3.

Rankings courtesy of The Predicament.

Final Team Scores

1. Southeast Polk 248

2. Iowa City West 203.5

3. WDM Valley 157.5

4. CR-Jefferson 150.5

5. Urbandale 124

6. Des Moines East 80.5

7. Pleasantville 75

8. ADM 56

Final Round Results

103

Championship - Dylan Carew, ICW pinned Bill Borseth, SEP in 5:30

Third - Johnny Coleman, Des Moines East decision David Paulson, Urbandale 6-3

Fifth – David Ginger, Pleasantville pinned Drew Gibson, Adel-Desoto-Minburn in 3:34

112

Championship – Mikel Munro, WDM Valley pinned Trevor Lord, ICW in 3:50

Third – Eric Thavonekham, Des Moines East decision Grant Wilson SEP 6-3

Fifth – Heath DeForest, Pleasantville decision Zach Ramsey, Urbandale 17-14

119

Championship – Nate Moore, ICW technical fall AJ Johnson, Cedar Rapids Jefferson in 5:42

Third – Dylan Wentland, SEP decision Nate Williams Des Moines East 6-5

Fifth – Heath Kay, Pleasantville decision Luke Woods, Urbandale 8-1

125

Championship – Tyler Carew, ICW pinned Josh Christensen, WDM Valley in 3:02

Third – Cory VanDenBrocke, SEP pinned Nate Johnson, Pleasantville in :40

Fifth – Miles Wyatt, Cedar Rapids Jefferson decision Ethan Kouri, Des Moines East 2-1

130

Championship – Zach Morley, Urbandale pinned Derek St. John, ICW in 3:01

Third – Jim Engler, SEP pinned Joe Mather, WDM Valley in 2:22

Fifth – AJ Smith, Cedar Rapids Jefferson had a bye

135

Championship – Kody Pudil, ICW pinned Dusty McAninch, Des Moines East in 2:50

Third – Robert Rengi, WDM Valley decision Jamie Grant, SEP 8-1

Fifth – James Bock, Cedar Rapids Jefferson decision Brandon Carpe, Urbandale 4-0

140

Championship – Wade Dowling, WDM Valley decision Evan Shaw, ICW 4-3

Third – Ty Knowler, SEP decision Jason McCormick, Cedar Rapids Jefferson 9-4

Fifth – Cass Lester, Pleasantville decision Jerad Acheson, Urbandale 2-0

145

Championship – Kyle Ratzesberger, SEP decision Owen McKinley, ICW 9-3

Third – David Yeaman, Adel-Desoto-Minburn decision Travis Mohler, Urbandale 1-4

Fifth – Colby Corrigan, Cedar Rapids Jefferson inj default Marcus Jensen, WDM Valley

152

Championship - Hogan Hutchison, SEP pinned Scott Fitzpatrick, Urbandale in 3:53

Third – Nacho Robles, WDM Valley pinned Dustin Schlick, ICW in 5:47 (overtime)

Fifth – Zach Hutzell, Adel-Desoto-Minburn pinned Jordan Smally, Cedar Rapids Jefferson in 1:53

160

Championship – Jeff Ragan, SEP pinned Seth Milledge, Pleasantville in 3:04

Third – Weston Marling, Cedar Rapids Jefferson decision Bryan Loftus, Des Moines East 7-3

Fifth – Marcus VanScoy, Urbandale decision Nick Chaloupka, ICW 7-5

171

Championship – Ethan Bass, SEP decision Ben Scott, Adel-Desoto-Minburn 13-8

Third – Kelsey Mescher, Pleasantville decision Adam Thompson, Cedar Rapids Jefferson 7-4

Fifth – Matt Baker, WDM Valley had a bye

189

Championship – Austin Boehm, Urbandale decision Rob Schiernbeck, SEP 8-4

Third – Andrew Schultz, WDM Valley decision Jose Carlos Sanchez, Des Moines East 2-1 Referee's Decision

Fifth – Isiah Furlow, ICW pinned Jason Roether, Ceder Rapids Jefferson in 2:05

215

Championship – Matt Sixta, WDM Valley decision Nick Shandri, SEP 4-3

Third – Grand Edwards, Cedar Rapids Jefferson injury default Nick Brayton, ICW

Fifth – Chris Schinder, Urbandale pinned Matt Tabor, Pleasantville in 2:10

275

Championship – Joe Cason, SEP pinned Shadoe Spieker, Adel-Desoto-Minburn in 5:03

Third – Nick King, Cedar Rapids Jefferson pinned Nick Hagen, ICW in :34