MANCHESTER — Four varsity Spartan wrestlers punched their ticket to the 2023 Boys State Wrestling Tournament in Des Moines with second place finishes in a Class 2A District Meet Saturday, Feb. 11 at West Delaware High School in Manchester.
Hunter Campion (16-20) qualified at 106 pounds after pinning Camanche’s Ethan Edens (22-20) in 2:30 in the semifinals, falling in 51 seconds to Central DeWitt’s Dolan Theisen (29-13) in the 1st place match, and winning by no contest against Edens for the 2nd place match.
Kyler Jessup (23-22) qualified at 120 pounds after he pinned Central DeWitt’s Colton Penniston (6-17) in 1:42 in the quarterfinals, pinned Monticello’s Cael Sampson (40-10) in 3:19 in the semifinals, fell to West Delaware’s Carson Less (37-5) in the 1st place match, and won by no contest over Sampson for the 2nd place match.
Jordan Schmidt (30-9) qualified at 132 after pinning Maquoketa’s Sam Livermore (9-17) in 3:44 in the quarterfinals, winning a 5-3 decision over Anamosa’s Ayden Antonelli (40-11) in the semis, falling to DeWitt’s Royce Butt (32-5) in the 1st place match, and winning by no contest against Antonelli for the 2nd place match.
Braydon Hoffman (36-18) qualified at 195 after winning by major decision (10-0) over Wahlert’s Andrew Slaght (19-15) in the quarterfinals, losing by technical fall (TF-1.5 4:38 (17-2)) to West Delaware’s Will Ward (35-2) in the semis, and bouncing back with a 3:10 win by fall over Anamosa’s Tayte Peterschmidt (32-24) in the consolation semis. The win sent him to the 3rd place match where he took a 16-5 major decision from DeWitt’s Layton Slaymaker (24-15) before pinning Monticello’s Dylan Monk (42-9) in 5:42 in the 2nd place match.
“It was a pretty dang good weekend for us as a whole,” said Head Coach Aaron Hadenfeldt. “We talked quite a bit the week leading up to the tournament that nothing is guaranteed and everyone is 0-0 now. There aren’t many teams that have the strength of schedule that we do and we feel we are prepared the best we can be going into that big meet — it showed. The four guys that got through wrestled how we knew they could and went out and competed.”
Lawsin Sinnwell (29-15), Teague Williams (30-26), Jackson Feuerbach (16-23), Kyler Jensen (30-23), Zeb Kleinsmith (28-18), and Joe Ebert (19-25) finished third at 126, 145, 160, 170, 182, and 285 coming up short on a State Tourney berth as first and second-place finishes qualified.
Sinnwell won a 12-3 major decision over Anamosa’s Caleb Bowser (17-15) in the quarterfinals, Williams took a 9-7 decision from Maquoketa’s Sam Thines (12-15) in the consolation semis, Feuerbach won by hard fought fall in 5:39 over Wahlert’s Bryce Bauer (13-17) in the 3rd place match, Jensen pinned Monticello’s Kyler Husmann (13-18) in 52 seconds in the quarterfinals, Kleinsmith took a 5-0 decision from Anamosa’s Logan Bell (13-24) in the quarterfinals, and Ebert pinned Monticello’s Ian Taylor (30-15) in 2:56 in the 3rd place match.
“That stings for those guys,” Hadenfeldt said. “That’s a tough way to end your season, being that close to going to the state tournament, but…it will help motivate them in the offseason. This is a young team and they were able to get a taste of what a big meet like this looks and feels like and it will serve them well moving toward next season and that excites me.”
Evan Burg (21-25), Carson Kidwell (28-23), David Karam (21-26), and Grant Wilson (28-16) competed at 113, 138, 152, and 220 pounds but did not place.
The 2A tournament started Wednesday, Feb. 15 with first round and consolation action and continued Thursday, Feb. 16 with quarterfinals and consolations. Semifinals and consolations are set for 1:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17 with consolation semifinals and finals Saturday, Feb. 18 at 9:00 a.m. and Championships scheduled for 5:15 p.m.
“Going to the state tournament is a big deal and I’m happy for the guys that got there. That’s not the end goal though — getting to the state tournament can’t be the end goal. Get down there, do some damage and see how high we can place is the goal,” Hadenfeldt said.
Complete schedules, brackets, ticket information, and ways to watch can all be found at www.iahssa.org/wrestling/state-tournament-central/.