Daily Newsletters
Account
Washington Evening Journal
111 North Marion Avenue
Washington, IA 52353
319-653-2191
Huisenga, Coil are state runners-up
WACO junior, Columbus/WMU senior impress at Wells Fargo Arena; Samo 6th
DES MOINES — Only 84 wrestlers make it all the way to the state finals of the Iowa high school wrestling season, and both WACO and Columbus/Winfield-Mount Union were represented when the 2024 meet hit the grand finals on Saturday night.
Both WACO junior Louden Huisenga and Columbus/WMU senior Russel Coil made it to their first state championship matches, and both were matched up against top seeded opponents.
Huisenga earned his spot in the Class 1A 190-pound championship by earning three wins in the winner’s bracket. After an opening round bye, Huisenga skunked Wapsie Valley’s Drew Lansing 7-0 and took out Southwest Valley’s Tate Hafner by a 14-5 major decision to advance to Friday night’s semifinals.
Huisenga had one of the most exciting wins of the weekend when he took on Maquoketa Valley’s Nathan Beitz in the semifinals. Trailing 3-1 in the final seconds, Huisenga forced overtime with a takedown at the buzzer. He then finished the match off with a takedown to move on via sudden victory.
“That semi was a good confidence boost,” Huisenga said. “It was a good match, and you're pumped because you're in the finals. It just didn't go the way I wanted it to, obviously.”
In the championship. Huisenga couldn’t solve top-seeded MaKade Bloker of North Butler-Clarksville. Bloker started the match fast and defeated Huisenga 9-3.
“Any time you lose, it’s frustrating,” Huisenga said. “The only thing you can do is look to next year.”
Teammate Gage Samo also finished the weekend on the podium, taking sixth place at 113 pounds. Samo went 1-1 on Day One, earning a 3-1 win before falling via ultimate tiebreaker in the second round. He wrestled all the way back into the fifth place match on Saturday, where he fell 2-1.
“It shows a lot of the work Gage and I have done to get up here,” Huisenga said. “It sucks to lose, but I'm proud of myself, and I'm proud of Gage.”
Columbus/WMU had four wrestlers make the state meet, but nobody fared better than the Wildcats’ senior leader, as Coil won his first three matches of the weekend before eventually falling in the Class 2A 285-pound championship.
Coil opened the tournament up with a bye, and a pinfall, beating Atlantic’s Evan Sorenson in 2 minutes, 42 seconds. He beat AP-GC’s Trent Cakerice 6-0 in the quarterfinals, setting him up for battle with Albia’s Paul Ballard in the semifinals.
Coil earned some sweet revenge over Ballard, who beat Coil in the fifth-place match last year. Coil go the last laugh on Ballard by taking him down, 3-1, in the semifinals, to earn a spot in the state championship.
In another rematch from the 2023 bracket, Coil faced off with top-ranked and unbeaten Mac Muller of Osage, the same opponent who knocked him off in last winter’s consolation semifinals. This time, Coil couldn’t get pay back, falling 8-3 in the final Class 2A state final of the night.
“We were hoping to get revenge just like we did yesterday with Ballard in the semis,” said Columbus/WMU head coach Andy Milder. “It's part of it. He'll lick his wounds. There's nothing to hang his head about.”
Coil climbed all the way from a two-win wrestler in his first varsity year to wrestling on Iowa’s biggest stage. It was Coil’s first career state championship appearance.
“His story will be used every day,” Milder said. “It’s quite a story. Nobody gave him a chance.”
Columbus/WMU 126-pounder Ty Scorpil won two matches at the state tournament. Scorpil rebounded from an early loss to defeat NH/TV’s Braiden Schaufenbuel 9-3 in the wrestlebacks, and then eliminated AP-GC’s Carter Liston 8-6. His final match of the weekend was a 5-2 loss against Notre Dame’s C.J. Davis.
Kason Dopler was the only other Wildcat besides Coil to win his first match. The 175-pounder earned a 10-8 victory against Webster City’s Luke Estlund before dropping his next two bouts.
Jacob Nelson went 0-2 at 113 pounds. He fell in both of his matches by the score of 4-0.
Highland’s Luke Guseman earned a spot on the podium, finishing seventh place in the Class 1A, 120-pound bracket. Guseman won three matches on the weekend, beating Southwest Iowa’s Gabe Johnson in the opening round 6-3, then pinning Austin Etzel of Wilton in the wrestlebacks before picking up a win in the seventh place match, 7-2, over Sumner-Fredericksburg’s Sam Egan.
Cardinal’s Isaac Cox went 1-2 in the tournament, grabbing a win in the Class 2A 285 pound opener against Nashua-Plainfield’s Isaac Jones, who Cox pinned in 1:10. He then lost his next two matches.
New London’s Gage Burden went 2-2 over the weekend. Burden picked up a thrilling 9-8 victory gainst Jordan Smith of Oakland Riverside on Wednesday, and also scooped up an 8-2 victory against Wapsie Valley’s Brody Kleitsch in the wrestlebacks.
Pekin’s Reed Lauderman went 0-2 in the tournament. He fell twice by pinfall during the Class 1A 106-pound tournament.
