Lopez rises to the top

DES MOINES - State tournament weekend sees its share of upsets, overtimes, celebrations and tears. For New London's Marcel Lopez, his first trip to the Well brought him something extra - glory.

Six Henry County wrestlers were alive after opening day Thursday. Three of them still had championship hopes after winning their first round match. One, Lopez, ended the weekend at the top of the podium as king of the 106 lbs. class in Class 1A.

Lopez didn't have it easy. The Tigers' lightweight star had to beat the top three ranked wrestlers in the class to win the title, starting with Alburnett's Jaymus Wilson, the only senior in the top 10 in the class, who awaited him in the quarterfinals.

Lopez had to battle to the final whistle against Wilson. He grinded out a 3-2 decision to punch his ticket to the semifinals, and a date with second-ranked Damon Huston of Midland.

Lopez' match with Huston was one of the best of the entire semifinal round. Lopez had the first takedown of the match, but Huston had him in a tough spot in the third period. The score was tied after the third period, sending the match into overtime. At one point in the match, Huston had Lopez nearly on his back, but Lopez clung to a leg and waited it out until the whistle. Finally, Lopez picked up a couple of points in the second tiebreaker round to survive the marathon and move on to Saturday's grand finals.

Lopez met top-ranked Stevie Barnes of Underwood in the Class 1A 106 lbs. title match. Underwood had a drag-out semifinal of his own, surviving his match 4-2 in sudden victory, but there was no overtime on Saturday night. Lopez knocked off Barnes 4-0 in the championship, winning the bracket to earn his spot in the history books.

Lopez got to share the spotlight with club-teammate and Mt. Pleasant native Blaine Frazier, who wrestles for West Burlington-Notre Dame-Danville. Frazier, a friendly rival of Lopez in the 106 lbs. circuit, narrowly missed out on sharing the glory as well. After rolling to the finals, he fell 7-5 in the sudden victory round against Carter Fousek of Crestwood.

Mt. Pleasant's Nate Wallace and Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union's Jarod Kadel each finished sixth in their respective brackets, but they got to that point in completely different ways.

Wallace (3A, 145 lbs.) entered the weekend with another consolation match after going 1-1 on Thursday. Wallace eclipsed the 100 career wins mark with a successful Friday session that put him all the way forward to the consolation semifinals.

Wallace pinned Kody Cook, of Ft. Dodge, in 57 seconds to advance to the consolation quarterfinals. He outlasted Tyler Murphy of Dubuque Hempstead, the eighth-ranked wrestler in the class, to jump to the consolation semis.

Wallace was finally upended by top-ranked Deville Dentis of Des Moines East in the consolation semifinals. That matched him up with a familiar foe, Andrew Rohret of Clear Creek-Amana, in the fifth-place bout. Seventh-ranked Rohret pinned Wallace in 1:51, forcing the Panther senior to settle for a sixth-place finish.

The Mt. Pleasant senior actually finished in a better spot than Cedar Rapids Kennedy's Noah Cunningham, who beat Wallace by major decision in the opening round. Cunningham never won again after their bout on Thursday, and Wallace won three times.

Kadel's weekend went the opposite directions as Wallace. Kadel (2A, 138 lbs.) was all the way to the winner's bracket semifinals on Friday night after beating Riley Burke of Iowa Falls on a 12-1 major decision in the quarterfinals. Unfortunately for Kadel, he couldn't out-duel fifth-ranked Chase McLaren of Atlantic in the semifinals, falling on a 7-4 decision.

Kadel took on seventh-ranked Jayden peyton of West Delaware in the consolation semifinals. Peyton won that match 7-2 to bump Kadel to the sixth-place match. In the sixth-place bout, Kadel was pinned by sixth-ranked Luke Radeke in 5:22.

Mt. Pleasant's Zach Beason had a tough draw on Friday after earning his spot on Thursday morning with a 4-2 decision win in the first round. Beason showed down with second-ranked Beau Lombardi of West Des Moines Valley, the eventual state champion, in the quarterfinals. Lombardi won that match on a 3-0 decision.

Beason's opponent in the consolation round was one of only five wrestlers ranked ahead of Beason in his weight class. He had to face Linn-Mar's Tanner Schultz, who came into the weekend ranked fourth in the Class 3A 220 lbs. bracket. Schultz was only in the loser's bracket because of a loss to top-ranked Cameron Baker in the opening round, and kept his season alive by ending Beason's, 1-0

WACO's Jalen Collins (1A, 126 lbs.) was in the same spot as Wallace when Friday morning rolled around. Collins had gone 1-1 on Thursday and had a matchup against No. 8 Tyler Helgeson in the consolation bracket. Collins' season ended with a 9-0 major decision.

New London's Gabe Carter, who also went 1-1 on Thursday, looked to keep his season alive against Don Bosco's Cael Rahnavardi, the sixth-ranked wrestler at Class 1A 170 lbs. Carter gave the eventual fourth-place finisher a match, but Rahnavardi moved on 13-7.

There were three area wrestlers who were out of the tournament after going 0-2 on Thursday. New London's Cameron Raines (1A, 195 lbs.) and Jaxon Allen (1A, 220 lbs.) and WACO's Jonah Clark (1A, 126 lbs.) were all eliminated after their second match.

State weekend was the final stop on the ride for three of the area's seniors. Wallace, Beason and Kadel all wrestled their last high school matches.