Mid-Prairie, Highland send three to state

The Mid-Prairie and Highland wrestling teams took part in district tournaments over the weekend, and each team will send three wrestlers to the state tournament.

Highland advanced Drew and Bryce West, as well as Zach Kleopfer in its Class 1A district in Wilton on Saturday, while Mid-Prairie had Duncan McCain, Cameron Tolander and Levi Duwa move on to the state tournament in a Class 2A district tournament in Solon.

The No. 1 ranked Drew West took care of business in Wilton on Saturday in the 113-pound weight class.

He picked up a pin at 1:11 in his semifinal match, then defeated Tipton?s Eric Lenz in a 6-2 decision to pick up first place.

?Drew wrestled hard, but he needed to switch up some of his hand-fighting,? Highland wrestling head coach Clint Jones said. ?Drew is wrestling well and makes it tough for anyone to score on him.?

Bryce West, ranked No. 2 in 120 for Class 1A, only had to wrestle for 1:16 on Saturday, picking up pin falls in the semifinals (49 seconds) and in the first-place match (27 seconds) to win the bracket.

?Bryce?s wrestling has been inferno-oriented,? Jones said. ?If he continues to wrestle like he has over the last three weekends, he?ll be in good shape.?

At 160, Highland senior Zach Kleopfer picked up a 19-9 major decision to advance to the first-place match.

Kleopfer fell in a 12-5 decision, but by rule didn?t have to wrestle in a second-place match and advanced to state.

?Zach came prepared to wrestle, especially in his first match,? Jones said. ?In his finals match, Zach had a difficult time setting up his offense. Now he can focus on preparing for this week.?

In Solon, Mid-Praire?s Duncan McCain got things started quickly for the Golden Hawks, as he picked up wins with a 4-2 decision in the semifinals and a 4-0 decision in the first-place match to win his 113 bracket.

?Duncan wrestled the best tournament he?s wrestled all season so far,? Mid-Prairie head coach Justin Garvey said. ?He stayed in position and showed a lot of maturity. That was exciting to watch him wrestle on Saturday.?

Cameron Tolander won his first match at 182 in a 5-2 decision, but fell in the finals to No. 4 ranked Julio Sanchez of Grinnell.

Tolander advanced by rule in second place to the state tournament.

?We knew going in that the first match was a must-win,? Garvey said. ?It was 1-1, (Tolander) scored an escape in the second, (Assumption?s Chase Hager) scored an escape in the third. Then with 17 seconds left (Tolander) scored a takedown, then Hager got an escape right away. With five seconds left (Tolander) scored another takedown to seal the deal. It was an exciting final 20 seconds.?

At 195, the Hawks picked up a pin fall by Levi Duwa at 4:43, to move on to the first-place match. He fell by a pin fall and had to participate in a wrestleback match, which he won 6-3, to move on to state.

?Levi got to the finals and pinned there,? Garvey said. ?He was a little more reserved, and ended up losing and had to do a wrestleback. He did everything he needed to do and punched his ticket to Des Moines.?

The state tournament will begin on Thursday in Des Moines.