New London’s Lopez is state runner-up

DES MOINES — The Iowa High School wrestling season was capped off on Saturday with the Iowa High School Athletic Association’s State Championship finals.

What a season it was and what class shown by those representing the Union area.

Out of the 31 wrestlers that secured a spot into the state meet from the area, just three earned a spot in the semifinals with a chance to get to the state title match, while one clawed all the way back for third after a quarterfinal defeat.

Those wrestler were Highland’s Carlos Valenzuela at 132, New London’s Dom Lopez at 160, Sigourney-Keota’s Jack Clarahan at 170 and Columbus/WMU’s Russel Coil at 285.

Out of the quartet, New London’s Lopez was sole wrestler to earn that right.

Lopez, who is a senior, got the chance to end his career with a championship, the final missing piece to an already illustrious high school career.

The Tiger gave it all he had, but a controversial late call in overtime ended up being the difference.

Lopez came into the 1A-160 final at a whopping 57-0 and his opponent, Logan-Magnolia’s Wyatt Reisz at 51-0.

The pair were the number one and two ranked wrestlers coming in, with Reisz at one and Lopez at two.

It was a battle through and through.

Reisz began the match with a quick takedown on Lopez to jump out to a 2-0 lead.

Lopez got one back with the escape, making it 2-1 after one period.

Through the second, the two both scored a takedown, leaving Reisz with the advantage after the second, 4-3.

Heading into the third, Lopez began in the down position and needed the escape to tie.

He delivered and the pair stayed knotted up the rest of the way out to make it 4-4 heading into overtime.

Both battled through the overtime period and the match came down to the final seconds.

Lopez got into position as he was able to get ahold of Reisz’s leg. The pair scrapped on the mat, but Lopez wasn’t able to get the points with seconds on the clock.

Instead, Reisz maneuvered his way around and was awarded a takedown with less than two seconds remaining.

The refs originally did not call it a takedown, but after a short discussion, they gave him the two.

New London head coach Mark Chiri, who took part in his final state tournament as well, tried to appeal the takedown call, but it did not make a difference as they let it stand and Lopez fell 6-4.

A heartbreaking way to end an stellar career, but what a run it was for Lopez and he even made some history along the way.

With his 17-6 major decision victory in the quarterfinals, Lopez became the winningest wrestler in Iowa High School Wrestling history. After his, 14-3, semifinal victory, the record now sits at 221.

Lopez finishes his career as a fourth-place finisher, two third-place finishes and now a second. Lopez is also among the state leaders in career takedowns and technical falls.

For Sigourney-Keota’s Jack Clarahan, it was a heck of a ride.

The Cobra senior showed great resilience.

Clarahan, the third rated wrestler in the 1A-170 bracket, received a bye first round and followed up with an impressive major decision, 8-0, victory over Owen Hoover of Cam in his first match of the tournament.

In the quarterfinals, Clarahan narrowly missed a spot in the semifinals as he fell by decision, 9-8, to Titus Evans of Nashua-Plainfield bumping him down to the consolation bracket.

From then on out, he was flawless.

Clarahan turned around and won three straight, downing Ian Kohnen of Manson Northwest Webster by decision, 10-5, and then pinned Jordan Saul of Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire in 2:14 to earn a spot in the third-place match.

In the third-place final, Clarahan didn’t miss a beat, dominating Don Bosco’s Jacob Thiry by major decision, 14-4 to earn third.

Clarahan finished his season with an overall record of 45-3.

What a showing it was by Columbus/WMU’s Russel Coil.

Coil, a junior, came into the tournament as the 18th seed in the 2A-285 bracket.

He showed out through the opening rounds.

Coil opened up his tournament with a 4-3 decision victory over Sean May of BCLUW-SH. He then followed up with another decision win, this time downing Sam Gravert of Central DeWitt, 5-2, punching his ticket to the quarterfinals.

In the quarterfinal round, Coil continued to create positive results, putting together his most dominant performance of the tournament, a 9-2 victory over Trent Cakerice of AP-GC to earn a spot in the semifinals.

The next three matches could have went either way, but Coil came up just short.

In the semifinals, Coil was defeated by decision, 3-2, by Wil Textor of Dike-New Hartford dropping him into the consolation bracket.

Coil followed with another tight loss, 3-2, in the consolation semifinals to Mac Muller of Osage moving him into the fifth-place match.

In his final match of the season, Coil was edged, 5-2, by Paul Ballard of Albia to give him a sixth-place spot on the podium.

Coil ends his season with a 43-8 overall record.

Highland’s Carlos Valenzuela entered the state tournament as the number three ranked wrestler in the 1A-132 bracket.

The senior Huskies was near perfect through the regular season, coming in with just one loss.

After a first-round bye, Valenzuela picked up back-to-back victories, downing Easton Krall of Wapsie Valley, 3-1, and then pinning Dylan Stein of Lenox in 4:43, which earned him a spot in the semifinal round.

In the semifinals, Valenzuela had a tough go as he was bested by Tanner Arjes of North Butler-Clarksville by tech fall, 16-0. The loss knocked him down to the consolation round.

The following two matches just didn’t go Valenzuela’s way.

In the conference semifinals, Valenzuela lost a heartbreaking match by tie breaker to Gavin Reed of Columbus Catholic. A win would have put him into the third-place match, instead he was bumped into the fifth-place match.

In his final match of the season, Valenzuela was narrowly defeated by Holden Mathis of MFL MarMac, 6-5, giving him sixth.

His overall season record comes to 49-4.