State wrestling: Boone battles back, Utterback makes history

DES MOINES — To say the weekend in Des Moines was a busy one for the Union area’s prep wrestlers would be an understatement. With 32 area wrestlers in Des Moines, there was plenty action to go around.

Even for the area wrestlers who didn’t make Friday’s semifinal round, there was plenty of wrestling to be done. A great example can be found in Washington’s Aaron Boone, who went on an absolute tear after losing his second round matchup in the Class 2A 120 bracket on Wednesday.

After falling 8-7 against West Delaware’s Carson Less in his second match, Boone had to wrestle all the way back to find his place on the podium. He did so by wining four-straight matches to earn a chance to wrestle for fifth.

Boone started things off by pinning Solon’s Kyler Jessup in his first consolation match. He rolled past Vinton-Shellsburg’s Aldin Swanson via a 17-1 technical fall, then pinned No. 3 seed Ethan Skoglund of Sergeant Bluff-Luton to earn a chance at revenge against Less.

In his final win of the weekend, Boone repaid Less from two-days prior with an 8-3 decision. He would go on to lose his next two matches, including a fifth-place loss to Shane Hanford of West Marshall, but he would stand tall on the podium in sixth place.

Boone, a sophomore was the only Demon to score a win in the tournament. Caden Greiner, Chase Greiner and Curtis Stender all went 0-2.

Fairfield’s foursome only went 1-8 over the week. That one win came from freshman Cael McCabe, who won his first consolation match, a 3-0 decision over Ballard’s Tony Horness.

Cason Miller, Dre Smithburg and Brandon Brinkschroeder all had 0-2 tournaments for the Trojans.

Sigourney-Keota’s Reanah Utterback was, for good reason, a talk of the state tournament. After opting out of the girls’ wrestling season, Utterback became just the second girl ever to place on the podium in Iowa high school wrestling.

Utterback took eighth at 1A-106, winning two matches on the week to earn her place.

Utterback was already in to the quarterfinals after a bye and a 6-4 win over Erik Flores of Clayton Ridge on Day 1. After falling to top-seeded Jayden Rinken of Nashua-Plainfield, Utterback made history with a 7-2 decision against Earlham’s Dallas Canoyer in the fourth round of consolations. The sophomore would lose her next two matches, but the win over Canoyer secured her a spot on the podium.

Besides teammate Jack Clarahan, who placed third, no other Cobras made the podium. See the Union’s other state wrestling story to read about Clarahan’s rise.

Gage Samo was the lone WACO Warrior to earn a spot at the podium, and he did so in Class 1A’s 113-pound bracket. Samo won three matches on the day to earn his spot in the fifth-place match, where he would fall to Nashua-Painfield’s Nic Brase.

Two of Samo’s wins came against Don Bosco’s Cole Frost, who he defeated 6-2 in the second round and 1-0 in the consolation rounds. He also defeated Caleb Swedin of Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire 8-4 in a match one round before knocking out Frost.

Samo’s teammate Louden Huisenga (1A-160) was done in by injury, falling in the quarterfinal to Woodbury Central’s Max McGill. He would then lose against Colfax-Mingo’s John McGill on a medical forfeit in the consolations. Drew Diers (1A-195) went 0-2.

Highland’s Luke Guseman won four matches to earn eighth place at 1A-120. He defeated Jesup’s Ethan Krall via first-period pinfall, and then won three matches in the consolation round after falling to eventual champion Brandon Paez of Lisbon in his second match.

New London’s Michael Raines won three matches at the state tournament, but did not place. Trent Wilkerson added two to the Tigers’ win total. Columbus/Winfield-Mount Union’s Kai Malone, Pekin’s Blake Juhl and SK’s Jake Moore all went 2-2.