Washington has best team, individual at Highland’s Gary Curtis Invitational

RIVERSIDE - It was a long day in a hot gym, but Washington's Tristin Westphal-Edwards was the one applying the heat as four area wresting teams were among the 14 high schools competing Saturday at Highland's Gary Curtis Invitational.

Westphal-Edwards, ranked second in Class 2A at 182 pounds, won the title at his weight class by defeating fourth-ranked (Class 1A) Nick Milder of Iowa City Regina, 5-1. It was Milder's first loss in 20 matches. Westphal-Edwards now has a record of 25-0.

'Tristin winning the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament was well deserved,” Washington coach Brent Van Weelden said. 'He had two other kids in his bracket who have been or who are still ranked at 182 pounds. Tristin wrestled a very smart match in the finals and was more aggressive on his feet than in the past. I believe Tristin being the more aggressive wrestler led to the championship.”

Washington won the meet by 26.5 points over a much larger school, Muscatine. Highland was fifth in the team race, Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union was sixth and Mid-Prairie was ninth.

'We always want to finish as high as possible, but I was happy with the result,” Highland coach Derick Ball said. 'It took a team effort. We were focused on effort. We were able to grind it out.”

Highland had two champions and just missed having a third when Dan Burton (17-7) lost the championship match at 160. Leading by seven points, he suffered a disqualification with a second left in the match.

'We wanted a takedown to get a major decision,” Ball said. 'He was called for an illegal slam. It was tough to swallow, but he's OK and we are moving forward.”

Cory Stewart (20-6) of Highland won the title at 152 with a 3-2 decision over Washington's David Hora (22-3). Highland's Brady Hahn (22-2) edged Dillan Sanders (19-1) of Washington 3-1 to win the title at 145.

'Both of those were good competitive matches. That was fun to compete against Washington,” Ball said. 'We scrimmaged with them over the break and I coached there 10 years, so it was difficult.”

Washington had six wrestlers in the finals and won three titles.

Besides Westphal-Edwards, Walker Ikerd (23-1) was the 120-pound champion with a pin in 1:07. Brandon Dickel (6-2) won by fall in 3:56 in the title match at 126.

'Our kids wrestled pretty well,” Van Weelden said. 'Most of them wrestled above their seeds. I thought all six guys wrestled really tough. I was very happy with the effort of Matt Collett at 113, Justin Simmering at 132 and Tristen Allender at 220. These guys showed great improvement and battled all day long, showing just how good they can be with the proper mind set.”

Geoff Streb (10-12) of Highland took third at 132 with a 7-3 decision over Justin Simmering (3-3) of Washington. Matt Collett (14-11) of Washington won third place at 113 with a pin in 1:55. Allender won his fifth-place match with a pin in 1:08. Logan Esher (17-3) of Washington was pinned in the title match at 195 by Class 3A's No. 9-ranked Dalton Sell of Muscatine and finished second.

Third-ranked (Class 2A) Jarod Kadel (23-0) of Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union was the champion at 138 with a 4-1 decision. C/W-MU's Tucker Bright (15-7) finished second at 132 when he was pinned with just 7 seconds left in the title bout.

Mid-Prairie's Isaac Boucher (23-4) took third at 220 with a pin of C/W-MU's Chance Malone in 3:20. Gannon Callahan (16-8) of Mid-Prairie won his third-place match with a pin in 2:33 at 285.

'I have been at the Gary Curtis Invitational for 20 straight years and it has been a lot of the same teams for a long time,” Ball said. 'It is a good tournament and the teams come back. I thought it ran very well even though it got over late. It was a long day, but very rewarding.”

Ball said that next year there may be a third mat added in the middle school gym.

'This was good for us,” he said. 'We trained well over break and we are starting the home stretch. The kids have been working their tails off.”

Team scores 1. Washington 196.5, 2. Muscatine 170, 3. South Tama County 144, 4. Alburnett 110, 5. Highland 103, 6. Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union 94, 7. New London 86, 8. Iowa City Liberty 83, 9. Mid-Prairie 82.5, 10. English Valleys/Tri-County 75, 11. Iowa City Regina 64, 12. Cedar Rapids Prairie 47, 13. Cascade 43, 14. West Branch 26

Van Buren Invitational

KEOSAUQUA - WACO took fourth Saturday in the eight-team tournament with 146 points. Wayne won with 202.

Robert Frazer (16-11) was the champion at 145 for WACO. Second-place finishers for WACO were Jonah Clark (24-4) at 120, Jalen Collins (23-5) at 126, Jaden Williams (20-9) at 138, Brice Crawford (4-1) at 152, and Kade McKinney (22-5) at 285. Landon Provino (16-7) was third at 220 as was John Rice (7-7) at 182.