Washington’s Boone takes 4th

DES MOINES — Washington’s Aaron Boone got the full state wrestling experience this weekend. The lone Demon qualifier wrestled six matches in the Class 2A 132 pound bracket and won four of them.

Boone, who finished sixth at the state meet last year, took home fourth place in his bracket, advancing all the way from Wednesday until Saturday in the four-day event.

“It's been great,” Boone said. “I've been able to wrestle all six minutes in (nearly) every match, and it's been amazing.”

Boone went 1-1 on Day 1of the tournament, beating Kameron Kramer of Independence via a 14-3 major decision before bowing out to eventual state champion Kade Blume of Roland-Story in the quarterfinals. Boone lost 3-0 to Blume and had to wrestle all the way back to the third place match.

Boone tore through the consolation bracket. He pinned Saydel’s Kolton Keller in his first wrestleback, took out Steele Diercks of Davenport Assumption, 7-4, and won his fourth match of the weekend via a 9-3 decision over Decorah’s Mason Avila.

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Boone, who won the consolation semifinal over Avila earlier in the day, battled hard before falling 6-4 against Matt Beem of Glenwood in the third place bout.

Due to a cut on his nose, Boone wrestle the beginning stages in a full mask before losing the extra headgear later in the weekend.

“We went with a mask because my nose keeps opening up and bleeding,” Boone said. “Then I was like, 'I don't want to wear that thing anymore. It sucks to breathe in.'”

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Blume eventually beat Notre Dame’s Kaiden Dietzenbach for the state championship on Saturday night. Dietzenbach, like Boone, is in his junior year, while Blume and Beem were finishing out their high school wrestling careers.

“It was amazing being here last year, and then being here this year and being able to climb a bit higher,” Boone said. “Hopefully next year, I can climb even higher.”