Wrestling postseason starts Saturday

Area wrestling teams and individuals will start their postseason journeys Saturday at sectional meets in Classes 2A and 1A.

Class 2A Section 15 team Washington will be at Fairfield while Section 16 teams Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union and Mid-Prairie will be at Solon.

Class 1A Sigourney-Keota hosts Sectional 15 with WACO while Highland will be at West Branch in Sectional 16.

The top two finishers in each weight class will advance to the district tournaments Saturday Feb. 9. The Class 2A District 8 meet for Sectionals 15 and 16 will be at Washington. The Class 1A District 8 meet for 15 and 16 will be at Wilton.

The top two teams in each sectional will advance to a regional dual meet Tuesday.

Washington coach Brent Van Weelden expects a three-team race at Fairfield between the Demons, Centerville and Notre Dame/West Burlington. Davis County, Fairfield and Keokuk are the other teams at that meet.

'I think we have a good possibility to get first or second,” Van Weelden said. 'If our kids wrestle to their ability, we should make regional duals.”

Washington has four ranked wrestlers in No. 1 Tristin Westphal-Edwards at 182 pounds, No. 9 Garrett Ikerd at 138, No. 10 Walker Ikerd at 120 and No. 10 Logan Escher at 195. Centerville and Notre Dame have three ranked wrestlers each. All three schools have a ranked wrestler at 120. Centerville has a No. 2 at that weight while Notre Dame's is No. 7. Notre Dame also has a No. 2 at 106 and No. 10 at 285. Centerville has a No. 1 at 113 and a No. 4 at 126.

There are 14 weights to be wrestled and ideally at least nine Demons should advance.

'Whether that will happen, I don't know,” Van Weelden said.

The weather looks good for Saturday, but with the cold canceling school during the week, practice time has been almost nil. Generally once school is canceled, activities are as well.

If a team doesn't practice before a meet, its wrestlers are given a 1-pound allowance. If it doesn't practice for two days before, individuals are given a 2-pound allowance, but no more. A team could miss three days or more and then have practice the day before and thus, not be given any allowance.

'Our kids have been pretty good about knowing where they need to be,” Highland coach Derick Ball said. 'Hopefully we can get some guys through Saturday and wrestle in the regional dual Tuesday.”

'We should be OK,” Van Weelden said. 'A lot of our guys should have good opportunities to get through. I think we can get a lot of them through the next week.”

The Demons have dealt with some injuries, but guys have sat out previous meets to recover.

'We have everybody back,” Van Weelden said. 'We have sat some kids to make sure they were ready to go for this weekend. Regular season tournaments are important, but they are not as important as sectionals.”

Or districts or state, and that is the ultimate goal.