Comet reserve wrestlers see action at regional

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

NEW HAMPTON — When some teams reach the postseason, they receive a bye.

When the Charles City wrestling team earned a berth to the 2A Regional Team Dual by way of winning its sectional, in essence it got a “good-bye”.

The Comets had little if no chance of advancing past the Class 2A top-ranked New Hampton Chickasaws, who hosted the regional Tuesday night. Charles City had too many open weights, and the Chickasaws had too many studs.

“They’re a great team … they’ve got a lot of great wrestlers,” Charles City assistant coach Rob Pittman said after New Hampton eliminated Charles City from the team tournament by a score of 58-20.

“We’re a good team with some holes to fill,” Pittman said. “Hopefully, we’ll get more kids out next year.”

What Charles City is really concerned about is next week … or rather this weekend as they qualified nine wrestlers to the 2A District 1 Tournament, Saturday at Aplington-Parkersburg.

“At this stage, we didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize getting as many wrestlers downstate,” Charles City head coach Kevin Wedeking said. “I think they should do a little re-grouping in the schedule with the state team and individual meets. We’re trying to get as many kids down, but we come here (three days after sectionals) and we don’t have the depth to protect our qualifiers.”

Several of the Comets district qualifiers did see action. Sectional heavyweight champion Brody Tupy pinned Noah Fenske midway through the third period. And Nick Jacobs, who helped Charles City wrest a late lead from sectional runner-up Osage on Saturday with a clutch major-decision win in a second-place wrestleback bout, earned a technical fall against Areon Day.

“Brody wrestled great … Nick wrestled great,” Wedeking said. “Tanner Peterson filled in for Alex Koehler at 182, and he did a great job (10-7 decision over Cole Denner).

“We also gave one of our graduating seniors (Branden Holthaus) one final match for his high school career.”

The dual concluded with 145-pounder Ciana Sonberg, wrestling in a spot normally occupied by No. 2-ranked Max Forsyth, taking on Chickasaw Cameron Rasing.

“She’s only a sophomore,” Wedeking said of Sonberg, who wrestled gallantly, but couldn’t prevent herself from being stuck by Rasing 3 minutes, 42 seconds into their match, “and she’s shown great improvement.”

New Hampton later edged Crestwood 36-33 to win the regional.

2A Regional Dual

Semifinal Round

NEW HAMPTON 58

CHARLES CITY 20

106: Dylan Robinson (NEHA) over (CHCI) (For.) 113: Mason Cleveland (NEHA) over (CHCI) (For.) 120: Noah Fye (NEHA) over (CHCI) (For.) 126: Connor Cleveland (NEHA) over (CHCI) (For.) 132: Tyler Shatek (NEHA) over Shau Landt (CHCI) (MD 13-2) 138: Keaton Geerts (NEHA) over (CHCI) (For.) 145: Cameron Rasing (NEHA) over Ciana Sonberg (CHCI) (Fall 3:42) 152: Ryan Gorman (NEHA) over Dylan Koresh (CHCI) (Fall 3:02) 160: Drew Boeding (NEHA) over Branden Holthaus (CHCI) (Fall 0:48) 170: Noah Glaser (NEHA) over (CHCI) (For.) 182: Tanner Peterson (CHCI) over Cole Denner (NEHA) (Dec 10-7) 195: Nick Jacobs (CHCI) over Areon Day (NEHA) (TF 16-0 5:13) 220: Aaron Maloy (CHCI) over (NEHA) (For.) 285: Brody Tupy (CHCI) over Noah Fenske (NEHA) (Fall 5:02)