Comet wrestlers win sectional title

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Clock management.

It doesn’t only apply for football.

Ahead 2-0 with 19 seconds left in regulation in a most physical chess match against Clear Lake’s Kyle Willms for the Class 2A Sectional 2 heavyweight title, Charles City senior Brody Tupy needed to make the right move.

And he did as his eventual 2-1 championship victory helped the Comets edge nearest-competitor Osage for the team sectional title, Saturday in Charles City’s Comet Gym.

With Willms in the down position, Tupy decided to give Willms the escape as well as an aggressive shove when Willms got to his feet to throw him off balance and create some distance as the clock wound down.

A bit of confusion ensued as the clock stopped with about 8 seconds left. But officials ruled that time had expired and Tupy was given the victory despite protests from Clear Lake’s coaching staff.

“I had 1-point victories before, but none as exciting as this,” said Tupy, who improved to 36-6 while claiming his first sectional title.

After a scoreless first period, Tupy chose the down position to start the second but couldn’t make a dent in the scoreboard. But in the third with Willms in the down “scoring” position, Tupy managed to turn Willms’s shoulders just enough for a two-point nearfall which would end up being enough for the win.

“I just had to ride him hard to find a way to get it done,” said Tupy, who was one of three Comet individual champions including Nate Lasher (126) and Max Forsyth (145).

But even with the three champs and five guaranteed runners-up — Dakota Hewitt (120), Austin Staudt (138), Brandon Childs (160), Aaron White (170), and Alex Koehler (182) — the Comets were still behind Osage by several points after all the finals matches were concluded.

That may be one of the reasons Charles City head coach Kevin Wedeking and his assistant Rob Pittman were riding senior 195-pounder Nick Jacobs harder than Tupy did to Willms during the subsequent wrestleback rounds.

Jacobs had control of the second-place match against Osage’s Ben Mallinger, but Wedeking and Pittman implored him to pick it up for at least a major decision.

“We got some pins early in the tournament, so that put us ahead for a while,” Wedeking said. “But I knew it was going to be close.

“I treat every match as if it’s the most important match of the meet. And a major decision gets you four points, and as it turned out we needed those four points.”

Jacobs did get the major decision (9-1). And with AJ Maloy winning the subsequent 220-pound wrestleback second-place match against Victor Sanchez of Iowa Falls-Alden (Fall 1:41), that put the Comets over the top for good as they ended up besting the runner-up Green Devils by four points (203-199).

“Our goal is to wrestle to our potential, and right now we’re reaching that goal,” Wedeking said. “We still need a little work in some areas, but our guys are doing well.”

All 10 aforementioned Comet wrestlers advance to the Class 2A District 1 Tournament next Saturday at Aplington-Parkersburg. Also, by way of finishing in the top two at sectionals, the Comets qualified for the State Dual-Meet district round.

“That will be Tuesday, but we still don’t know where as of now,” Wedeking said.

Lasher earned the first individual first for the Comets when he stopped Brody Roll of Osage 1:17 into their 126-pound championship match. Lasher improved to 27-11 for the season.

Forsyth drew Osage’s Derek Fox in the 145-pound final. In a dual meet two weeks ago, Forsyth pinned Fox in the first period though Fox fought like the devil — or more like a Green Devil— to avoid the fall.

In the rematch, Fox fought hard again and managed to keep it close most of the way before second-ranked Forsyth (33-3)  earned a 7-2 decision.

Childs faced perhaps one of the best athletes in the state when he took on top-ranked Tristan Johnson of Osage in the 160-pound final. Midway through the second period, the bout was tied at 2-2. From the standing position, Childs repeatedly dove in for takedown attempts, but Johnson can sprawl quicker than a cat and eventually scored a one-leg takedown for the lead and eventually earned a 7-3 decision.

In their respective finals, Hewitt was pinned by Iowa Fall-Alden’s Dante Tacchia (1:13), Staudt lost a 7-1 decision to Clear Lake’s Ryan Leisure, Koehler lost a 7-1 decision to Hampton-Dumont’s Logan Chipp, Jacobs suffered a major decision loss (16-6) to Aplington-Parkersburg’s Shane Poppens, and Maloy dropped a 5-2 decision to Osage’s Caleb Ring, who avenged a stunning final-seconds loss to Maloy in the previous dual meet between the schools.

Other finals results include Eric Faught of Clear Lake stopping Joe Jacobs of Osage 1:27 into their 106-pound final; Todd Raisch of Iowa Falls earning a 5-3 decision over Jackson Hamlin of Clear Lake for the 113-pound title; Dillon Rubow of Iowa Falls earning a 8-3 decision over Will Kirschbaum of Clear Lake for the 132-pound title; Michael Kent of Iowa Falls defeating Justin Woods of Osage with a 10-2 major decision for the 170-pound title; and Ryan Faught of Clear Lake besting Brock Jennings of Osage with an exciting overtime victory (3-1) in the 152-pound final that looked as if it could have gone either way before Faught maneuvered himself for the deciding takedown.

Class 2A Sectional 2

AT CHARLES CITY

1. Charles City 203, 2. Osage 199, 3. Clear Lake 181, 4. Iowa Falls-Alden 178, 5. Hampton-Dumont 133, 6. Aplington-Parkersburg 81.

Charles City Champions — Nate Lasher (126), Max Forsyth (145), Brody Tupy (285); District Qualifiers — Dakota Hewitt (120), Adam Staudt (138), Brandon Childs (160), Alex Koehler (182), Nick Jacobs (195), AJ Maloy (220).