Bronze still a possibility for Comet wrestlers

Staff Report

The Charles City wrestling team will not strike gold this season at the Iowa State Wrestling Championships.

But several wrestlers are still in the running for bronze.

By way of their victories in the third round of consolations Friday night at Wells Fargo Arena, Comet seniors Austin Staudt (138), Max Forsyth (145) and Nick Jacobs (195) advanced to the consolation semifinals on Saturday.

All the aforementioned wrestlers are returning state qualifiers — Jacobs placed sixth as a 195-pounder last year. All three won their opening round bouts on Thursday, but were dropped to the consolation round after losing in the quarterfinals.

After Staudt was defeated by Kyler Rieck of Spirit Lake Park (9-4), he decisioned (4-2) Drew Davis of Independence in the second round of the consolations, then defeated Lucas Roland of PCM-Monroe (7-1) in the third round.

Forsyth couldn’t get the takedown he needed in a 5-4 loss to Mason Buster of Mediapolis, but then responded with a pair of fall victories over Mitchel Swank of Creston/Orient-Macksburg and Nick Hyland of Vipton-Shellsburg.

Jacobs couldn’t solve the double straight-arms of Creston’s Seth Maitlen, who was guarding against a takedown while nursing a 3-1 lead which would stand. The Comet had much better success against Zach Pogge of Clarion-Goldfield-Dows (fall 2:26), and then held off Zach Haggstrom of Glenwood with a 4-3 decision.

The two other Charles City wrestlers who advanced to the tournament’s second day — Nate Lasher (126) and Aaron Maloy (220) — both lost in the consolation second round.

The consolation semifinals and finals for all three classes start at 10 a.m. Saturday. Finals for all classes will start at 6 p.m.