Charles City Mat Club hosts 41st Annual North/South All-Star Wrestling Meet

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Those selected to participate in the prestigious North/South All-Star Wrestling Meet had proven to one extent or another of mastering the application and execution of one-legged takedowns, cradles, sit-out escapes and whizzers as well as other techniques.

But Saturday’s annual meet hosted by the Charles City Mat Club and held in Charles City’s Competition Gym also favored those with a deft sleight of hand.

Instead of flipping the red/green disc for first-option position to start second periods, the meet’s lone referee Jeff Pavlovich presided over Rock, Paper, Scissor matches between the combatants to determine who got to choose.

Like Charles City resident Pavlovich, who was honored at the 2021 State Wrestling Championships at the 2021 Official of the Year as determined by the Iowa Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association, several of the participants were a little more than a month and a half removed from achieving feted acknowledgement at Wells Fargo Arena.

One of whom was Osage senior Spencer Mooberry, who was coming off a Class 2A 182-pound state title season after finishing runner-up at 170 the year before.

In what can be considered the meet’s main event, Mooberry was able to decision New Hampton/Turkey Valley’s Jacob Reicks 3-0 in the second of two 195-pound bouts.

Reicks, who was the Class 2A runner-up at 195 his senior season, had earlier edged Crestwood’s Treyton Burnikel 2-1 in the third match of the evening.

Reicks’s win was the third of eight-straight wins for the “South” All-Star team to start the 11-match card.

South All-Stars defeated North All-Stars 30-9.

The other state champion in the house was Waverly-Shell Rock’s Bailey Roybal, who placed third among Class 3A 120-pounders at the most recent state tournament after emerging as the Class 3A 113-pound champion the year before.

Roybal defeated Brooks Meyer of Denver with a 5-0 decision in a 126-pound bout.

Charles City was represented by senior Roush Jaeger — the meet is traditionally senior only.

During his prep career, Jaeger was repeatedly denied a chance to wrestle at state due in part to tough district draws and ill-fated wrestleback scenarios. Nonetheless, Jaeger was able to compile a career record of 83-50 with 45 fall victories.

In technically his final high school wrestling match, Jaeger took a 6-1 lead over Denver’s Ben Foelske in a 152-pound bout. Foelske was able to tie it at 6 with a reversal midway through the third period, but Jaeger — like many of the competitors who were visibly gassed near the end of their matches likely due to a month or so away from the grind — was able to score a short-time reversal for the 8-6 decision win.

West Delaware’s Jared Voss scored two victories for the South All-Stars in two different weight classes. First, he decisioned Elijah Wagner 7-0 in a 182-pound match, then Voss pinned Osage’s Collin Muller at the 4:22 mark of their 170-pound match.

The South All-Stars were coached by Charles City assistant wrestling coach Les Staudt. The North All-Stars were coached by Crestwood head coach Keith Slifka.

The North/South All-Star Meet was started in 1978 by Charles City alumni Jim Miller and Denny Presnall. Only twice has the meet not been held in the weeks/month after the state tournament — in 2018 due to a spring blizzard that dumped more than a foot of snow throughout the region, and 2020 due to lockdown measures provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic.

41st Annual Charles City Mat Club North/South All-Star Wrestling Meet

April 10

AT CHARLES CITY COMPETITION GYM

Team Result

SOUTH ALL-STARS 30,
NORTH ALL-STARS 9

Match Results

106 — Cael Long (Cedar Rapids Kennedy-South) d. Nathaniel Bigalk (Crestwood-North) Dec 7-3

182 — Jared Voss (West Delaware-South) d. Elijah Wagner (Lake Mills-North) Dec 7-0

195A — Jacob Reicks (New Hampton/Turkey Valley-South) d. Treyton Burnikel (Crestwood-North) Dec 2-1

126 — Bailey Roybal (Waverly-Shell Rock-South) d. Brooks Meyer (Denver-North Iowa) Dec 5-0

138 — Nathaniel Genobana (Centerville-South) d. Averee Abben (Osage-North) Dec 4-2

145 — Jackson Rolfs (Decorah-South) d. Isaac Schimmels (Denver-North) Dec 4-0

152 — Roush Jaeger (Charles City-South) d. Ben Foelske (Denver-North) Dec 8-6

160 — Austin Roos (Benton Community-South) d. Casey Hanson (Lake Mills-North) Dec 5-1

113 — Kaden Karns (Waterloo West-North) d. Cael Long (Cedar Rapids Kennedy-South) Fall 1:07

170 — Jared Voss (West Delaware-South) d. Collin Muller (Osage-North) Fall 4:22

195B — Spencer Mooberry (Osage-North) d. Jacob Reicks (New Hampton/Turkey Valley) Dec 3-0