Comets Lopez, Young advance to bracket finals at Keith Vry Wrestling Invitational

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

PARKERSBURG — No need to stop the presses when stating that wrestling can — at times — be a grueling sport.

But the 145-pound championship match at Saturday’s annual Keith Vry Invitational hosted by Aplington-Parkersburg was a crucible like no other.

In “real time” the bout between Kaiden Knaack of Don Bosco and Charles City senior Nathan Lopez took more than 30 minutes after all the dust had been lifted and the blood cleaned off the mat.

And it was almost over shortly after it began.

Lopez sustained a bloody nose early in the first period, but one of the two officials monitoring the match thought it was more serious than that. Fearing that Lopez might have a concussion, the wrestler needed to pass a medical evaluation before he could be cleared to continue wrestling — or suffer a medical forfeit.

Lopez got the clearance to continue, but Knaack was having match-stoppage maladies of his own with a bloody torn finger-nail.

Somehow the match got through regulation with both wrestlers tied at 3. After a scoreless sudden-victory period, Knaak escaped to a 4-3 lead in the subsequent tiebreaker period. Lopez tied it with an escape of his own in the second tiebreaker period, but Knaak was able to quickly score a takedown to retake the lead before getting the fall victory at the 7:41 mark.

Knaack’s effort was one of six titles for Don Bosco, which paced the 10-team field with 276.5 team points.

The Comets placed fifth with 116 team points.

Charles City advanced another wrestler to the finals — junior 120-pounder Jordan “Peanut” Young.

After receiving a first-round bye and then recording a pair of fall victories, Young faced Jaxon Larson of Don Bosco in the final.

Larson caught Young in a cradle late in the first period and appeared on the verge of getting the slap, but Young managed to resist to extend the bout to the second period.

Larson eventually did get the fall victory at the 3:31 mark.

Charles City senior Ethan Peterson placed third in the 220-pound bracket after pinning Aiden Heitland of AGWSR 3:12 into their third-place match.

Comets placing fourth in their brackets were Dylan LaPolice at 138 and Talan Weber at 152.

Comets placing fifth in their brackets were Colton Anderegg (160) and Trevor Peterson (195).