Rams send seven to state

As far as district titles go, it wasn’t a perfect finish.

As finishes go, it was as perfect as Glenwood Coach Brad Asche had hoped.

Glenwood had seven wrestlers reach the finals in the respective weight classes at the Class 3-A District 8 Championship in Waukee Saturday and all seven punched their ticket to this week’s state tournament.

“We were really close to going seven for seven on district championships but we had a couple guys that had to take a different route,” Asche said.

The Iowa State Wrestling Meet opens Thursday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

Waukee won the team district title with 215 points. Glenwood was second with 195.5.

The Rams’ Trevor Anderson (145 pounds) along with Anthony Sherry (182), Kenny Lampman (195) and Caleb Sanders (285) earned district titles in Waukee.

Jordan Renshaw (152) was a true-runner up at 152 pounds to earn his bid while Brett Mower (160) and Isaac Bales (220) both won tough wrestled back matches to get to state.

Anderson, Sherry, Sanders, Renshaw, Mower and Bales all qualified for state  a year ago.

Lampman may have surprised many in Waukee, but not his coach.

Lampman, a three year junior varsity wrestler, didn’t join the Rams’ varsity until early January when another wrestler left the team. Asche’s 195-pounder didn’t waste his opportunity, going 18-9 in the final month and a half of the season culminating in his first state tournament berth.

“I told Kenny before the tournament I wanted to be able to tell his story for the rest of my life,” Asche said. “He had never had a varsity match until this year. He had not wrestled varsity at all. He’d always been stuck behind some tough kids and he got his opportunity and he seized the moment. He did a really good job yesterday.”

The Rams’ seven state qualifiers is one short of last year’s number, when they finished 13th as a team at state.

In Waukee, the competition didn’t make it easy for Glenwood.

“This was the toughest 3A district in the state,” Asche said. “If you look up and down the qualifiers who come out of there, you see No. 1 and No. 2 and No. 3 rated guys everywhere. A lot of top ranked kids. It was definitely a very strong district tournament and to have seven guys come out of there is pretty good.”

The Rams trio of Anderson, Sherry and Sanders all came out of districts looking pretty good.

The No. 2 ranked Anderson scored a 3-2 decision over Waukee’s state rated Brock Parker in his final while No. 2 ranked Sanders ground out a 7-3 win over state rated Nathan McDonald of Waukee in the heavyweight final.

Sherry, ranked No. 2,  had perhaps the quickest final match, needing just 36 seconds to pin No. 3 ranked Brandon Tessau of Waukee in the championship.

Bales didn’t have quite as easy a time in his championship match. After taking a 12-5 lead point on Norwalk’s Drake Leek into the third period, Leek flipped Bales and the match for a late pin. But Bales didn’t hang his head long. The No. 3 ranked senior came back to pin Waukee’s Gabe Gammell in the first period of the wrestleback.

Asche said Bales’ response to his loss in the district finals was what he expected of his senior who is ranked No. 3 in the state.

“He’s had to work for everything,” Asche said. “He hasn’t always been successful in wrestling when he was younger and he wrestled through that. He got out of position and got a little tired I think and lost that match. It was surprise and I was disappointed. But I think that got his attention. I’m hoping it did.”

In the 160-pound wrestleback, Mower earned a 15-7 major decision over Norwalk’s Anthony Hughes.

The state tournament brackets were released Sunday and Asche said there’s no surprises and no mysteries when it comes to first round matches at state: all of them will be tough matches.

“We’ve got some tough draws as usual,” Asche said. “Anyone that makes it down there is going to be a tough draw. We’re also a tough draw. Some of those people are also looking at the draws and thinking ‘Oh man, I have to go through Glenwood.’ It’s one of those things, you have to take it the way it is and just go and out see what you can do.”

Rams fall at regional duals

Glenwood won its opener but lost its second match at the Class 3A Regional Duals at Southeast Polk last Tuesday.

The dominated No. 23 ranked Indianola 64-9 in the opener before falling to Southeast Polk 53-22 in the regional finals.

Southeast Polk advances to Wednesday night’s state duals at Wells Fargo Arena.

“We came out and wrestled well against Indianola, we went out and attacked and got to our offense,” said Glenwood coach Brad Asche. “It was a struggle to get on our offense against SEP, but we have a couple days to get back after it and then its districts. It hasn’t been a problem in the future bouncing back so we should be alright. The last couple weeks has been about getting better individually and we will move on from it.”

Glenwood won 12 of 14 matches against Indianola, seven by fall.

Southeast Polk opened by winning its first three matches nine of the first 11 in the win over Glenwood.

The Rams’ Jordan Renshaw (152), Brett Mower (160 pounds), Isaac Bales (220) and Caleb Sanders (285) all won two matches.

Glenwood closes its dual season with a record of 15-2.

Glenwood 64,
Indianola 9
160: Brett Mower, G, won by fall over Hunter VanderWaal, I, :55. 170: Nick Gill, G, won by decision over Andrew Wolff, I, 6-0. 182: Cole Mayberry, G, won by fall over Caleb Watson, I, 1:11. 195: Kenny Lampman, G, won by fall over Shane Crawford, I, 1:11. 220: Isaac Bales, G, won by fall over Wes Hogard, I,1:10. 285: Caleb Sanders, G, won by fall over Ben Teasdale, I, 1:19. 106: Dalton Bell, G, won by forfeit. 113: Tyler Huey, G, won by major decision over Trey Kellow, I, 13-0. 120: Jeff Messinger, G, won by forfeit. 126: Dalton Book, G, won by decision over Camden Lloyd, I, 6-1. 132: Brock Elbert, I, won by decision over Brian Krewson, G, 3-0. 138: Kaleb Kloberdanz, I, won by fall over Tanner Maxwell, G, 3:13. 145: Trevor Anderson, G, won by fall over Sean Cunningham, I, 1:06. 152: Jordan Renshaw, G, won by fall over Hunter Freeman, I, 4:00.

Southeast Polk 53,
Glenwood 22
170: Thaddeus Breitsprecker, SP, won by fall over Nick Gill, G, 4:52. 182: Mason Morgan, SP, won by fall over Cole Mayberry, G, 3:28. 195: Gabe Christenson, SP, won by major decision over Kenny Lampman, G, 16-5. 220: Isaac Bales, G, won by fall over Connor Brown, SP, :24. 285: Caleb Sanders, G, won by fall over Justus Marnin, SP, 2:54. 106: Devin Harmison, SP, won by fall over Dalton Bell, SP, :33. 113: Cael Cunningham, SP, won by decision over Tyler Huey, G, 7-0. 120: Kobey Pritchard, SP, won by forfeit. 126: Camden Baarda, SP, won by fall over Dalton Book, G, 1:28. 132: Zach Strickland, SP, won by fall over Michael Radford, G, 1:37. 138: Jared Chadwick, SP, won by fall over Tanner Maxwell, G, :44. 145: Tyler Henderson, SP, won by major decision over Trevor Stanley, G, 10-1. 152: Jordan Renshaw, G,  won by major decision over Jacob Robillard, SP, 13-2. 160: Brett Mower, G, won by fall over Zach Strickland, SP, 5:20.