Newton’s Linahon finishes second at state wrestling

DES MOINES — Newton senior Gage Linahon knows he had a successful season on the wrestling mat.

But losing a state championship match hurts. And Linahon walked out of Wells Fargo Arena on Saturday night with a lot of disappointment.

His only two losses of the season came to top-ranked Brayden Wolf of Waverly-Shell Rock, and the latest was an 8-6 decision in the Class 3A 220-pound state championship match at the Iowa High School State Wrestling Championships.

“It will take awhile to get over this one. This was my last match in a Cardinal singlet so that sucks,” Linahon said. “There’s definitely positives. I placed high, but I know there was more I could have done.

Fellow Cardinal senior Destin Schroder also earned a trip on the 3A podium as he finished eighth at 182 pounds. He won two matches in all at the state tournament.

Linahon (33-2) trailed Wolf in the championship match 2-1 after the first period. He led briefly in the second but fell behind 5-4 after two. Wolf (39-1) closed out his first state championship with a takedown with 36 seconds to go in the bout.

“I wasn’t aggressive enough I guess. We are both great competitors and a tiny little flaw can spell disaster,” Linahon said. “I probably just made a little mental mistake.”

Wolf scored the first takedown in the match about midway through the first period. Linahon got an escape before the end of the first two minutes to make it 2-1 after one.

“He felt him out in the first period. He started to get on his offense after that, but it’s really hard to prep for this environment,” Newton coach Andy Swedenhjelm said.

In the second, Linahon got an escape and a takedown in the first minute to go up 4-2, but Wolf answered with an escape 20 seconds later and scored a takedown with 3 seconds left in the period.

The only points Linahon could muster in the third was an escape and penalty point. Wolf’s final takedown extended the Go-Hawk senior’s lead to 8-5 late in the bout.

“You have to give them credit, too. They have some great wrestlers over there,” Swedenhjelm said. “We always talk about finishing periods on top but we weren’t able to do that in this one.”

Linahon was attempting to be the Cardinals’ ninth state champion. He was the school’s first finalist since Bryce Skaggs lost a 160-pound championship match in 2008.

“You can’t ask for a better kid. He works his butt off,” Swedenhjelm said. “He’s a 4.0 student and an Eagle scout. It’s been a great journey for him. He’s a great role model for our kids.”

Linahon pinned No. 10 Gavin Bascom (31-6) of Cedar Rapids Kennedy in the second period to advance to the semifinals. Bascom went on to finish eighth.

“He started out strong but his conditioning wasn’t there,” Linahon said. “Once I had a couple takedowns on him, I rode him hard and broke him down and I could feel him slowing down. I knew I could work for wrists from that point.”

The Cardinal senior went the distance for the first time in the semifinals, but a dominant 15-3 victory over fifth-ranked C.J. Stillman of West Des Moines Valley pushed him into the 3A championship match on Friday afternoon.

Linahon dominated Stillman (37-7) from the opening whistle. He got three takedowns in the first period, a takedown and an escape in the second and two takedowns and two nearfall points in the third. Stillman went on to place third.

“He had only the one move and was being pretty defensive,” Linahon said. “He can’t do much once I get to his leg. That’s what my goal was and that’s what I was able to do.”

Fifth-ranked Schroder (28-5) opened his day with a loss to second-ranked Will Hoeft (23-1) of Iowa City West in the quarterfinals.

He stayed alive in the 182-pound bracket and earned his first state medal when he pinned rival Tristan Duncan (28-13) of Norwalk in the third period.

“It feels good, but I wish I could have done more,” Schroder said. “I put everything into winning a state title so coming back from a loss was tough. I gave that guy six free points, too.”

Schroder lost 3-1 to seventh-ranked Justin Brindley (34-12) of Southeast Polk.

The match was scoreless after one period but Brindley got an escape and a takedown in the second to lead 3-0. Schroder’s point came on an escape with 1:29 to go in the match.

Brindley ended up placing sixth in the tournament and Hoeft was the 3A 182-pound champion.

The loss to Brindley pushed Schroder into the seventh-place match. In that bout, he fell behind against LeMars’ Colton Hoag (37-12) and never recovered during a 6-4 loss.

“It was disappointing to end it like this,” Schroder said. “I didn’t shoot enough shots at the end of periods. I just didn’t perform very well down here.”

Hoag got a takedown late in the first period and never trailed after that. Schroder scored a takedown 31 seconds into the second to trim the deficit to 3-2, but Hoag got an escape and a takedown to extend the advantage.

Schroder scored his final two points on a reversal with 14 seconds left in the match, but it wasn’t enough to complete the comeback.