Three Bolts, two Tigerhawks advance to state wrestling tournament

TRURO — Colfax-Mingo junior John McGill and Baxter junior Aiden McFadden were perfect at the Class 1A District 4 wrestling tournament on Saturday.

The two grapplers combined to go 5-0 with five pins to advance to the state tournament and both will try to win for the first time at Wells Fargo Arena.

The Bolts and Tigerhawks each competed in an 11-team field at Interstate 35 High School. Baxter’s nine wrestlers placed fifth and Colfax-Mingo’s 10 were eighth.

Baxter will send a total of three wrestlers to the state meet and Colfax-Mingo pushed through two to the state’s biggest stage.

Joining McFadden at state for the Bolts will be freshman Ruger Kincaid and junior Callyn Bishop. Colfax-Mingo freshman Cason Fitch joins McGill.

Host Interstate 35 won the district championship with 185 points, while Pleasantville (162.5), Lenox (124), Martensdale-St. Marys (106) and Baxter (87) completed the top five.

The rest of the 11-team field included Moravia (70), Colfax-Mingo (55), Wayne (33), Central Decatur (24) and Mount Ayr (22).

Class 1A No. 11 McGill (43-5) was 3-0 with three pins for Colfax-Mingo. One of his pins took 54 seconds.

Fitch (38-9) finished 2-1 for the day at 113. He won once by fall and claimed a 6-5 win by decision. His lone loss came against fifth-ranked Max Pollack (25-3) of Wayne.

The other eight Tigerhawks combined to win four matches. Davion Long (152), Austin Lane (170) and Isaiah Baucom (182) all were 1-2 with one win by pin. Seth Brant (145) claimed a 13-4 victory but also lost twice by major decision.

Sullivan Wilkins (126), Donavan Baucom (220) and Jermaine Cross (285) finished 0-2 at their weights and James Cherveny (132) was 0-1.

Colfax-Mingo was open at 106, 120, 138 and 195. Baxter was open at 106, 113, 160, 195 and 220.

McFadden (30-5) finished first at 285 after winning both of his matches by fall.

Kincaid (21-17) breezed through his 120-pound bracket with three wins by pin. And Bishop won a wrestle back and needed four victories to advance at 170.

Bishop (32-7) finished second but all four of his wins were by fall.

Cole Smith (34-9) finished third at 126 after losing a wrestle-back match. He was 3-2 on the day with two pins.

Skyler Stoll (27-10) and Jack Anderson (25-12) each finished 1-2 at 138 and 152, respectively. Anderson’s win was by fall and Stoll was part of three decisions.

Maddux Peters was 0-1 at 132 and Jacob Hiemstra (145) and Michael Wilhelm (182) each finished 0-2.

The Class 1A portion of the Iowa High School State Wrestling Championships will begin at 9 a.m. on Wednesday inside Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

McGill, who was 0-2 as a freshman at 138, received a first-round bye as the No. 8 seed. He will face either 12th-seeded Tanner Thurn (26-4) of East Buchanan or 21st-seeded Kadyn Kraklio (34-18) of Durant.

Fitch begins his first state tournament as the No. 16 seed at 113. He faces 17th-seeded Keyin Steeve (37-9) of Nodaway Valley. The winner of that match gets top-seeded and No. 1 ranked Eli Becerra (43-2) of Missouri Valley.

McFadden earned the No. 9 seed at 285. He faces 24th-seeded Zack Pierce (8-12) of Rockford. The winner of that match gets 8th-seeded and 12th-ranked Payton Jacobe (40-6) of ACGC. McFadden was 0-2 at state as a freshman.

Bishop was 0-2 at 170 last year at state. He starts his second run seeded 17th and faces 16th-seeded Wyatt VanWeelden (38-8) of North Mahaska. The winner of that match faces No. 1 ranked and No. 1 seeded Maximus Magayna (43-1) of Columbus Catholic.

VanWeelden is 2-1 against Bishop this season. Bishop won by a 12-3 major decision and VanWeelden’s victories were 6-4 in SV-1 and 9-0.

Kincaid begins his first state tournament as the No. 11 seed at 120. He faces 22nd-seeded Ronnie Orres (30-16) of Fort Dodge St. Edmond in his opening match. That winner gets No. 6 seeded and No. 8 ranked Tayten Coufal (35-10) of Alburnett.