Mintle earns first Lynnville-Sully podium finish in 10 years

DES MOINES — Lynnville-Sully junior Matthew Mintle won 50 matches during his first two high school seasons at Grinnell.

But returning to the Hawk family in the offseason, Mintle did something at the school that hasn’t been done for 10 seasons during the Iowa High School State Wrestling Championships.

Mintle’s season ended on the last possible day of the season on Saturday and his fifth-place performance at the state tournament produced the first podium finish at Lynnville-Sully since Caden Doll did it 10 seasons ago.

“It’s awesome. I’ve watched so many great wrestlers come in and fall short,” Mintle said. “Josh Dunsbergen, who was good enough to podium, fell short, too, and he came into our room right before state and talked to us about it. It kind of stuck with me. I just wanted to come in and prove everyone wrong.

“They didn’t have me on the predictions for the podium. Not even eighth.”

Mintle came into state ranked 12th in Class 1A at 132 pounds. His path to a state medal included wins over No. 8 Luke Schroeder of Missouri Valley and No. 11 Aydan Groom of North Mahaska. It also featured a pair of losses to No. 5 Drew Anderson of Riverside and No. 6 Brayden Scheffers of Interstate 35.

The Hawks’ other state qualifiers weren’t as fortunate as Mintle. Freshman Jett Kramer went 2-2 in his first state tournament with both losses coming to top-seven ranked opponents.

Sophomore Kimball Elliott also wrestled at state for the first time but went 0-2, including a narrow one-point loss in the opening round.

“He’s a hammer,” Johnson said about Kramer. “You’ll be hearing about him for a long time. He’s a great wrestler and a great kid. He’s a practice partner with (Mintle) and they are the hardest working kids in the room by far.”

Mintle and Kramer both had first-round byes. Mintle opened his tournament with a 12-0 victory over Lawton-Bronson’s Breighton Carlson but lost by fall to fifth-ranked Anderson of Riverside in the quarterfinals.

He stayed alive with a 7-1 win over eighth-ranked Schroeder of Missouri Valley and then clinched a podium finish with a 10-9 win over Shenandoah’s Cole Scamman.

He opened Saturday with a 7-1 loss to sixth-ranked Scheffers of I-35 but pinned 11th-ranked Groom of North Mahaska in the fifth-place match.

“It’s been a long time,” Johnson said about L-S having a podium finisher. “We had three guys we felt good about coming in. Jett fell just short this morning, but Matthew deserves this. He comes in every day, has a great attitude and works hard. There’s not a more deserving guy than him.”

Kramer, who entered the tournament ranked 12th in 1A at 113, lost 20-4 to No. 7 Cael Stricker of Lisbon after a first-round bye. That set up back-to-back pins against West Monona-Whiting’s Blake Menish and BGM’s Hunter Hodina.

But he was eliminated 16-2 by No. 5 Atlee Dewitt of Alburnett.

Elliott ended the season ranked 10th at 126, but he lost twice to unranked foes at the state tournament.

Sumner-Fredericksburg’s Sam Eagan edged Elliott, 7-6, in their opening-round match and then Elliott lost an elimination match by fall to New London’s Kane Forseen.

Elliott (39-8) trailed Eagan 6-3 after two periods, but rallied to tie the match at 6-all in the third. But Eagan (39-8) scored the winning point on an escape with 7 seconds to go in the match.

Forseen (30-7) rallied from a 3-0 hole with a takedown and four back points in the second period and then another takedown in the third made it 10-3 before he pinned Elliott in the final seconds of the bout.

“(Elliott) works hard and had a great season even though things didn’t go his way the past few days,” Johnson said. “He ended up getting through a tough district to get here so I’m proud of him.”

Kramer (43-8) got the first takedown against Stricker, but the Lisbon grappler avenged a loss from districts with a technical fall win.

Stricker (42-12) led 4-3 after one and he outscored Kramer 16-1 in the second. Stricker wound up sixth in the final standings.

Kramer led 3-0 after one against Menish (20-26) before scoring the win by fall. His other win came by fall in the rubber match against conference rival Hodina (46-7) of BGM.

“I had a rough start but rebounded in the last two matches,” Kramer said. “(Hodina) beat me in the finals at the conference meet, but I took a bad shot in the first period and he took me to my back and pinned me. I was hoping to get that one back. Not to take anything away from him, but it was a bad shot on my part.”

Dewitt (30-9) led Kramer 3-1 after one but dominated the second period. He finished seventh in the final standings.

Mintle (49-8) led his second-round match against Carlson 3-0 after one and then pushed the margin to 7-0 after two. He earned a stalling point before winning 12-0.

No. 5 Anderson of Riverside led Mintle 9-1 in the second before winning by fall. Anderson (44-6) lost in the championship match on Saturday night and settled for second in the weight class.

Mintle stayed alive with a convincing 7-1 win over No. 8 Schroeder (47-10) of Missouri Valley. He led 3-1 after one and scored four back points in the second for the final margin.

Mintle locked up his state medal with a 10-9 win over Scamman of Shenandoah. He led 3-0 after one, trailed 6-4 in the second, led 7-6 after two, trailed 9-8 with 1:39 to go in the match but won the bout with a reversal with 39 seconds left.

“When he’s down 6-4, I have to stay calm and collected,” Johnson said. “Trying to coach him the whole way. I get a little nervous when it’s that close late in the match and when he wins it, I can’t keep my emotions in at that point. It was a fun match. It was an up-and-down roller coaster.

“He’s one of the best scramblers on the team. He’s always able to find an ankle, crotch ride and just figure it out. Being up 3-0 was a good feeling. Being down brings the nerves out for sure.”

Scamman (50-18) was a 50-match winner who ended up eighth in the final standings.

No. 6 Scheffers (49-8) of I-35 pushed Mintle to the fifth-place match with a 7-1 win and then finished third with a win in his final bout.

Mintle trailed No. 11 Groom (38-6) of conference rival North Mahaska 4-3 after one period of their fifth-place match but took the lead on a reversal in the third before winning by fall.

“My determination was the key,” Mintle said. “When I step on the mat, I’m calm and not nervous. My head is clear and I have one goal.”

Notes: All three Hawk wrestlers set career highs for wins in a season. … Mintle will begin his senior season with 99 career victories.