The West Liberty High School Comet wrestling team was represented by five of its members at the Iowa High School State Wrestling Tournament on Feb.17-19 at Wells Fargo Arena in downtown Des Moines.
Two seniors and three juniors competed during the three day event. All but one of the five Comets placed in the top eight of their respective weight classes and the team finished in 15th place overall with 37.5 total points.
West Burlington Notre Dame edged out Osage for the traditional team title by one half of a point, 109-108.5. West Delaware rounded out the top three with 80.5 points.
Each of the three classifications (1A-2A-3A) was represented by 14 different 16-man brackets. Of the 14 different weights in each class, just one winner would be crowned at the end of the tournament on Saturday, Feb. 19.
Juniors Colin Cassady, Joshua Zeman and Drake Collins joined seniors Felipe Molina and Jahsiah Galvan on the big stage beginning Thursday, with Collins the only returning state qualifier in the group.
The opening session for Class 2A began at approximately 9 a.m. on Thursday morning and included first round and first round consolation matches. Fortunately for the Comets, all five members stayed alive in their brackets to advance to Friday’s quarterfinal rounds.
One of the five, first-time wrestler Felipe Molina, was knocked out of the tournament during the consolation matches on Friday afternoon and the remaining four Comets earned placing matches with individual wins.
Here’s how they wrestled:
At 106 pounds, third seed and #3 ranked Colin Cassady began his tournament with a 15-7 major decision victory over Dreylen Schweitzer (31-16) of Carroll.
Cassady went on to post a 4-0 victory over Dylan Heater (43-5) of Grinnell to advance to the coveted semifinal round. There, Cassady dropped a hard fought 8-3 decision to #1 ranked and the eventual 2022 state champion, Jace Hedeman (46-0) of Union.
Cassady fought back with a 6-3 victory over Aiden Smith (51-10) of Atlantic to reach the consolation finals. Cassady earned a stellar third place finish in his first ever state appearance when he knocked off fantastic freshman Emmitt Newton (49-4) of Davis County by a 9-6 score. Cassady’s season record ended at 44-6.
Joshua Zeman dropped his first match at 145 pounds by a heartbreaking 11-7 overtime score to #7 ranked Brenden Heying (35-6) of Benton Community.
With his back against the wall in the double elimination tournament, Zeman went on to beat Triston Barncastle (40-12) of Creston by a 6-4 score and Cason Johannes (40-7) of Sheldon South O’Brien by a similar 8-4 mark.
After a 10-2 loss to Brady Stille (36-12) of Decorah, Zeman would drop his final match of the season by a 6-5 score to finish in 8th place for the Comets. Zeman ended his junior campaign with a 36-15 record.
At 170, the only Comet with state wrestling experience, Drake Collins, came out of the gates a little sluggish and won a nail-biter of a 3-2 match over Mitch Johnson (37-14) from Independence.
Collins warmed up after that and decked Austin Pfantz (30-10) of West Marshall by a 14-7 regular decision victory. In the semifinals, Collins didn’t back down to top seed and second ranked Kadin Stutzman (56-3) of Atlantic. Although he dropped a 10-6 match to the eventual bracket champion, Collins was aggressive the entire match.
Another tight match ended in a pin by Jarrett Roos (45-6) of Sheldon South O’Brien over Collins in his next match. Collins rebounded with a resounding 15-0 technical fall to earn a fifth place state finish and close out his junior season with a fantastic 45-5 record.
Felipe Molina lost by fall to the eventual runner up and #2 ranked wrestler of the 182 pound bracket, Fernando Villaescusa (38-2) of Gilbert in his first match. Molina bounced back with a 2:00 fall over Garrett McHugh (42-13) of Sergeant Bluff-Luton in his first consolation match.
Molina bowed out of the tournament with a final 13-5 loss to #5 ranked Zane Bendorf (40-6) of Harlan. Molina’s appearance in the state tournament was quite an accomplishment, considering Molina only won 12 matches in his first year of wrestling.
Molina concluded his Comet wrestling career with a 37-14 senior record.
Another first year Comet wrestler, Jahsiah Galvan, had quite an impressive showing, considering the Comet had zero high school matches prior to the beginning of this season.
Galvan lost by fall to #11 ranked Henry Christensen (32-13) of Ballard in a wild and scrambly first match. Galvan got back on track with a 1:50 fall over Isaac Howe (17-21) of New Hampton Turkey Valley in the first round of consolation matches.
Galvan followed that up with 7-4 grinder over Gabe Terwee (41-7) of West Lyon. Galvan dropped his next match by fall in 5:30 to #9 ranked Josiah Bundt (37-11) of MOC-Floyd Valley. Galvan won his final match of his senior season quite valiantly by 5-2 victory over Christensen of Ballard who had pinned Galvan in the opening round of the tournament.
Galvan finished in seventh place and ran his senior/only year record to 37-9.
Coach was proud
West Liberty coach Ian Alke had this to say about the weekend in Des Moines: “First thoughts always go to the future and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Three state place winners returning is exciting, along with a good group of junior high kids coming in.”
“We were 0-2 in the semis so that stings. When you look back on it there is always something to work on,” Alke said. “Like in the semis we have to get to what we can do good or really good earlier. We gotta learn those lessons. We have to push the pace, we have to use the things we’re good at and we need good offense.”
106 Colin Cassady – “He can wrestle all day in that wrestling room and now he has to continue to build on what he’s saying about himself,” Alke said of the junior. “His confidence is becoming bigger and bigger in him and we need to keep it going. Only losing to the state champion is sometime to hang your hat on.”
Alke went on: “Sometimes, the way the tournament plays out- the finals match is earlier. That’s the rub, you have to be ready for each match. Colin wrestled a great tournament and we are proud of him.”
145 Joshua Zeman – “Well he placed above his seed and that is good for him. He did some things that I have not seen him do before that is very positive,” the coach said of the junior. “When there’s a big stage and a lot on the line Josh will wrestle at a higher level. We need to be more consistent next year if we want to achieve our goals. Hopefully this is what Josh needed.”
170 Drake Collins – “Very, very tough guy there first of all. And he’s always been tough. He’s dealt with some adversity and he dealt with it well. He’s overcome a lot. He’s strong, he’s healthy this year, he’s bigger. Those things add up when you combine it with the toughness,” the coach said about the junior.
“He can win scrambles. He can bail himself out of danger. There are just a lot of good ingredients there that add up to him getting what he wants. What it comes down to is can we take guys down. In the semis we took him down,” Alke continued. “We could have got another takedown there in the end. Lot of guts came out of that match in the semis. We new the backside was going to be tough but we wrestled hard anyway. Fifth is a heck of an accomplishment.”
182 Felipe Molina - “Dangerous. When you can pin somebody in every position you’re a bad man,” said Alke of his senior. “That’s how he got in this tournament. He beat someone he wasn’t “supposed” to beat on paper. He doesn’t care about rankings or what people say he just competes and puts guys on their backs.”
“He got put in a spot in that bracket that the experts would say he wouldn’t win a match,” Alke continued. “He battled anyway and was one match away from placing. I can tell you no one wants to wrestle Felipe. That’s his legacy - dangerous.”
195 Jahsiah Galvan - “I’ve been saying it all year, Jahsiah is one of the most athletically talented kids I’ve ever coached. I was hoping he would have a winning record when I learned he was coming out after a four-year break. Now he’s a state place winner,” the coach said of the senior.
“I think he had an idea what the tournament was like before we got there. But he didn’t. That first match proved it. He was overwhelmed with emotions and nerves. After that match, he calmed down and did the things he’s been doing all year. We got that Ballard kid again for seventh and beat him. This is just another thing to add to his deep resume but I’m sure something he will never forget,” Alke said. “The message here is, if you want to be a good football, baseball, volleyball player - wrestle. Trust me.”
“Overall, this team surpassed any expectation I had,” Alke finalized. “I think I’ve said this was supposed to be a rebuilding year. Certainly didn’t feel like it. The next few years will be fun.”