While the girls’ wrestlers traveled West to Coralville, the West Liberty boys’ wrestling team took a bus ride east last Thursday to Davenport for a triangular against Davenport Assumption and Cedar Rapids Kennedy.
All three schools did not wrestle in last week’s state dual team tournament, so they had an extra opportunity to compete and get better ahead of next Saturday’s district meet.
At Assumption High School, the Comets fell to the Knights 48-36 and to the Cougars 39-28.
West Liberty received four forfeits in the dual, surrendered one, and went 2-7 in contested matches.
The two Comet winners were Isaac Aragon at 126, who earned a first-period pin over Sean Kersten. The other was at 157 where Kaden Wiele pinned Gauge Bowman in the second period.
Receiving forfeits for the Comets were Lincoln Daufeldt (106), Ryan Cassady (113), Ryker Dengler (150) and Andre Puentes-Bueno (165).
Against Cedar Rapids Kennedy, 12 of the 13 duals were contested, with the exception of the Comets forfeiting at 144.
West Liberty won six of the 13 duals and tabulated three pins, two decisions and one major decision. In contrast, the Cougars won seven matches with four pins and three decisions.
The dual got off to a rocking start with four Comet wins in the first five matches.
Cassady opened the scoring with a 10-2 major decision against Max Panosh, and Tully Griffith followed it up at 120 with an 8-2 decision win over Colton Smithhart.
After that, Aragon and Briggs Collins at 126 and 132 quickly boosted the score line to 19-3 with two first-period pins.
The Cougars would cut into the lead with a decision win and a forfeit win, but Dengler stopped the bleeding with a 5-2 decision win over Cael Smithhart.
From that point on, it was all Cedar Rapids Kennedy. The Cougars won five of the next six bouts to take the dual. Only Joe Akers at 190 prevented a bigger run of wins with his third-period pin at 190.
Now, the Comets turn their attention to individual districts with a place at the state tournament in Des Moines on the line.
This year, West Liberty is in Class 2A District No. 9. They will travel to Solon High School on Saturday, where they will meet wrestlers from Camanche, Central DeWitt, Columbus Community, Mid-Prairie, Mount Vernon and Tipton.
Brackets for the 2024 state tournament will be released the following day on Feb. 11. The Class 2A tournament is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, Feb. 14 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.