Nine local wrestlers advance to districts

(Sentinel photo by Roy Tucker) A-W's Tyler Schneider battles against Woodbury Central's Zach Klingensmith in the 140-pound semifinal on Saturday. Schneider collected his 100th career win as he took the decision victory to advance to the championship match. [Click to enlarge]

At the conclusion of Akron-Westfield Tyler Schneider's 140-pound semifinal victory over Woodbury Central's Zach Klingensmitih, there was a special announcement over the P.A. system at Saturday's West Lyon sectional meet.

The victory was No. 100 of Schneider's career and the senior received an ovation from the crowd.

"It feels real good, joining all the great wrestlers we've had that have had 150, 100 (wins)," Schneider said. "It wasn't really something I thought about, but when I got closer to it, it became a goal."

(Sentinel photo by Roy Tucker) Hinton's Kole Vondrak takes down Sioux Center's Gabe Doornink during the 152-pound championship match at Saturday's sectional tournament. [Click to enlarge]

More importantly, it propelled Schneider to the championship match. Though he fell by pin to Sioux Center's Kyle Donlin, he earned second place by virtue of his win over Klingensmith, who won the consolation bracket.

"It's a big deal for him," A-W coach Mark Van Oort said. "That's four years of hard work, staying academically eligible, living a clean life and just getting after it hard in the practice room."

Schneider will join teammates Chet Utesch (119 champion), Josh Taylor (135 runner-up) and Chet Willer (145 champion) at next week's district meet in Sioux Center.

(Sentinel photo by Roy Tucker) A-W's Chet Willer battles Sioux Center's Jared Swets during the 145-pound title match on Saturday afternooon. [Click to enlarge]

"It made it a lot more special because this is the first time I made it to the finals at sectionals and the first time I made it to districts," Schneider said.

Three Hinton Blackhawks will join their Plymouth County brethren at districts as Devin DeRocher (135 champion), Kole Vondrak (152 champion) and Tanner Knop (189 runner-up) each qualified.

That's triple the number of wrestlers Hinton sent to districts last year as head coach Jan George continues to build his program, which doubled in size this season.

(Sentinel photo by Bethany Kroeze) K-P's Matt Steffen grapples with top-rated Matt Finch of Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn in the 140-pound championship match Saturday in Milford. [Click to enlarge]

"That's 'Coach of the Year' material right there," George said, laughing. "It's nice and I think every one of those kids can say they had a part in those three young men's success today."

Vondrak continued his impressive return season after skipping last year as he let an injury heal from his freshman campaign. Vondrak claimed a technical fall victory over Woodbury Central's Skylar Sanford and outlasted Sioux Center's Gabe Doornink 10-9 in the final.

Knop reached the finals with pin victories over West Lyon's Cody Ahrendt and Woodbury Central's Aaron Wiste. He lost by fall to No. 10 Austin Sasse of West Sioux in the finals, but bounced back with a pin over Sioux Center's Mark Schmith to earn a trip to the district meet, where he could get another shot at Falcons' senior.

(Sentinel photo by Roy Tucker) Hinton's Tanner Knop battles Sioux Center's Mark Schmith in a wrestle-back match on Saturday afternoon at West Lyon. [Click to enlarge]

"Do I think we can beat (Sasse)? I think we can beat anybody," George said. "I think Tanner can beat anybody. It's just a matter of him believing it and the right game plan coming about."

Taylor pinned Woodbury Central's Jake Mize in his semifinal match before dropping a decision to No. 7 Chad Richardson of Lawton-Bronson. Taylor still advanced when Mize won the consolation bracket.

"(Taylor) came in and did enough to get through," Van Oort said. "He needs to work, not give up points at the edge of the mat and finish his takedowns."

Willer pinned Hinton's Nate Held and won a decision over Sioux Center's Jason Swets to claim the 145-pound title as a freshman.

"Willer got the victory and is moving on to districts," Van Oort said. "Sectional champ as a freshman is something he can be really proud of. No one can take that away from him."

A-W freshman Cole Oltmans narrowly missed advancing as he finished third at 125 pounds. Oltmans, who has an injured back and did not decide to wrestle until weigh-in time on Saturday, pinned Lawton-Bronson's Jesse Rhodes in the first round before losing by fall to West Lyon's Swen Rice. Oltmans won a decision over West Sioux's Dereck Kaskie, but Rice claimed the second district berth after losing to Woodbury Central's Zach Ryan in the finals.

Van Oort described Oltmans' performance as "gutsy."

"That's some thing to build on for next year," Van Oort said of Oltmans. "The team was kind of decimated by injuries as of late...As a whole, when you're battling things like that, I was pleased with the overall effort."

Held finished fourth for Hinton while Taylor James finished fifth for A-W. Daniel Beitelspacher, who was competing with a separated shoulder, won two matches in the consolation bracket to finish fifth at 160 and Ethan Hecht lost a wrestle-back decision to finish third at 171 while competing with an injured elbow.

The Westerners placed fourth at the seven-team sectional while Hinton was sixth.

Team scores: 1. Woobury Central, 192; 2. Sioux Center, 177; 3. West Sioux, 144.5; 4. Akron-Westfield, 141; 5. Lawton-Bronson, 113; 6. Hinton, 102; 7. West Lyon, 76.

Steffen, McNaughton advance to districts

Matt Steffen had a tall task in the 140-pound championship match at Saturday's sectional tournament in Milford: attempting to knock off Class 1A's top-rated wrestler at the weight.

Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn junior Matt Finch remained undefeated on the season with a 41-0 mark as he pinned the Kingsley-Pierson junior to win the sectional title.

But Steffen will still join teammate Ross McNaughton in Sioux Center next week and the junior could even get the chance to challenge Finch again.

But first Steffen will have to put away Sioux Center's Kyle Donlin, the champion from the West Lyon sectional who pinned Akron-Westfield's Tyler Schneider in the final.

"We had a few guys that had tough matches," K-P head coach Jeremy Ascherl said. "They came through in some of the other matches but overall we did pretty good."

Steffen started the day with a pin of Okoboji's Cody Louscher and then won a 4-3 decision over Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn's Jacob Meehan in the semifinals.

The Panthers, who finished seventh as a team, had three wrestlers place third on the day.

At 112 pounds, Corey Becker started the day with a pin of Alta's Fidel DeLao in 1:07.

The sophomore dropped a 10-6 decision to Austin Thompson of Graettinger-Terril in the next round, but bounced back with a pin of Okoboji's Cameron Arnold in 1:53 to place third.

Todd Bottorff got a first-round bye before dropping an 8-3 decision to MMC's Jacob Pearson. Bottorff pinned Sibley-Ocheyedan's Dylan Niswander in 1:45 to earn third place at 160 pounds.

Cole Simons started the day with a pin of MMC's Nathan Zubrod at 189 pounds before losing by fall to Okoboji's Shane Vanderpool.

Simons pinned Alta's Garret Van Houten in 2:33 to place third on the day.

Freshman Stetson Nelson placed sixth at 130 pounds for the Panthers. After dropping the opening round match, Nelson was pinned by HMS's Nagel in the third period of the fifth place match.

Steffen and McNaughton will vie for state tournament berths at the district meet in Sioux Center on Saturday.

"We're going to work on conditioning and work on some of the things I saw as flaws today and hopefully they'll fix next week," Ascherl said. "(Overall) I think we did pretty good today."

Team scores: 1. Okoboji, 183; 2. Graettinger-Terril, 181.5; 3. Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn, 168; 4. Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn, 141; 5. Sibley-Ocheyedan, 124.5; 6. Alta, 101; 7. Kingsley-Pierson, 82.