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Hinton qualifies six wrestlers for state tournament
ONAWA — Hinton continued their successful wrestling season Saturday at the Class 1A District 10 meet. The Blackhawks finished with six individuals ending in the top two of their weight class to advance to the state tournament.
“The previous record was three. Our preseason goal was to beat the record with four. To find six guys to go down there, couldn’t be happier,” Hinton Head Coach Casey Crawford said.
A pair of division champions
The Blackhawks had two individuals win their weight class at the event. At 126 pounds, Ethan Sachau was able to sweep his competition to advance to state for the second year in a row. He was the team’s lone qualifier last season at 120 pounds.
“He’s had an up and down season. He’s been sick a lot, he’s been hurt a lot, so it’s nice to see him finally putting it all together,” Crawford said. “He’s feeling good. He’s feeling healthy. He’s got his energy back and he looks really good right now.”
Sachau won his first two matches by fall in similar times of 1:11 and 1:14 over Logan Rial of Kuemper Catholic and Jeremiah Berg of Westwood. The semifinal win was the 100th career win for Sachau. In the first place match, Sachau won by a major decision score of 11-3 against TJ Nutt of MVAOCOU to improve to 26-3 on the season.
Gabe Anderson was the other champion for the team at the meet as he qualified at 170. In his first match he got a win by fall in 1:11 over Seth Donelson of East Sac County. In the semifinal match, Anderson won a close 3-2 decision over Thomas Sisco of MVAOCOU. It was his second win over Sisco this season after pinning him in a dual meeting.
Anderson took the first place match by fall in 5:27 over Will Healy of Kuemper Catholic to improve to 35-12.
“Gabe has wrestled great all season. I think he’s kind of a dark horse that not a lot of people think about, but he’s wrestling phenomenal,” Crawford said. “He’s fearless out there. He does a lot of weird stuff out there, but he trusts it and he’s good at it so we just let him fly and see what happens.”
Four advance with runner-up finishes
Hinton added four more to their state tournament-bound group with second place finishes. At 132, Mark Gant ended as the runner-up in the division. He opened with a quarterfinal win by fall in 1:49 over MVAOCOU’s Beau Weber. His other two matches were decision scores. In the semifinals, he won 7-3 over William Gibson of West Monona. In the first place match, Gant was outscored 12-5 by Riley Parkis of Kuemper Catholic. Gant did not face a wrestleback as he had already beaten Gibson. He takes a 39-9 record to state.
“That’s a really nice tournament for Mark Gant. The kid who beat him in the finals is a real tough wrestler. We hung with him,” Crawford said. “He’s one of those kids who deserves that trip down there and he earned it today, so I’m really happy for Mark.”
Jackson Kounkel took silver at 152. He won his first match by fall in 1:15 over Koltin Linkenhoker of MVAOCOU. In the semifinals he won a 6-2 decision over Tom Hellman of Westwood. Kounkel lost the first place match by a 7-2 score to Grant Russell of West Monona. Kounkel did not face a wrestleback thanks to his previous win over Heilman. He takes a 36-13 record to state.
“It’s really nice for a freshman to make his way down there, especially at 152 pounds. You know, he’s wrestling a lot of grown men at that weight. But he holds his own and he’s a strong wrestler. I thought he wrestled really well today,” Crawford said.
Jacob Bishop faced a wrestleback for the second spot at 182. He was able to punch his ticket with a late first period win by fall over Westwood’s Devin LaBrune. Bishop started his day with a pair of first period wins by fall. He then lost his first place match by fall in 1:54 against MVAOCOU’s Kolby Scott, the third time this season Scott had pinned Bishop. The Hinton wrestler takes a 32-15 record to the state tournament.
“The finals match didn’t go our way, but you know that’s a top-ranked kid in the state. To come back, those are the ones you really look for when you come back after a loss. You can refocus yourself and you can come out with a win there and look pretty dominant in that wrestleback. Really happy with his effort today,” Crawford said.
Brooks Binneboese snagged the team’s final spot at 195. He started with a first period pin of Lawton-Bronson’s Kamden Goosman and then won a 3-0 decision over Kuemper’s Coby Pierce. In the first place match, Binneboese was pinned by undefeated Jackson Dewald of Westwood. Binneboese did not face a wrestleback as he already beat Pierce. He takes a 27-9 record to state.
“Brooks Binneboese, he’s only wrestled for three years, and for him to be a state qualifier at 195 pounds is a really big deal,” Crawford said. “Him and his brother have rotated duties throughout the year and Brooks was the guy to go today and he got his job done and he looked really good.”
Five third places fall just short
The Blackhawks came close to adding even more team members to their state qualifying contingent, but the team ended up taking third in an additional five matches. A few of those ended up going to second place wrestlebacks. While those wrestlers will see their season come to an end, they did help provide points to give the Blackhawks the team title with a banner as district meet champions.
“Lost a couple wrestlebacks. It would have been nice to have gotten those, but throughout the year we’ve won these tournaments by getting seconds and thirds, so we kind of kept pattern today,” Crawford said.
At 106, Evan Stahl had Kuemper’s Caleb Hoffman on his back, but couldn’t quite finish off the pin in the second place wrestleback match. Stahl ended up losing that contest 7-3. Stahl won his consolation semifinal and third place match by fall in order to have a shot at the wrestleback.
A close 5-4 decision loss for Nicholas Lindley in the 120 semifinals ended up being the deciding factor. The loss to East Sac County’s Bradyn Burns ended up giving Burns the advantage to claim second place without a wrestleback. Lindley won his other three matches by fall.
Gage Morgan finished third at 138 and had a similar situation to Lindley. His loss to Evan Meadows of West Monona in the semifinals was the only loss of the day, but Meadows held the advantage to take second place without a wrestleback. Morgan won his other three matches by fall.
At 145, Tommy Tanner was also kept to a third place result after a loss to South Central Calhoun’s Brock Nattress kept the Hinton wrestler from having a chance for a wrestleback. Tanner lost the semifinal match by a 10-2 major decision score. He won his other three matches, two by decision scores and the other by a major decision score.
Garrett Divis closed out the tournament with a wrestleback for second in the 285 class. He ended up losing that match by fall in 3:11 to Vinny Zappia of Missouri Valley. Divis won a 7-6 quarterfinal decision over Westwood’s Tyler Sulsberger and beat him again by a 10-7 score in the third place match. His other win was by fall while he lost his semifinal match by fall to Jace Henderson of MVAOCOU.
The team’s two other wrestlers, Isaac Richter (160) and Reese Stokes (220) did not place at the event.
The Hinton state qualifiers will open their state tournament with matches on Wednesday morning. Crawford said the team will look to take the tournament day by day.
“If we can just find a way to continually make it to the next day, then hopefully we can find your way on the podium,” Crawford said.
Team scores: Hinton 189, West Monona 151, Westwood 139, Kuemper Catholic 138, MVAOCOU 128, Missouri Valley 89.5, East Sac County 51, Lawton-Bronson 45, South Central Calhoun 33, West Harrison 4.