Mount Vernon’s Vance Light inducted into IHSAA Wrestling Hall of Fame

DES MOINES - Vance Light did not get into coaching for individual awards or accolades.

But when someone successfully extends their wrestling life for more than two decades for the betterment of kids, those types of acknowledgments will come.

Light was honored with induction into the Iowa High School Athletic Association Wrestling Hall of Fame Saturday night before the championship matches of the state wrestling tournament at Wells Fargo Arena.

'It was something kind of unexpected,” Light said. 'But I'm getting near 50 so I guess if you stay in the game long enough and do enough good things, good things happen for you.”

Saturday concluded Light's 23rd season as head wrestling coach at Mount Vernon, where he has led 81 state qualifiers and four state champions. As a competitor, Light posted a 133-6 record and won the first of his back-to-back state titles with Lisbon's 1986 state championship team. Light wrestled collegiately for Drake, where he recorded 139 victories and was a 1991 NCAA qualifier.

'It's kind of one of those things that you preach to the kids,” Light said. 'If you work hard and have goals set for yourself, good things will happen to you. This just shows one of those examples of those type of things.”

Light was inducted along with former Mediapolis Coach Dan Cummings and Dave Ewing, who won two state titles with Fort Dodge and was an All-American for Iowa State.

MCMILLANS REACH THE PODIUM

The text messages were volleying back and forth throughout Friday night and into Saturday between the McMillan cousins.

'We're pretty much like brothers,” Matt McMillan said. 'We talk pretty much every day.”

Matt McMillan of Independence and Oelwein's Travis McMillan - both multiple-year wrestling state qualifiers - had finally broken through and reached the state wrestling podium as seniors.

'It was kind of a sigh of relief when I won my round of 12 match yesterday,” Matt said. 'I've been in that match three years in a row and to finally get it is kind of relieving.”

Practice partners during the offseason, the cousins simultaneously wrestled for seventh place in Class 2A in their respective weight classes. After falling one match short of the awards stand in each of the last three years, Matt McMillan took another step up Saturday with takedowns in each of the final two periods for a 4-1 decision over Glenwood's Zach Haggstrom in the 195-pound seventh-place match.

'It's just kind of nice to realize that all of the hard work I've put in over the years is paying off,” Matt said.

Like Matt, Travis was a match away from reaching the awards stand last season. After a scoreless first two periods, he finished eighth at 220 following a 6-2 loss Saturday to Ko Kieft of Sioux Center.

'It feels great, but obviously I wish I would have been higher up on it,” Travis McMillan said. 'Going in, this wasn't the goal but getting on the stand is obviously important. It's a good experience.”

NEW HEIGHTS FOR BOBCATS

Western Dubuque had never scored more than 37 points in the team standings at the state wrestling tournament.

Behind 182-pound state champion Max Lyon and heavyweight runner-up Aaron Costello, the Bobcats finished with a school-record 57.5 points, good for eighth place Saturday in the Class 3A team standings.

Senior Dain Gansen was the third Bobcat to reach the awards stand with an eighth-place finish at 138.

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