2A State Wrestling: Solon's Fritz pulls upset at 138 pounds

DES MOINES — When Solon's Cole Fritz takes the mat, he does so with a mentality focused on outworking his opponent until the end, even if he loses. But this time, that effort led to perhaps the biggest upset of the first round in Class 2A.

Fritz's top-notch conditioning led to an upset of No. 2 Colby McIntire of Central Lyon/George-Little Rock 7-5 in sudden victory on Thursday in Class 2A.

'Rankings and all that kind of stuff, a lot of kids get caught up in that, but Cole Fritz never has,' said Solon coach T.J. Bevans. 'He doesn't care who it is, he wrestles his match every time and wrestles with all heart.'

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Bevans was coaching a mat away from Fritz (38-12) when he saw the junior go into an overtime period. Frtiz is built a little bigger for a 138-pounder, and tries to use his size and physical ability wear down his opponent. Fritz can weigh up to 160 pounds naturally and constantly cuts weight by running, but is able to maintain his high strength level. Once regulation ended in a tie, he felt pretty good about where he was sitting, even though he was wrestling an opponent with a 25-3 season record.

'Normally once I get into overtime, I just kind of know I'm going to win because I don't stop,' Fritz said.

'It helps a lot,' Bevans said of Fritz's conditioning efforts. 'We just wear people down. By the end of that extra period, he was ready to wrestle three more matches.'

Even though he wasn't right there with Fritz, Bevans said the nerves were starting to get to him as he watched out of the corner of his eye. He even thought once McIntire had scored a takedown, but when it was waived off, the elation of Fritz scoring the win really sunk in.

Fritz will have just as big of an opportunity tomorrow to carry his momentum as he takes on No. 3 Mason Buster of Mediapolis in the quarterfinals.

Before the tournament, Bevans and Fritz acknowledged the difficulty of the bracket and Fritz told his coach, 'I'm winning everything next year.' Fast forward to after

Fritz's win against McIntire, he changed his tune a bit.

'I'm winning it this year,' Fritz told Bevans. 'I'm not worried about next year, I'm getting it this year.'

Also focused on standing at the top of the podium on Saturday is West Delaware 182-pounder Brent Lammers. The senior breezed through his first round match against Mitchell Sandbulte of Sioux Center, winning by fall in 3:33. He'll face sophomore Cole Bennett of ADM in the quarterfinals.

Lammers sprained his ankle last fall in football, but returned to the mat around Christmas break. Since then he's ranked No. 1 and is undefeated at 35-0 and credited consistent physical therapy in his timely recovery.

'They just worked the crap out of me getting my ankle as good as it could get,' Lammers said. The physical therapy did a great job of not rushing me into it too quick. He knew it was going to take awhile so he kept it calm, but once I got back going again I was full go.'

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