Wrestling Weekend That Was: Upper Iowa’s first season in Great Lakes Valley Conference yields share of dual title

Wrestling season is winding down. The prep seasons are in the books. College wrestling is approaching the postseason. Upper Iowa claimed a conference title, Coe closed out its home slate and read about some final thoughts from the IHSAA tournament in the Wrestling Weekend That Was.

Upper Iowa claims GLVC crown

Upper Iowa didn’t waste any time making its mark in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. In the first season of the Peacocks’ transition to the GLVC from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, they claimed a share of the conference dual title Saturday at the Final Site Duals in St. Louis.

Upper Iowa swept University of Indianapolis, 29-15, and Quincy (Ill.) University, 48-3, to finish in a three-way tie with McKendree (Ill.) University and Maryville (Mo.) University.

“We wrestled well, winning 17 of 20 contested matches,” said Upper Iowa Coach Heath Grimm, who is in his 24th season leading the Peacocks. “We pressured our opponents with an offensive mindset. We put a lot of points up on the scoreboard.”

Upper Iowa’s Eric Faught was a scoring dynamo at 157 pounds. He won both matches by technical fall, outscoring two opponents by a total of 45-10. Not to be outdone, 133-pound teammate James Davis also posted two technical falls. Faught, a redshirt senior from Clear Lake, improved to 17-3 and has six technical falls. Davis beat Maryville’s Victor Salazar, 19-4, and Indianapolis’ Noah Cantu, 17-2.

NCAA champion Chase Luensman dominated his two matches, pinning Quincy’s Aaron Taylor and trouncing Indianapolis’ Kaden Lone, 23-4. The former Monticello prep leads the Peacocks in wins with a 19-5 record. More than half of his victories result in bonus points. He has five technical falls, four major decisions and one pin.

The Peacocks posted a 5-1 dual record in the conference and finished 9-5 overall. The lone conference loss came to McKendree. Upper Iowa is ranked 16th in the National Wrestling Coaches Association tournament rankings. The championship is a nice springboard into the postseason.

“Always good to be scoring points late in the season,” Grimm said. “Wrestling to score points (versus) wrestling to win is a much healthier approach to getting your hand raised. Also, bringing home a GLVC Championship back to Fayette only adds to the postseason momentum.”

Coe drops Dubuque

Fifth-ranked Coe defeated Dubuque, 24-17, last Thursday at home. The win secured a second-place finish in the American Rivers Conference. The Kohawks closed the regular season with a 12-2 overall dual record, going 7-1 in the conference. The only conference loss was to No. 2 Wartburg.

Coe won six weight classes against UD, receiving bonus points in four. Former Linn-Mar prep Bryce Parke (133) and L.J. Richardson (174) won by technical fall. Freshman Ty Koedam at 149 and 197-pounder Mathieu Arsenault added major decisions.

Former West Liberty prep Will Esmoil won a battle of ranked wrestlers. No. 9 Esmoil blanked No. 11 Alonzo Smiley, 5-0. Ninth-ranked Jared Voss, from West Delaware, beat Tyler Thurston, who wrestled for North Cedar, 2-0.

Coe is idle until the Lower Midwest Regional on Feb. 29 and March 1 at Alliant Energy Powerhouse.

Success by seeding at IHSAA state wrestling tournament

Unpredictability is the only thing predictable at the Iowa High School Athletic Association. It is the case every season. The talent is so deep and strong at just about each weight in each class.

Trackwrestling.com has a formula to seed each bracket from Nos. 1 to 24. Twenty-three of the 42 weight classes were won by the top seed, including nine in 2A. The low was 3A with six. Thirty-six No. 1 seeds reached the finals.

Nine No. 2 seeds won titles, making it 32 titles won by top-two seeds.

The tournament had its share of bracket busters as well. In Class 1A, Wilton’s No. 10 Liam Adlfinger upset four straight, beating the No. 7, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 1 seeds to win the 106 title. Denver freshman 113-pounder Gavin Landers was a head-scratching No. 11 seed, despite multiple wins over Union Community’s two-time 2A champ Brayden Bohnsack. Landers opened with two pins and outscored his last three foes, 23-1, including a 12-0 major decision over Wilton’s No. 1 Mason Shirk in the final.

In 2A, Eddyville EBF’s Gage Spurgeon (38-1) won the 120-pound title as the No. 8 seed. He defeated West Lyon’s No. 7 seed Ryan Bahnson, 6-0, for the title.

Dubuque Wahlert’s Colin Young won the 165 crown in 2A as a No. 7 seed. Iowa City High’s Kael Voinovich was the lowest seed to win a title in 3A. He was seeded fifth, despite being ranked first all season.

Improved programs at IHSAA state wrestling tournament

This season saw some teams make major gains. Jesup is at the forefront of those programs. The J-Hawks followed up a fifth-place finish in their state duals debut with a fourth-place finish in the Class 1A team race at Des Moines.

Jesup isn’t going anywhere. Six of nine state qualifiers return, including two-time state medalists Ayden Bergman and Cooper Hinz. Bergman was third at 106, while Hinz was fifth at 113.

Anamosa finished in 10th place in 2A. The Blue Raiders continue to raise the bar, reaching the regional duals again and winning their first district team title. Anamosa crowned its first champion in 20 years when Austin Scranton completed an unbeaten season with a 175-pound crown. Teammate Hudson Scranton was third at 150. The Blue Raiders return two more qualifiers and will be a team to watch next season.

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