Prairie Wrestling

Hawks draw Waverly-SR in Dual tourney

Waverly-Shell Rock and Iowa City West could have the two strongest wrestling teams in the state this year, so guess who Prairie and Jefferson drew in the Regional Dual Team Tournamament?

Exactly right.

Prairie will visit Waverly-Shell Rock and Jefferson will visit Iowa City West in the opening round of the Regional Dual Team Tournament on Tuesday, Feb. 22. Both Metro teams will be heavy underdogs in those meets.

Linn-Mar will host North Scott in the opening round Feb. 22 with a shot at making the state tournament Feb. 26 at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids.

Prairie and Jefferson finished second in the team standings at their district tournaments this past Saturday, which is why they were paired with district champions for the dual team tournament. Linn-Mar won its district and drew a district runnerup in North Scott.

Sixteen teams qualified for the regional tournament. The assignments are Burlington at Bettendorf, Jefferson at Iowa City West, Spencer at Lewis Central, North Scott at Linn-Mar, Ankeny at Mason City, Urbandale at Southeast Polk, Indiana at West Des Moines Valley and Prairie at Waverly-Shell Rock.

Hawks crown 4 champs at district meet

EPWORTH -- They held a demolition derby at Western Dubuque High School Saturday and called it a Class 3A district wrestling tournament.

Linn-Mar survived a day of bloody noses to trim Prairie, 223-207.5, for the district title on a day that had a little of something for everyone.

A little happiness, a little sadness.

Prairie and Kennedy crowned four individual champions apiece, Linn-Mar captured three titles and Xavier notched one as Metro wrestlers nabbed 12 of the 14 individual crowns.

On the unhappy side, quality individuals like Prairie 103-pounder Trey Blaha, Xavier 171-pounder Peter Ickes and Linn-Mar 189-pounder Mark Atwater did not qualify for the state tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines Feb. 17-19.

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Witte notches 100th victory

Thursday's wrestling meet between Jefferson and Prairie had been over for about 15 minutes when Conner Herman found Zach Witte and ambled over to
shake hands.

It was a night for mutual congratulations.

Herman broke Jefferson's career record for most pins and Witte became the newest member of Prairie's 100-victory club during their double-dual at Jefferson.

Herman, a senior who is ranked No.1 at 215 pounds, snapped Mark Ironside's record when he pinned Prairie's Colton Tonn in 3:26 for the 54th stick of his career.

Witte, a junior who is ranked No.4 at 145 pounds, collected an 18-6 decision over Jefferson's Dylan Moenck to reach the century mark in just three years.

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Witte wins 2nd MVC title; Hawks 2nd

Amid all the grim-faced and tight-lipped wrestlers at the Mississippi Valley Conference tournament Saturday stood A.J. Garcia, the 215-pounder from Linn-Mar.

He was all smiles.

Garcia upset top-ranked Conner Herman of Cedar Rapids Jefferson to win the 215-pound crown and was named the Outstanding Wrestler in the 14-team field at Xavier.

"I was ready to go for that match," he said. "It's a real big accomplishment for me."

Garcia dominated Herman, 9-3, in the biggest upset of the day, handing Herman his only loss of the season to a fellow 215-pounder.

"I'm building my way up toward state," said Garcia. "This is going to motivate me."

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