Saturday was District Wrestling Saturday across the State of Iowa, with the best grapplers in the state attempting to punch their ticket to the State Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. Webster City was one of the lucky schools that hosted a district meet, and some of the best wrestling in the state was had at Webster City High School on Saturday afternoon.
Eight area wrestlers qualified from the 2A District at Webster City, 4 from the host Lynx and 4 from Clarion-Goldfield-Dows. Carson Doolittle was the first one to punch his ticket to state, picking up a semifinal fall and a title match major decision over HD-CAL’s Jack Showalter to win the district title. Cam Phextoumphone followed up soon there after with a district title win, picking up a major decision over Algona’s Tate Slagle. Phetxoumphone received the #1 seed at 120 in Class 2A for the State Tournament.
The next area wrestler to qualify was CGD’s Cale Kirstein, who fell to Osage’s Max Gast in the 145 title match, but did not have a wrestleback for 2nd, which sent him to Des Moines. Garrett Seaba then pulled the biggest upset of the day, picking up a 3-1, sudden death decision over 2A #2 Chase Thomas of Osage to win the 152 pound district title. Seaba received the #1 seed in the 152 pound bracket for the State Tournament. Mack Seaba finished 2nd at 170 pounds, picking up a 4-3 decision in the wrestle back over Webster City’s Evan Estlund.
Webster City then took the stage again, with two more Lynx wrestlers advancing. CJ Hisler won the 195 pound district title, picking up a 3rd period fall over Osage’s Cole Jeffries, who Hisler lost to earlier that week in the regional dual in Osage. Jaxon Cherry would finish 2nd in another electric match with Osage’s Barrett Muller, that ended with Muller reversing a near-fall by Cherry into a fall. CGD’s Daniel Chavez would seal the afternoon by pulling an upset at 285 pounds, taking a 6-5 decision over Okoboji’s Nick Bronstad to give Chavez a district title.
All 8 wrestlers advanced to the State Tournament in Des Moines, beginning on Thursday. 95.7 KQWC will carry live, move-by-move coverage of all the matches throughout the tournament.