This past week marked the 103rd annual Iowa High School State Wrestling Championships at Wells Fargo Arena and the KQRadio area was well-represented, with 19 student-athletes from 4 area schools competing.
The culmination of the 4 days came on Saturday night with the Championship matches. The KQRadio area would capture 2 individual state champions on Saturday night, the first coming at 126 pounds with Webster City’s Carson Doolittle. Doolittle trailed 2-time defending state champion Jace Hedeman of Union Community 1-0 late in the 3rd period, but Doolittle managed to flip his hips and get the escape as time expired in the 3rd-period to send it to overtime. In overtime, Doolittle countered a Hedeman attack with a shot at the hips of Hedeman for a 2-point takedown and a state championship. Doolittle’s title is the 11th in Webster City school history, and joins Webster City head coach and older brother, Drake Doolittle, as a state champion.
LISTEN: Carson Doolittle’s full title match
Shortly after, it was Kade Blume’s turn to go for his 3rd state championship, this one coming at 132 pounds as he took on Burlington Notre Dame’s Kaiden Dietzenbach. Dietzenbach took an inital 1-0 lead in the 2nd period off an escape, before Blume picked up a take down and 2 near-fall points. Dietzenbach broke the lock and managed to pickup a reversal, followed by a quick Blume escape to make it 5-3 going to the 3rd. Blume picked up a quick escape to begin the 3rd, and as time wound down in the match, he countered a Dietzenbach attack and picked up 4 more points for a take down and 2 near-fall points to cap a 10-3 win and capture a 3rd state championship.
LISTEN: Kade Blume’s full title match
Two more student-athletes would claim runner-up finishes on Saturday night. Webster City’s Linden Phetxoumphone would fall to Union Community’s Brayden Bohnsack in a 4-2 final at 113 pounds, as Phetxoumphone was unable to generate any offense against the defending state champion. Hesston Johnson of Roland-Story would lose the 175-pounds in a 6-4 decision, as a late takedown in the 3rd period by Anamosa’s Austin Scranton sealed the bout.
There would be 3 more area student-athletes that made the podium in 2024. Roland-Story’s Logan Powers would place 5th at 165 pounds, winning his 5th-place match over top-seeded Max Gast of Osage by fall. Clarion-Goldfield-Dows junior Caleb Seaba would place 8th at 165 pounds, losing by fall to Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley’s Brock Mulder in the 7th-place match. Webster City would see senior heavyweight Landon Griffin place 8th, losing his 7th-place match to AP-GC’s Trent Cakerice in a 3-2 decision.
Webster City would see Carson Bertran go 1-2 at 190 pounds, winning his first-round match over AP-GC’s Maison Copp in a 12-10 sudden victory, a rematch of the District 10 final. Luke Estlund would go 0-2 at 175 pounds to round out state qualifiers for the Lynx.
Roland-Story would have Caiden Latch go 1-2 in the tournament, advancing to the quarterfinals before losing to Webster City’s Linden Phetxoumphone, then bowing out in the bloodround to HD-CAL’s Jayson Stevens. Aaron Peyton would win his first round match at 285 by sudden victory over Clarinda’s Mason Nally, before falling to Osage’s Mac Muller and Independence’s Brady McDonald to end his run.
CGD would see Ashtin Willms lose in the 2nd round to Ballard’s Henry Christensen, before winning back-to-back decision in the consolation bracket. Willms would fall in the bloodround to Winterset’s Jadyn Cooper. Both Ryan Hartwig (120) and Mason Allen (175) would go 0-2.
Eagle Grove saw 2 wrestlers get to the 3rd round of consolations in Mack Morgan (120) and Hayden Schafer (150). Morgan would lose an 8-5 decision to Algona’s Isaac Wilson to end his state tournament, while Schafer lost to PCM’s Hewitt Brinegar to end his state tournament. Dylan Terwilliger (106), Connor Christopher (144) and Jayden Krietlow (175) all finished 0-2.
Roland-Story would have the highest team finish, placing 7th with 71 points. Webster City would place 9th with 62.5 points. Osage captured their 2nd-straight team title with 128.5 points.