THORNBURG — Third-ranked Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont picked up an impressive early season tournament title on Saturday. Five Rocket wrestlers crowned five champions on the way to scoring 230 points, besting Iowa Valley by 23 to take the Tri-County Invitational.

Seventh-ranked sophomore Jeren Glosser won his first two matches of the year, pinning West Branch’s Max Kober and Iowa Valley’s Drake Healey to win the 126-pound title for EBF. Second-ranked sophomore Blake Marlof also scored three pins in just under five minutes to win the 132-pound crown.

Fifth-ranked senior Jason Crosby also picked up a title for the Rockets, beating Iowa Valley’s Logan Loftus 2-1 in the finals at 138. Tucker Black (145) and fourth-ranked Dillion Pigsley (182) also scored their first three wins of the season to open their seasons with tournament titles.

Tri-County Montezuma finished fourth in their home tournament, scoring 144 points while crowning two champions. Freshman Mason Garber won his first three matches of the year to take the 103-pound crown while second-ranked junior Tyler Foubert improved to 8-0 by winning the 160-pound title for the Trojans.

Pekin finished in a tie for fifth with Lynnville-Sully despite not crowning a champion. Al Chapman’s team had three third-place finishes from Brandon Baayen (113), Austyn Vogel (145) and Thomas Slaney (182) to go with three sixth-place winners to score the Panthers’ 81 points.

Cardinal and Van Buren finished in a 10th-place tie as the Southeast Iowa Superconference South rivals each scored 34 points. The Comets brought home the 113-pound title as junior Ryan Cale edged English Valley’s Blake Ealy, 2-0, for his eighth win in nine matches.

No. 3 (1A) EBF and TCM both head to Central Decatur for a quadrangular with Clarke at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Van Buren joins West Burlington-Notre Dame at Pekin for a triangular while Cardinal and New London/Winfield-Mount Union compete at Highland on Thursday.

Tri-County Invitational

TEAM SCORES – 1. Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont 230, 2. Iowa Valley 207, 3. West Branch 194.5, 4. Tri-County Montezuma 144, T5. Pekin 81, T5. Lynnville-Sully 81, 7. WACO 80, 8. English Valleys 77, 9. BGM 74, T10. Cardinal 34, T10. Van Buren 34.

Individual Placewinners (With Individual overall record)

106 – 1. Mason Garber (Tri-County Montezuma) 3-0, 2. Mathis Kane (West Branch) 6-2, 3. Josh Jordan (Iowa Valley) 6-3, 4. Tanner Rea (Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont) 1-2, 5. Cole Nickell (Lynnville-Sully) 5-4. 113 – 1. Ryan Cale (Cardinal) 8-1, 2. Blake Ealy (English Valleys) 1-1, 3. Brandon Baayen (Pekin) 6-3, 4. Zach Smith (IV) 7-6, 5. Travis Lewis (TCM) 5-5, 6. Colton Roorda (LS) 4-5. 120 – 1. Will Seydel (WB) 6-2, 2. Zach Russell (IV) 4-1, 3. Malin Meyer (LS) 6-3, 4. Benjamin Edmundson (TCM) 3-6, 5. Mike Owings (C) 1-5. 126 – 1. Jeren Glosser (EBF) 2-0, 2. Drake Healey (IV) 6-3, 3. Zach Kitzman (TCM) 6-4, 4. Max Kober (WB) 5-4, 5. Korey Exline (LS) 1-4. 132 – 1. Blake Marolf (EBF) 3-0, 2. Cody Seaton (EV) 2-1, 3. Jacob Heisel (Van Buren) 4-1, 4. Clay Gunzenhauser (IV) 11-3, 5. Tyler Oswald (WB) 8-7, 6. Ryan Maschman (TCM) 4-5. 138 – 1. Jason Crosby (EBF) 3-0, 2. Logan Loftus (IV) 9-1, 3. Mitch Gibson (TCM) 8-3, 4. Dalton Jack (BGM) 5-2, 5. Tayte Schoff (P) 6-5, 6. Cole Lacina (WB) 3-4. 145 – 1. Tucker Black (EBF) 3-0, 2. Casey Pence (WB) 12-2, 3. Austyn Vogel (P) 10-2, 4. Meliek Meyer (LS) 8-7, 5. Colton Maschman (TCM) 6-6, 6. David Randall (IV) 8-5. 152 – 1. Tyler Donovan (WB) 14-0, 2. Treg Van Dorin (EBF) 2-1, 3. Kevin Anderson (WACO) 8-2, 4. Levi Bennington (LS) 8-6, 5. Gage Winter (BGM) 2-2, 6. Lucas Karkow (IV) 6-7. 160 – 1. Tyler Foubert (TCM) 8-0, 2. Caden Doll (LS) 9-3, 3. Cory Archer (EBF) 3-1, 4. John Gormley (IV) 8-5, 5. Chase Copeland (P) 2-9, 6. Darren Rickheim (W) 1-3. 170 – 1. Dillon Fry (Iowa Valley) 10-1, 2. Cey Saeugling (W) 6-3, 3. Brennen Grimm (EV) 3-1, 4. Noah Zylstra (LS) 11-3, 5. Dalton Brown (EBF) 1-2, 6. Josh Ramos (C) 4-5. 182 – 1. Dillon Pigsley (EBF) 3-0, 2. Michael Madsen (WB) 7-3, 3. Thomas Slaney (P) 11-1, 4. Jacob Weber (TCM) 7-5, 5. Alanceson Sawyer (IV) 10-3, 6. Curtis Thomas (VB) 5-7. 195 – 1. Adam Hawkins (BGM) 8-0, 2. Cade Jones (WB) 12-1, 3. Seth Kerr (EV) 3-1, 4. Hunter Johnston (EBF) 2-2, 5. Trenton Conger (P) 7-5, 6. Mitch Garrels (VB) 1-3. 220 – 1. Skyler Miller (W) 7-2, 2. Chance Wuersta (EBF) 2-1, 3. Ryan Grosvenor (WB) 7-3, 4. Christian Williams (BGM) 5-2, 5. Jeremy Nebraska (IV) 6-7, 6. Sam Schmidt (C) 0-4. 285 – 1. Cody Van Dee (IV) 8-1, 2. Jacob Gingerrich (WB) 5-7, 3. Ethan Bair (TCM) 7-4, 4. Josh Shumaker (W) 5-4, 5. Luke Welch (EBF) 2-2, 6. Zac Freese (BGM) 0-3.



Blue Demons take second at Central Decatur Tourney

LEON — The seventh-ranked Albia wrestling team (2A) finished second out of 11 teams at the Central Decatur tournament last Friday night with 167.5 points.

Five Blue Demon wrestlers — Shadow Leshen (120), Bryce Leshen (132), Caleb White (138), Griffin Osing (152) and Brett Leshen (160) —  took first in their individual weight classes.

In addition, Zach Davis claimed second place at 285 pounds, Blake Lawless snagged third at 145 and Bobby Belzer placed fourth at 126.

Fourth-ranked Creston (2A) finished first in the tourney with 238.5 points. Davis County finished eighth in the tournament with 107.5 points.

The Blue Demons only were able to fill nine weight classes, while Creston had people wrestling in 13 out of the 14 weight classes. Albia coach Dave Wenger said this was too much for his shorthanded squad to overcome.

The coach, however, said he’s still pleased with how his team’s season has progressed.

“Coming off a very successful opening tournament at Pekin last weekend, we knew  that we would have to match or exceed our performance there to be competitive this week,” the coach said. “The guys really responded well and they were hungry to repeat last season’s success. Our main goal now is to make Christmas break healthy. From there, we are really looking forward to plugging some guys in our lineup that will allow us to be more competitive as a dual as we turn the corner to the last half of the season.”

Albia will play host to Centerville and Grinnell in a double-dual Tuesday.

Wenger said both Shadow and Brett Leshen will be looking to pick up their 100th career win at the double-dual. In addition, Osing is on schedule to eclipse the 100-win mark by the first of the new year. Matt White has the most wins in Albia history with 156 career victories.

Central Decatur Tournament

TEAM SCORES – 1. Creston 238.5, 2. Albia 167.5, 3. Chariton 138, 4. Central Decatur 123, 5. PCM 117, 6. Red Oak 116, 7. Mount Ayr 109, 8. Davis County 107.5, 9. Van Meter 70.5, 10. Pleasantville 43, 11. Wayne 22.

Albia Individual Results(With Individual overall record)

120 – 1. Shadow Leshen 8-0. 126 – 4. Bobby Belzer 4-4. 132 – 1. Bryce Leshen 6-1. 138 – 1. Caleb White 6-1. 145 – 3. Blake Lawless 6-3. 152 – 1. Griffin Osing 7-0. 160 – 1. Brett Leshen 8-0. 285 – 2. Zach Davis 6-2.