MMC's Godbersen, Letsche titleists

IDA GROVE - Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn featured two champions out of six medal winners at the Battle Creek-Ida Grove Herb Irgens Wrestling Invitational here on Jan. 23 and 24.

The Cherokee Braves had three medal winners in the two-day competition, which featured 229 wrestlers from 21 area high schools.

AGHSC had four of their wrestlers place in the tough tournament, led by Vance Kreutz, who took second place in the 112 pound class. Taylor Witzel was fourth at 160 pounds, Tyler Kenny seventh at 130, and Ryan Donahoo took eighth place at 125 pounds.

AGHSC coach Scott Phelps said, "The coaches saw some good things and some things we need to work on" at the tournament. Though they were happy that four Stonecutter wrestlers placed in the tough field, they also felt that "a few more had their chances, but just didn't get it done."

Claiming championships for MMC were Russ Godbersen at 145 pounds, and Jerad Letsche at 152.

Godbersen pinned Kris Kaufman of Okoboji in 1:13, pinned Tanner Bengford of Odebolt-Arthur/Battle Creek-Ida Grove in 4:52, beat Andrew Miller of Twin River Valley 11-1, and beat Michael Jensen of Graettinger-Terril 6-5 in the finals. Godbersen is ranked #5 at 152 pounds in Class 1A, while Jensen is ranked #2 at 145, and Miller #6 at 145.

Letsche pinned Kelby Schoop of Rockwell City-Lytton/Southern Cal in :49, pinned Zach Jones of Okoboji in 1:06, beat Sean Bainbridge of Kingsley-Pierson 12-6. and beat Jon Elmore of Prairie Valley 6-4 in overtime in the finals. Letsche is ranked #7 at 160, and Elmore #6 at 152 in 1A.

MMC's Jacob Lehnhoff placed fourth at the meet, pinning Cole Banks of Akron-Westfield in 2:16, pinning Brent Stickrod of OABCIG in 1:01, getting pinned by Levi Peters of TRV in 5:38, pinning Adam Heatherington of PV in 2:35, and getting pinned by Patrick Higgins of Storm Lake in 2:35. Lehnhoff is ranked #7, and Peters is #5.

Other Eagle place winners and how they fared in matches in the tourney are Tyler Pearson sixth at 125 (3-3), Jordan Petersen seventh at 215 (3-2), and Blaine Dammann eighth at 171 (2-3).

For Cherokee, Calvin Conley placed fifth at 152 pounds, beating Houston Sheer of Woodbury Central 16-0, losing 9-1 to Tyler Down of OABCIG, pinning Brandon Baird of Sergeant Bluff-Luton in :34, pinning Nolan Kafton of Maple Valley/Anthon-Oto in 4:10, and beating Jason Van Ginkel of West Lyon 6-3.

Patrick Loughlin placed sixth at 160, pinning Trevor Snyders of WL in 3:20, getting pinned by Joe Sievert of A-W in 5:10, pinning Ben McCord of SB-L in :59, beat Pat Lahr of Okoboji 6-3, lost 5-2 to Taylor Witzel of Aurelia/Galva-Holstein/Schaller-Crestland, and lost 9-4 to Ryan Fouts of Woodbine.

Dustin Rosewall was eighth at 189, losing by fall to Jake Hoffman of G-T in :44, pinning Kaden Anderson of RCLSCAL in 3:00, beating Jake Larson of SL 5-1, losing by fall to Max Stammer of Spirit Lake Park in :43, and losing 5-3 to Jarred Packard of Woodbine.

Graettinger -Terril won the meet with 188 points, followed by OABCIG 181, Twin River Valley 176, Sergeant Bluff-Luton 157, Woodbury Central 124.5, Prairie Valley 112, Woodbine 108.5, MMC 103, West Lyon 83, Pocahontas Area 82, Storm Lake 79.5, RCL-SCAL 78, Spirit Lake Park 75, Okoboji 72, AGHSC 66, Cherokee 57.5, A-W 56, MVAO 46, Audubon 44, K-P 37, Lawton-Bronson 22.

Although failing to place, Cherokee's Zac Anderson was 2-2 for the meet at 135 pounds, and Tyler Lundsgaard was 2-2 at 171.