Mount Vernon crowned five champions and advanced eight wrestlers to the state meet following its performance at the Class 2A District 9 Meet on Saturday, Feb. 10, in Solon.
Mount Vernon won the team title with 209.5 points, outpacing second-place Solon (171.5) at the eight-team event.
“A pretty good day,” Mount Vernon coach Vance Light said. “A couple more guys had a chance to advance, but it did not work out. We’ll take the eight we got and move on.”
The five district champs were Klayten Perreault (106), Jackson Jaspers (144), Mikey Ryan (150), Watson Krob (175) and Ethan Wood (285).
Also advancing to state were Jake Haugse (120), Jase Jaspers (138), and Caysen Curran (190).
Curran lost in the championship to Layton Slaymaker of Central DeWitt by fall (3:29), but bounced back an hour later to beat Kyler Jensen of Solon in a wrestleback, 8-1.
For any not fluent in wrestling-speak, if the runner-up and the third-place guy did not wrestle that day, the third-place wrestler gets a chance to “wrestleback” for a spot at state. These matches are the definition of “win or go home.”
“You just have to forget about the loss and focus on the next win,” Curran said. “Instead of thinking about not losing, I thought about winning.”
And Curran had to do it with a big, bulky pad covering his hand, after he hurt it following a loss at the conference tournament the week prior.
Teammate CJ Martin, a freshman who was seeded sixth (out of six), had a chance to wrestleback from the third-place spot, but lost a 6-1 decision to Jacob Nelson of Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union.
“Wrestlebacks are pretty tough,” Light said. “Every kid reacts a little bit differently. CJ had a chance.”
Some fight tooth and claw for a trip to The Well, and some dominate. That was Mount Vernon senior Perreault.
He improved to 42-0 on the season with a pair of pins Saturday. He decked Cale Johnson of Central DeWitt in the finals.
“Most of the guys here were guys I already wrestled, so I just kept wrestling how I wrestle,” Perreault said.
No surprise, Perreault earned the top seed for the state tournament, which begins Wednesday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
“I’m fit and I’m ready,” Perreault said. “There’s maybe a little more pressure (as a senior). But it is going to be fun; a lot of good memories.”
Among the other state qualifiers, Jase Jaspers was seeded second for state, Jackson Jaspers was fourth and Mikey Ryan and Ethan Wood were each seeded fifth.
Haugse (18th), Krob (16th) and Curran (15th) will have tougher roads to the medal stand.
Jase Jaspers will hopefully be able to see by Wednesday. On Saturday he took a head butt early that swelled up his right eye like Rocky Balboa.
“’Cut me Mick,’ that’s what they say?” Light said.
The one-eyed Jaspers lost to Jordan Schmidt of Solon in the district championship, 5-4.
Among the other highlights, Wood recorded his 100th career win Saturday in the semifinal round, a pin over Burke Berry of Mid-Prairie. He then pinned Russel Coil of Columbus/WMU in the title match.
The Mustangs placed third as a team last season in Des Moines, taking nine wrestlers to Wells Fargo Arena.
“Everyone scored some points,” Light said. “We’ll see if we can score a few more points than we did last year.”
Class 2A District 9
Team scores – 1. Mount Vernon 209.5; 2. Solon 171.5; 3. Central DeWitt 149.5; 4. Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union 119; 5. West Liberty 107; 6. Mid-Prairie 54; 7. Tipton 51; 8. Camanche 29.
MOUNT VERNON
106 – Klayten Perreault, 1st, 2-0. 113 – CJ Martin, 3rd, 3-2. 120 – Jake Haugse, 2nd, 2-1. 126 – Drew Thurn, 0-2. 132 – Caleb Keegan, 4th, 2-2. 138 – Jase Jaspers, 2nd, 2-1. 144 – Jackson Jaspers, 1st, 2-0. 150 – Mikey Ryan, 1st, 2-0. 157 – Jackson Hird, 3rd, 3-1. 165 – Will Goodlove, 4th, 2-2. 175 – Watson Krob, 1st, 3-0. 190 – Caysen Curran, 2nd, 2-1. 215 – Kael Riniker, 4th, 1-2. 285 – Ethan Wood, 1st, 2-0.
Mount Vernon freshman CJ Martin grabs the foot of Mohael Puffer of Tipton in the third-place match at 113 pounds Saturday, Feb. 10, at the Class 2A District 9 Meet in Solon.