The state high school wrestling tournament resumed this morning with the quarterfinal round in class 3A and one of last year’s champions was beaten in one of the highlight matches. Bettendorf’s Tyler Clark used a second period take down to edge Dylan Carew 2-1 at 119 pounds.
Carew won the 103 pound title a year ago and beat Clark in overtime back in December. Clark used a tape of that match as preparation. He says he watched the tape all week and worked to counter the headlock Carew uses. Clark says he watched several tapes of Carew.
Clark says he was more aggressive than in the first meeting, and that was one thing he worked on a lot, to get his shots off quickly.
The top two wrestlers at 140 pounds met in the opening round and Zach McCool from West Delaware came away with the victory. The top ranked McCool used a third period escape to edge second ranked John Nicholson from Des Moines Roosevelt 5-4. McCool says he knew he was going to have a tough match in the first round. He says it was better to see a tough match in the first round instead of the semifinals.
McCool had an early 4-1 lead and says he was still confident when Nicholson came back to tie the match. He says he knew he was good at getting out of the bottom position and felt confident about being there.
After finishing third at 103 pounds a year ago Cruse Aarhus advanced to the second round after a 7-2 win over Tanner Schmidt from Charles City. Aarhus says at this point in the season any win is good.
Aarhus believes his tournament experience will be a plus, especially in the later rounds as the mindset changes to can’t lose as compared with going out to win.