Tough day for Comets

Charles City’s three seniors stopped short of awards stand at State Wrestling Championships

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

DES MOINES — For Charles City wrestling coach Kevin Wedeking, there’s not a better place to be than on the floor at Wells Fargo Arena.

“The Iowa State Wrestling Championships is one of the greatest sporting events in the world,” Wedeking said. “It’s a privilege to be here.”

Though the tourney has special place in Wedeking’s heart, Friday spent at the site wasn’t a special day for he and his Comets.

“We had a tough round,” Wedeking said after three of his still-alive seniors had their weekend shortened by way of second-round consolation losses.

“This is going to the first time in a while since Charles City didn’t have someone up on the awards stand,” Wedeking said in reference to finishing in the Top 8 — second-round consolation losses eliminate you from the honor.

Going into Friday’s Class 2A round, the Comets were good position to be represented.

But on Friday, Lasher lost his quarterfinal (7-0) to Crestwood’s Ryan Steffen and then just couldn’t get on track in his consolation match against Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont’s Alex Hanna, who ended Lasher’s high school wrestling career with a 7-2 decision.

Lasher finished with a 21-9 season record.

In the 182-pound quarterfinals, it looked as if Koehler’s tournament was going to end the hard way. After being thrown to the mat outside the circle by Wahlert’s Boone McDermott, Koehler remained on his back before being checked out by medical personnel.

Koehler eventually was able to get up and resume the match before McDermott pinned him at the 1:40 mark.

Koehler’s season ended with a fall 1:26 into his consolation bout against Harlan’s Nick Foss. Koehler finished the season at 25-14.

Perhaps the hardest loss for the Comets was the one that eliminated Maloy.

Going into the day wrestling for third place, Maloy — with no room for error to stay alive — faced a familiar foe: New Hampton’s Noah Hopp.

Earlier in the season when the Comets hosted their first meet inside their new gymnasium, Maloy had defeated Hopp with a 5-1 in one of the more celebrated victories of the night.

This time in a back-and-forth match, Maloy scored a third-period takedown to tie the score at 6. When the match was restarted in the middle of the circle, Maloy opted to set Hopp free while granting him a 7-6 lead hoping that subsequent takedown would be the eventual match-winner.

But it was Hopp who would score a takedown in the waning moments to seal a 9-6 decision victory.

Maloy’s season ended at 29-8.

“It may have been nerves … they may have been little jittery,” Wedeking said, “but we didn’t have a good day today.

“I mean I’m proud of my seniors as well as our sophomore,” Wedeking said in reference to Charles City’s fourth state qualifier: Dylan Koresh.

“They’re all great students, great athletes who have great work ethics. And they excel in other sports … football, wrestling, track, golf, baseball … not just wrestling as they’re all-around athletes.”

Even with the pending return of Koresh as well as several talented freshmen, Wedeking says they are in a rebuilding process.

“Look at these kids out here today … the guys who are going to be wrestling in the finals,” Wedeking said. “I can guarantee they all put in the work during the offseason. They all put their time in the weight room during the summer.

“That’s what it takes if you want to get here. And even if you do all that work, there are no guarantees.”