In the first round of the State Wrestling tournament, all three wrestlers won and move on to tomorrow’s quarterfinal matches.
Less than a minute after the completion of the National Anthem, 106lb junior Alex Lemus’ match against Gabe Hoogers (Sioux City North) got going. Lemus got off to a quick start with a takedown, just seconds in to the first period and never looked back. Lemus had complete control during the entire match and earned a 9-3 decision over Hoogers. Lemus moves on to face Tanner Rohweder (WDM Dowling) in the quarterfinal match.
Almost an hour later, 195lb sophomore Ryan Maas fell behind early on in the second period against Austin Ashbacher (Decorah) and found himself under Ashbacher. Maas then completed a reversal and went on to pin his opponent only 52 seconds into the second period. Maas goes on to wrestle Cegan Long (North Scott) tomorrow in the quarterfinals.
Immediately after Maas’ match, 220lb Steve Ferentz faced Louis Gutierrez (WDM Valley) on the exact same mat. Ferentz and Gutierrez were evenly matched through all three periods and at the end of regulation time the score was tied up 3-3. After two, one minute overtime periods, the most either wrestler could do was get an escape. Going into the third overtime, the score was tied at 4 a piece. In the first 30 second sudden death overtime, neither wrestler scored. But just several seconds into the second sudden death overtime, Ferentz picked up an escape and went on to win 5-4 in fourth overtime tiebreak over Gutierrez. Ferentz goes on to face Zach Renshaw (Lewis Central) tomorrow in the quarterfinals.
Photos By: Jake Binggeli