Even if it doesn’t matter to Drew Kelly, one of these days somebody has to give North Scott’s wrestling team a little respect.
Two days after the latest 3A rankings hit the streets, the Lancer shredded them to pieces with a nothing short of impressive fifth-place finish at the 32-team Battle of Waterloo.
North Scott, which hasn’t even got a sniff when it comes to cracking the top 10, went 5-1 on the weekend, with the lone loss being a Friday night 50-24 setback at the hands of No. 2 (Class 1A) Lisbon.
“We had a really good weekend,” said Kelly. “We saw some good competition and our guys wrestled well.
“Yeah, maybe we could get some state recognition, but I’m fine just flying under the radar and showing up and kicking butt. We’ll just plan on doing that and see how things fall.”
The Lancers certainly did a lot of kicking, and it all started Friday night. Thy entered as the No. 3 seed in the eight-team Smith-Spring bracket, and opened with a 51-21 win over Class 2A New Hampton. That set up a semifinal matchup with No. 5 (Class 3A) Ankeny, where the Lancers rolled to a 50-20 shellacking.
The Hawks featured a lineup of five state-ranked wrestlers, including two at the top. The Lancers weren’t fazed.
Junior Deven Strief, ranked No. 1 at 145, opened the dual with a 7-3 win over third-ranked Sam Kallem, and the Lancers never looked back.
Senior Jake Matthaidess, who is ranked No. 1 at 160 and was seeing his first action of the season, was one of four Lancers to record pins, along with seniors Thade Gottschalk (182) and Carson McCaughey (285), along with junior Joey Petersen (195).
Matthaidess’ pin, which took just 32 seconds, was a good bounce back after the returning state placewinner got pinned by No. 3 (2A) Carson Babcock in the win over New Hampton in his first match of the season.
All those pins were impressive, but not more than the wins recorded by senior Cael Bredar and sophomore Peyton Westlin. West upset No. 5 Cael Cox with a 5-1 decision at 120, and Bredar won by injury default over No. 9 Jace Anderson.
The victory over Ankeny put the Lancers in the finals against Lisbon, a team that featured nine state-ranked wrestlers, including five who are No. 1.
North Scott did get pins from Bredar, Strief, Matthaidess and senior Zach Campbell, and Campbell, who is ranked No. 8 at 170, flattened No. 9 Max Kohl.
After Friday night’s second-place finish, the Lancers were placed in Saturday’s four-team bracket that featured the other second-place teams from Friday’s action.
The Lancers didn’t back down from anybody, and rolled to wins over West Des Moines Valley (50-23), No. 9 (3A)Linn-Mar (42-31) and Cedar Rapids Prairie (52-23).
How impressive was North Scott’s fifth-place finish? Well, Lisbon ended up winning the four-team championship bracket and upset No. 1 (1A) Don Bosco, while also claiming wins over No. 3 (3A) Waverly-Shell Rock and No. 1 (2A) West Delaware.
Enough said.
The win over Prairie was the perfect way to cap the monumental weekend.
North Scott got down early when Gottschalk and Petersen got pinned in the first two matches, but junior Kade Tippet and McCaughey quickly evened the score, with McCaughey spending just 20 seconds on the mat.
The Lancers found themselves trailing 23-15 at the halfway point — after second-ranked Austin Kegley pinned Westlin at 120 — but wins by Bredar, junior Josh Connor, senior Trenten Doty and Strief helped them build a 34-23 advantage with three matches to go.
Senior Nate Link and Matthaidess put the match out of reach with pins at 152 and 160, and Campbell’s fall at 170 let the Lancers finish the weekend, and the pre-holiday portion of their schedule, with seven straight victories.
North Scott had opened action on Saturday afternoon with the win over Valley, and had little trouble taming the Tigers. North Scott got pins from Matthaidess, Campbell and Gottschalk to start the match, and the outcome was never in doubt.
Valley eventually cut the Lancer lead to 21-18 thanks in part to pins by sixth-ranked Blake Underwood (195) and No. 9 C.J. Stillman (220), but the Lancers recorded six wins — three by pin — in the final eight matches to run away with the win.
Included in that run of wins was Westlin’s upset of No. 8 Logan Stotts at 120 with a 5-3 decision.
Linn-Mar entered the meet with five state-ranked wrestlers, led by No. 1 Brandon O’Brien (106), but North Scott barely blinked.
The Lions jumped to an early lead when No. 3 Ryan Plummer scored a 7-3 win over Campbell, but pins by Gottschalk and Petersen gave the Lancers a lead they never relinquished.
North Scott led 18-9 after McCaughey’s pin at 285, but O’Brien flattened Drew Metcalf to pull the Lions to within three.
Pins by sophomore Trace Gephart and Westlin gave North Scott a 30-15 cushion, and Bredar battled hard against sixth-ranked Bryce Parke before falling 15-7.
Connor and Strief both recorded falls for North Scott’s final two wins, and the match ended with No. 3 Tate Naaktgeboren scoring a 5-0 upset win over the top-ranked Matthaidess at 160.
“Jake had some really tough matches, and it was good to get him back on the mat and moving forward,” said Kelly. “We’re just getting started with him, and he’ll make big strides. It’s good to see what our full team is going to look like moving forward.
“Top to bottom everybody showed great fight. Strief went undefeated, Campbell won some big matches, and Bredar and Connor made some strides in the right direction.
“All of our guys are wrestling at a high level, and we’re seeing some of the best competition around,” Kelly continued. “It helps us moving forward with things we need to identify to get better.”
The Lancers will take a few days off to celebrate Christmas, and be right back in the room working to get better.
“All of our guys have done a great job in the past of getting better with the extended training period over break, and I expect that to continue,” said Kelly. “With such a great weekend, it was really a solid way for us to head into break.”
Big weekend for Lancer program
While the Lancers were taking care of business in Waterloo, 90 miles to the south, in Wilton, North Scott's junior varsity and girls' team had plenty of shining moments.
North Scott girls who earned placings inclunded Avala Faber (2nd), Glory Hansel (4th), Greta Baker (3rd), Kyleigh Westlin (3rd), Alexis Cary (3rd), Maddie Gottschalk (4th), Jodie Hanenburg (3rd) and Chloe Strand (3rd).
Lancer boys who brought home top four finishes included: Eli Pence (2nd), Logan Brus (4th), Logan Schmidt (1st), David Sorensen (2nd), Na Jael Brooks (3rd), Ilias Louck (2nd), Paul Kilburg (1st), Collin Barnhill (2nd), Cael Straley (1st), Luke Striegel (3rd), Luke Elgin (2nd), Cody Pritchard (1st), Ashton Hamerlinck (1st), Chase Porter (1st), Landon McDonald (2nd), Grant Nimke (1st), Tommy Keeshan (2nd), Will Seligman (1st), Noah Young (4th), Ryan Campbell (1st), Jack Fahrenkrug (2nd), Max Solis (1st), Zach Johnson (3rd), Chase Crouse (2nd), Ty Murphy (4th), Liam Latham (2nd), Shedrick Walker (3rd), Padriac Bozik (2nd) and David Borcher (2nd).