The North Butler-Clarksville boys wrestling team placed seventh with 124.5 points and West Fork placed 14th with 12 points. Nashua-Plainfield was the champion with 249.5 points at the Top of Iowa Conference tournament hosted by Saint Ansgar on Saturday.
North Butler-Clarksville had five wrestlers earn a spot on the podium with top five finishes. Carl Shew finished runner-up at 113, after a win by Fall in the quarterfinal and semifinal, before a loss by major decision (12-3) to Lucas Oldenkamp of Lake Mills in the first place match.
Carl Shew on competing at a top conference tournament in the area.
“I’m okay with the second place finish, but we gotta go get it and go get some more, I think we’re capable of it. Just coming out here and being able to compete with one of the best conferences in North Iowa, it feels great,” says Shew. “The team really helps me and our coaches were ready to go. We had a great day. I was super happy with how I wrestled.”
Jaxon Miller finished runner-up for the Wolves at 138, after back to back wins by decision in the quarterfinal (7-0) and semifinal round (6-3), before a loss by decision (13-7) to Luke Zwanziger of Nashua-Plainfield in the first place match.
Jaxon Miller on getting back to work and the performance of the team.
“I really need to pick it up I’d say, coming into the practice this week and get right back at it to get ready for districts,” says Miller. “Coming into conference this past week our team’s been wrestling really good. Today we really showed our skill that we’ve had. We’ve got a lot of younger guys on the team, so a little bit different but coming in I think we wrestled overall really good today, and competed well against the right teams.”
Other NBC podium finishers included Maddox Morrison in third at 132, Jack Bartels placing fourth at 144 and McCabe Gansen taking down fifth place at 215.
The West Fork boys had a top eight finisher, as Jasper Jones placed seventh at 150. Jones followed each competitive loss with a win. Beginning the day with a loss by decision (7-6) followed by a win by Fall (3:42), then a loss in sudden victory-one in consolation round three, that was answered by a win by decision (9-8) over Evan McCormick of NBC in seventh place match.
Warhawks Head Coach Keaton Wilson on moving forward and the effort of Japser Jones.
“I feel like we could have done better in a lot of positions. Move forward, it’s not the last meet of the year for them, so we just continue to move forward,” says Wilson. “Jasper lost in the quarters to a really, really good Lake Mills guy, 7-6. Then we battled back and won the next one. Then a match I don’t think that he should’ve lost against Forest City, that put us in 7th, 8th place match. He battled, he continued wrestling, proud of him. He came away with a 7th place finish.”
North Butler will host a quad on Tuesday to conclude their dual slate. West Fork will be at Garner-Hayfield-Ventura quad on Tuesday.
NBC Head Coach Adam Holm:
West Fork Head Coach Keaton Wilson:
