The North Iowa Cedar League Wrestling Tournament will happen Saturday at Aplington-Parkersburg High School. It’ll air on 99 The Wave.
AP/GC coach Joel Reints says the team will be bolstered by the return of reigning 132-pound conference champion Gage Miller, who’s been out of the lineup most of the season. He says several top performers have a strong chance to place highly.
“Carter Liston’s gonna have a good shot, barring some movement that I don’t know about,” Reints says. “He’s gonna have a shot to be in the finals, I believe. And we get Gage Miller back for the first time all year. He’s gonna be wrestling on Saturday. So really excited to see how his day goes, because he’s tough as nails with being a returning state qualifier. Devan Eberhart is gonna have a good shot. Could have a rematch against the Dike kid he lost to. I know he wants some redemption there. And obviously Jesse Brouwer is gonna have a really good shot. Maison Copp, if he wrestles well, he’s he’s gonna have a good shot at place really high.”
Dike-New Hartford will enter the meet with a chance to bounce back from Tuesday’s 0-2 outing at a triangular at AP/GC. Their top returning conference placewinner is Gavin Gerbracht, who was third at 165 last year.
AGWSR has three returning placewinners, including Brady Abbas, who placed seventh at 106, Jariyah Bowles, who placed seventh at 113 and Clayton VanLoh, who placed eighth at 190. Head Coach James Abbas says the conference tournament experience is a critical advantage.
“Wrestling in those big tournaments definitely helps,” Abbas says. “Our conference tournament, I mean, some people would say, well, it’s just a conference tournament. But I would say the quality of opponent that we see in our conference tournament is phenomenal. You look at the top matches in these weights, and you’re seeing kids a lot of times that’ll be down on the podium at the state tournament. The experience wrestling those meets helps. That builds that confidence and that definitely helps you be ready when those big matches come up in the future.”
The tournament will start at 10:00 a.m.
Joel Reints interview:
James Abbas interview:
