Tiger Wrestlers Place At State

By Jared Hylton/Sports Editor

The Tiger wrestling team took four qualifiers to the State tournament over the weekend, and some big surprises developed.

Senior Nick Terpstra had an exceptional day on Thursday, Feb. 16, defeating Tyler Burrell of Cedar Rapids Washington who was ranked first in class 3A heavyweights.

Burrell had defeated Terpstra twice this season already, once by seven points and the second time by only one point. Terpstra earned a take down late in the third period, giving him a one-point lead, and eventually he rode Burrell out with one second left in the match. It seemed that Terpstra had a sure victory, but it wasn’t over yet.

On the ensuing start, Terpstra let Burrell have an escape, tying the match.

“I thought I was up by two, and I let him up, and I saw it was 3-4 and gave him a point, so we had to go into overtime.”

Terpstra had the last laugh, pulling the victory off in three overtimes. He then lost his second match on a 10-6 decision to  Bryce Fisher of Southeast Polk, sending him to the consolation half of the bracket where he then lost to Jake Oldaker of Clinton.

Junior Nick Hagedorn recorded a 1-minute 58-second pin of West Des Moines Dowling’s Isaiah Patton in his first match. Subsequently, he won his second match, defeating Max Krieger from Mason City by a score of 5-4. Hagedorn then lost in the semifinals by a 14-3 major decision to Zeb Wahle from Lewis Central, who would go on to be the 160 lb. Class 3A champion.

Freshman Dan Kelly had an emotional weekend wrestling at 106 pounds, he was the only freshman from Cedar Falls to qualify for State. Kelly lost his first match in a 9-6 decision to Travis Willers of Pleasant Valley. In wrestle-backs, Kelly was defeated by Jake Koethe of West Des Moines Valley by a 8-2 decision.

Senior Sam Dagit made his last state wrestling appearance for the Tigers. Dagit lost his first match to Connor Ryan of Bettendorf by a 1-minute 24-second pin. Dagit bounced back in wrestle-backs winning his first consolation match by a 5-3 decision, but he was defeated in his next match by a score of 8-0 by Jack Randall of Spencer High School.

Of the four wrestlers the Tigers qualified for State, two will be returning to the team next year. They will also be returning Cassy Herkelman, who made an appearance at State as a freshman. She will be a junior next year.