At Council Bluffs Wrestling Classic, Iowa City West wrestlers keep Mark Reiland’s memory close
COUNCIL BLUFFS — Hunter Garvin is telling a story. He’s riding shotgun, and Mark Reiland, the late Iowa City West coach, is driving. Out of nowhere and without looking, Reiland threw his hand into Garvin’s neck, just to see if he was paying attention.
They called it a “throat chop” — and if you were near Reiland, Garvin says, you were a target.
“You can ask anybody who’s wrestled under him, anyone that knows him, his thing was throat chops,” Garvin, Iowa City West’s star senior, said Saturday evening and laughed. “Every five minutes, he’s just, throat chop, throat chop.
“I’d take another throat chop any day. I wish we could bring him back. He was an amazing guy. God bless that guy for all he’s done for this sport.”
The Iowa City West wrestling team came to the Mid-America Center, home of this weekend’s Council Bluffs Wrestling Classic, with heavy hearts. Reiland, who coached the Trojans for nearly two decades, died last week at age 52.
West has found small ways to honor Reiland’s memory. The Trojans beat Dubuque Senior 58-21 on Thursday, and some wore shirts that read, “Iowa Legend Mark Reiland” printed around a picture of him from his Hawkeye days. West heavyweight Brett Pelfrey wore his proudly over the weekend — and mentioned that he had more at home, too.
Of course, many West wrestlers believe one of the best ways to honor the memory of a coach who led West to seven state team championships and coached 16 wrestlers to 26 individual state titles is to simply perform on the mat — and they did that in Council Bluffs. West finished sixth in the team race with just 10 wrestlers competing.
Garvin led the charge, going 8-0 with all bonus-point victories, to win at 152 pounds. In the finals, he scored nine takedowns and thumped Millard South’s nationally ranked Tyler Antoniak, 19-8. He was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler.
Reiland retired from West in 2018, just before this year’s senior class became freshmen at West. They were never directly coached by Reiland, but West’s current coach, Nate Moore, was a two-time state champ under Reiland and undoubtedly uses many of the same tactics that Reiland employed to make the Trojan program one of the state’s best.
More: Mark Reiland stepping down as Iowa City West's wrestling coach
In that sense, the current West wrestling team has felt Reiland’s presence plenty over the years.
“He wanted his guys to be dominators on the mat but gentlemen off the mat,” Garvin said. “It was far more than just wrestling. He changed people’s lives.”
The Iowa wrestling community — and, really, Reiland’s impact on wrestling stretched all over the country — was rocked by Reiland’s passing. Iowa City and especially West felt it, and will continue to feel it, on deeper levels.
Garvin’s throat-chop story showcases Reiland’s orneriness, sure, but also his impact, which will be remembered in ways big and small. His wrestlers loved him. All who met him did, too.
It may not get any easier as the season continues to unfold — especially for those at Iowa City West.
“It really stinks that he’s gone,” Garvin said, “but he’s always going to be with us.”
was never directly coached by him, but he’s had as great an impact on me as any other coach i’ve ever had, rest easy coach. #RGOD
— Кель Скрантон (@SaelKcranton) December 9, 2021
Underwood stakes claim as a legitimate Class 1A contender
Brandon Valley ran away with the team title, scoring 562.5 points thanks to nine semifinalists, four finalists and two champs. The school is a budding power both in South Dakota and in the Midwest, entering InterMat’s national team rankings last week.
The highest-placing Iowa team was Class 1A’s Underwood. The Eagles scored 365.5 for third, behind Brandon Valley and Nebraska’s Millard South (second, 423), and ahead of a couple of undermanned Class 3A squads in Waukee Northwest team (fourth, 328) and West (sixth, 293.5).
Just one Underwood wrestler took first — Gable Porter at 132 pounds, a weight that featured three other state champs — but the Eagles led all Iowa teams with four finalists. They totaled 31 pins and scored 559 total match points, second-most of any team in the tournament. Hagen Heistand, a finalist a 145, scored 101 on his own.
This is the kind of firepower could make Underwood a serious contender in Class 1A this season. It’s still early, but it’s easy to project a fun four-team race come February, between Don Bosco, Lisbon, West Sioux and these Eagles.
We’ll learn more as the season continues to unfold. Don Bosco and Lisbon could clash at next weekend’s Battle of Waterloo. Underwood will continue to see other western Iowa contenders like Missouri Valley and Logan-Magnolia. West Sioux is built in a similar mold to Underwood, with a handful of wrestlers that could score big points.
A performance like this from Underwood makes those thoughts easy to conjure — and that’s even noting that they did it without heavyweight Easton Eledge, who’s ranked sixth in Class 1A by IAWrestle.
Buckle up, because that Class 1A team race is shaping up to be a fun one in a couple of months.
Fort Dodge's Dru Ayala dominates
Dru Ayala entered his sophomore season with the Dodgers on a roll. Consider his accomplishments from last summer:
a perfect 7-0 showing for Team Iowa at the Junior men’s freestyle national duals;
an All-America finish at the 16U men’s freestyle national championships;
and he was IAWrestle’s preseason No. 1 at 106 pounds in Class 3A.
That all came to a quick halt when Ayala lost his first match of the season to Carter Pearson, a talented freshman 106-pounder from Southeast Polk.
Since then, Ayala has regained his form as one of the state's premier lightweights. He’s now 11-2 overall this season after winning the Council Bluffs Wrestling Classic, going 7-0 to take first at 106 pounds.
Ayala was at his best, notching bonus points in all seven wins: four pins (in a combined 5:07), plus two major decisions and another technical fall. He outscored his seven opponents by a combined 59-9.
This was the same version of Dru Ayala that helped Iowa win the Junior national duals and earned him All-America honors this summer — and, more important, it’s the version he’ll need to be come February if he wants to finish the season on top.
Meet Atlantic-CAM’s Kadin Stutzman
The biggest revelation of the weekend came from Kadin Stutzman, a senior wrestler for Atlantic-CAM.
Stutzman tore through the 170-pound bracket, going 7-0 with six pins and a technical fall en route to first place. All of his pins came in either the first or second periods, and he outscored his opponents 43-6, a run that included wins over state medalists from both Missouri and South Dakota.
It was impressive, perhaps, because Stutzman has yet to earn a state medal here in Iowa. In fact, he’s qualified for the Class 2A state tournament only once. He lost at districts as a freshman, then at sectionals as a sophomore.
Thing is, Stutzman has always been a talented wrestler. He entered his senior season with a 114-32 overall record, according to stats kept by Trackwrestling, and is now 16-0 this season with 10 pins, all of them in either the first or second periods.
This weekend, he flashed some of his best stuff — and if it’s a sign of things to come, Stutzman could be in for a big senior season.
Three Iowa girls win gold
The continued growth of Iowa girls wrestling spurred tournament organizers here to add a girls division. In all, 137 girls from 26 different teams competed across 12 weights. Team scores were kept, too — Kansas’s Washburn Rural took first, followed by Lewis Central from Iowa and Gardner-Edgerton from Kansas.
Seven Iowa girls reached the finals and three won titles: Underwood’s Molly Allen at 107, Lewis Central’s Sophie Barnes at 126 and Fort Dodge’s Alexis Ross at 138.
All three champs dominated, too.
Allen, a freshman who’s ranked No. 9 nationally by USA Wrestling, went 3-0. She wrestled like a top-10 national talent, too, outscoring her opponents 45-7, thanks to a pair of technical falls and a 7-1 finals win over Bennington’s Maycee Peacher.
Barnes, who’s ranked No. 23 nationally, recorded three first-period pins to reach the final, then topped Olathe South’s Nicole Redmond, who’s ranked No. 25 nationally, by injury default. Barnes, who earned Outstanding Wrestler honors, led 4-0 in the second period when Redmond came up injured and couldn’t finish the match.
Ross is a returning girls state finalist and Junior women’s freestyle state champ, and she pinned her way to first this weekend, totaling all four falls in a combined 7:34.
Other Takeaways and Notes
Missouri Valley’s Eli Becerra, a returning Class 1A state finalist, won at 113 pounds, capped by a decisive 14-4 major decision over Fort Dodge’s Max Bishop in the finals. Becerra scored five total takedowns, and took Bishop feet to back in the second period to turn a 6-3 lead into an 11-3 lead. Before that, Becerra muscled through both Underwood’s Lucas Bose, 5-3, and Ames’ Jabari Hinson, 4-1, to reach the final.
Waukee Northwest finished with a pair of champs: Carter Freeman (126) and Griffin Gammell (182). Freeman went 6-0 and beat Sergeant Bluff-Luton’s Bo Koedam, 13-3, in the finals. Gammell went 8-0 with five pins en route to gold. Three Northwest wrestlers finished in the top eight, and the Wolves turned in a fourth-place team finish with just 10 total wrestlers this weekend (they did not bring anybody for 170, 195, 220 or 285). Pretty impressive.
Nick Hamilton, a 2020 state champ for Underwood who now wrestles for Nebraska’s Papillion-La Vista, took first at 160 pounds. Hamilton, a Virginia signee and Junior Greco-Roman national champ this summer, went 8-0 and outscored his opponents 109-43. His 109 match points were the second-most of any individual in the tournament this weekend.
Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.
2021 Council Bluffs Wrestling Classic
Boys Team Scores
Brandon Valley (SD), 562.5
Millard South (NE), 423
Underwood, 365.5
Waukee Northwest, 328
Papillion-La Vista, 303.5
Boys Finals
106 pounds: Dru Ayala (Fort Dodge) maj. dec. Hudson Loges (Blair), 11-2
113 pounds: Eli Becerra (Missouri Valley) maj. dec. Max Bishop (Fort Dodge), 14-4
120 pounds: Gabriel Truman (Lincoln East) pinned Blake Allen (Underwood) in 1:21
126 pounds: Carter Freeman (Waukee NW) maj. dec. Bo Koedam (Sergeant Bluff-Luton), 13-3
132 pounds: Gable Porter (Underwood) dec. Hayden Mills (Blue Valley SW), 7-2
138 pounds: Alex Mentzer (Brandon Valley) dec. Stevie Ray Barnes (Underwood), 7-5 (SV)
145 pounds: Joel Adams (Millard South) dec. Hagen Heistand (Underwood), 7-3
152 pounds: Hunter Garvin (Iowa City West) maj. dec. Tyler Antoniak (Millard South), 19-8
160 pounds: Nick Hamilton (Papillion-La Vista) dec. Dylan Elmore (St. Thomas Aquinas), 2-1
170 pounds: Kadin Stutzman (Atlantic-CAM) pinned Brian Petry (Millard North) in 1:46
182 pounds: Griffin Gammell (Waukee NW) dec. Noah Blair (Millard West), 11-8
195 pounds: Blake Jouret (Olathe South) dec. Damion Schunke (Brandon Valley), 5-4
220 pounds: Cole D. Haberman (Omaha Westside) pinned Owen Warren (Brandon Valley) in 2:25
285 pounds: Navarro Schunke (Brandon Valley) dec. Trevor Brown (Waverly), 6-3
Girls Team Scores
Washburn Rural (KS), 191
Lewis Central, 101
Gardner-Edgerton (KS), 100
Platte County (MO), 92
Papillion-La Vista (NE), 79
Girls Finals
100 pounds: Kristen Rezac (Washburn Rural) pinned Azaria Ruby (Nebraska City) in 1:41
107 pounds: Molly Allen (Underwood) dec. Maycee Peacher (Bennington), 7-1
114 pounds: Catherine Duong (Olathe North) pinned Talia Astorino (Papillion-La Vista) in 3:44
120 pounds: Hannah Glynn (Blue Valley SW) dec. Addison Broxterman (Washburn Rural), 8-5
126 pounds: Sophie Barnes (Lewis Central) over Nicole Redmond (Olathe South) by injury default
132 pounds: Audrey Call (Platte County) pinned Alexis Fredrickson (Washburn Rural) in 4:40
138 pounds: Alexis Ross (Fort Dodge) pinned Shelby Davis (Gardner-Edgerton) in 2:23
145 pounds: Emma Stice (Papillion-La Vista) pinned Mahri Manz (Lewis Central) in 0:41
152 pounds: Dakota Konzem (Gardner-Edgerton) pinned Espie Almazan (Lewis Central) in 4:58
165 pounds: Jaliah Johnson (Washburn Rural) pinned Nicole Olson (Missouri Valley) in 3:14
185 pounds: Hailey Siebrass (Millard North) pinned Lexi Nash (Iowa City West) in 1:46
235 pounds: Hailey Conley (Olathe North) dec. Kaylyn Munn (Platte County), 1-0
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa City West wrestlers honor Mark Reiland at Council Bluffs Classic
