Iowa high school wrestling's new stars begin to arrive at folkstyle national championships

We’ve reached the point in the wrestling calendar where the major national-level competitions are fewer and farther between, but each one offers an opportunity for Iowa high school wrestling’s next wave of stars to reveal themselves.

The first came this past weekend, at USA Wrestling’s folkstyle national championships, held at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. A total of 31 Iowa wrestlers earned All-American honors between the 16U and Junior age levels, including four individual champions.

The 16U tournament is where most of the magic happened for Iowa high-schoolers, with 17 All-Americans and all four champs. Many of the young stars from this past winter (though not all of them, of course) continued their surge on a bigger stage.

Webster City’s Linden Phetxoumphone was the first of the four champs, winning at 113 pounds. He went 5-0, cruising to the finals with two pins and back-to-back 10-4 wins in the quarterfinals and semifinals, then scored a pair of takedowns for a 4-2 overtime win over Minnesota native Tyler Turzinski in the finals.

Don Bosco’s Kyler Knaack was the second champ, with four hard-fought wins en route to first at 160. Knaack, a Class 1A state champ in February, scored eight takedowns and allowed one in his first three matches, then muscled through a 2-1 finals win over Illinois native Aaron Stewart.

Fort Dodge’s Dreshaun Ross, a freshman state champ at 195 pounds in 3A in February, rolled to a 16U national title at the same weight. He wrestled just twice (had a first-round bye then a forfeit win in the semifinals), but outscored those two opponents 26-11, winning by technical fall in the quarters and by fall in the finals to state first.

Perhaps the most impressive performance came from Broedy Collins Hendricks, the 16U champ at 170. Hendricks won an AAU state title in February, meaning, yes, he’s still in middle school, but blew through high school-aged competition in Cedar Falls: 5-0 with four pins, en route to gold — including one over a Louisiana state champ. Collins Hendricks wrestles for Team Valley, which is based in northern/northwest Iowa.

The four individual champs were the headliners, but there were plenty more strong performances throughout the 16U tournament from Iowa wrestlers. Fort Dodge’s Luke Fierke was a 16U finalist at 285. Bondurant-Farrar’s Nolan Fellers (145) and Bettendorf’s Zander Glazebrook (220), both freshmen this past season, both took third.

As the wrestling calendar continues into spring and summer, Iowa’s next wave of wrestling stars will have more opportunities to announce themselves. Next month, the U17 world team trials, then regional tournaments in May, national dual competitions in June, and the freestyle and Greco-Roman national championships in July.

The guys who shined in Cedar Falls, as well as many more, will be at each one, battling against the nation’s top competitors. Some may even go a step further and contend for world teams and take on international competition this summer.

Those who came before set a high bar, with a freestyle-greco sweep at last year’s Junior national duals as well as a runaway team championship at the Junior men’s freestyle national championships. We’ll see over the next few months whether this new wave of stars can match, or even surpass, that success.

Notable results from Iowa wrestlers at USA Wrestling’s 16U and Junior folkstyle national championships

In the 16U national tournament …

• Ankeny’s Benjamin Walsh went 4-2 and took fifth at 106 pounds, recording two wins over other All-American wrestlers;

• Pleasant Valley’s Carter Siebel rallied from a second-round loss to win four in a row for a sixth-place finish at 126, which included three wins by one, two, and three points to advance through the wrestlebacks;

• Mount Vernon’s Jase Jaspers, a 2A state finalist in February, rallied from a first-round loss by winning six straight matches, with four pins, to finish fourth at 132;

• Fellers, a medalist from Bondurant-Farrar and returning 16U greco All-American, finished 5-1 overall, reaching the semifinals before rallying for third.

In the Junior national tournament …

• Four Iowa wrestlers made the Junior finals: Fort Dodge’s Dru Ayala (113) and Damarion Ross (160), Greene County’s Kale Petersen (132), and Dallas Center-Grimes’ Jacob Fistler (170);

• Ayala outscored his first three opponents 34-14, then dropped a 3-1 finals match to Idaho’s Mack Mauger, who’s now beaten Ayala at the Junior national championships last July, the U17 world team trials last April, and then again this past weekend;

• Petersen outscored his first four opponents 64-18 to reach the finals at 132, then gave up a three-point turn and a couple of reversals in an 8-7 finals loss to Montana’s Teegan Vasquez;

• Damarion Ross won three consecutive one-point matches to reach the 160 finals: 8-7 over Idaho’s Jacob Blandford, 3-2 over Wisconsin’s Robert Flege, then 4-3 over Missouri’s Sam Richardson — and in all three matches, Ross scored takedowns in the third period to prevail;

• Fistler will definitely see his national stock jump after winning a pair of overtime matches, 5-3 over Arizona’s Dalton Loyden in round two and 7-5 over Minnesota’s Lars Michaelson in the semifinals, to reach the 170 finals;

• Greene County’s McKinley Robbins joined Petersen as an All-American, finishing third at 145 pounds. Robbins won his first three matches to reach the semifinals, then rallied for third;

• Sergeant Bluff-Luton’s Ty Koedam, a 2A state runner-up in January, went 6-2 for fourth place at 152 pounds, which included a 6-5 overtime win over Linn-Mar’s Grant Kress, who rallied with four consecutive wrestleback wins to finish sixth;

• Dubuque Hempstead’s Joe Lewis, after narrowly missing out on Junior greco All-American honors last summer, followed his 3A state finals appearance with a 5-1 record and third-place showing at 220;

• Lisbon’s Wyatt Smith, the 1A heavyweight state champ and past 16U greco All-American who recently committed to Coe College, reached the semifinals at 285 before ultimately taking fourth.

Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa HS wrestling's new stars begin to arrive at folkstyle nationals