NEW HEIGHTS BY PANTHER WRESTLERS

CNA photo by LARRY PETERSON Inductees: A Hall of Fame ceremony was held prior to the championship round at the John J. Harris Invitational Saturday in Corning. Shown from left are Corning Athletic Director Greg Andrews, Sam Groves, John Harris, Clint Manny and Bob Dyer. Not pictured: Chad Stouder. Groves was a four-time John Harris Tournament champion for Nodaway Valley, and was state runner-up in 2007. He is applying to enter the Iowa State Patrol Academy in the spring. Manny was a three-time Harris Tournament champion from Winterset, and state runner-up as a senior. He was an All-American at Simpson College and serves as assistant coach there. Dyer was head wrestling coach at Glenwood from 1976-2007, where he coached Stouder, a three-time Harris champion. Dyer is now an assistant coach at Simpson with Manny.

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CORNING — All the major players of the John J. Harris Tournament’s rich history were in attendance Saturday, and none of them could recall a performance rivaling Creston/O-M’s production of 251 points, six individual champions and 11 placewinners overall. Gary Christensen, coach of the Winterset team that ran roughshod through the tournament five of six years in the late 1980s, and two runs of three titles in a row, served as official at the tournament last weekend. Bob Dyer, longtime coach of a Glenwood team that twice won two consecutive titles and six crowns overall, was an inductee in the tournament’s Hall of Fame. Steve Baier, coach of Griswold for a two-year title run in the 1980s, looked on from high in the crow’s nest as a broadcaster for KMA radio in Shenandoah. John Walters, who wrestled for a Creston team in the mid-1970s that won three straight titles and later coached the Panthers, stood matside to assist broadcast coverage for KSIB of Creston. And, John Harris himself stood alongside this year’s Hall of Fame inductees. None of them could remember anything rivaling what this year’s Panther team did in running away with the 53rd edition of the tournament started by Harris in 1956. Greg Andrews, current Corning athletic director, said the highest previous point total is believed to be Winterset’s 239 in winning the 2005 championship. The sport had only 12 weight classes for decades, so now there are more scoring opportunities with 14 divisions. The super heavyweight class was added in 1980, and the sport continued to have 13 classes in various forms until the 215 division was added as a 14th in 2001. Creston/O-M, which won last year’s title with 194 points, overwhelmed the field at times with 203 points compiled Saturday after the third consolation round, before any of the placing matches had been wrestled. Triple crowns Andrew Long (125 pounds), Quin Leith (130) and Kalab Evans (160) each used dominant performances in the finals to claim their third John J. Harris gold medals. Bret Kautz (135) gained his second title, while Trent Tucker (140) and Jesse Harris (171) captured their first. Heavyweight Casey Tanner went 4-0 Saturday and avenged three career losses to Clarinda’s Michael Mellencamp by winning on a fall in the third-place match. Zac Leith sustained a disappointing 9-6 semifinal loss to Nodaway Valley’s Levi Richards at 119 pounds, but came back to claim third with his third win this season over previously state-ranked Tyler McKinnon of Clarinda, 4-2. Unseeded freshman John Young placed fourth at 112 pounds. Brody Jay avenged a previous loss by fall to third-seeded Kyle Ring of Tri-Center to win a 5-3 match for fifth place at 145. Kaleb Livingston reached the 215-pound semifinals, and was headed to overtime in that match with Winterset’s David Schwartz, when he was assessed a penalty point for grabbing Schwartz’s jersey with 17 seconds left, making the score 2-1. Livingston ended up sixth. Sophomore 189-pounder Jared Bevins opened the tournament with a pin, got nipped 3-2 by runner-up Cody Redinbaugh of Tri-Center, and then lost by a fall to fourth-place Scott Fox of West Monona to come up short of placing. Sophomore Colton Dunphy was the hard-luck Panther, losing to Shenandoah’s Carroll Heitshusen in the first round. When Heitshusen lost his next match to Griswold’s Dustin Starlin, Dunphy was eliminated without a chance to compete in the consolations. But with 12 wrestlers scoring points, and six posting championships, coach Darrell Frain came away pleased. He was especially impressed with the closing fury of his team, which won nine of 11 matches in the final round. “Everybody was scoring points for us,” Frain said. “We put a lot of emphasis on how we finish, and I was really happy with how it ended up.” Cardinals second Clarinda moved past Tri-Center for second in the final round with two championships by Levi Davidshofer (152) and Bryant Hummel (215). Tri-Center ended up with four runners-up and went only 1-7 overall in the final round. “I told the guys before the finals, we’re too far behind and we’re not going to win it,” said Clarinda coach Josh Porter, “but we were only down one point for second. Let’s go out and win the big matches in the finals, and for the most part we did that. I’m not sure we have enough to run with Creston, but we’ve been competing with them last weekend at Centerville and this weekend, and the Hawkeye 10 should be a good tournament next weekend with Lewis Central and Creston. We’d like to put ourselves in the mix and see what happens.” The Titans tuned up by going 5-0 Saturday in the Sioux City Heelan Duals. Six Lewis Central wrestlers were perfect (5-0) on the day. They were Jay Hildreth (103), Joey Jerkovich (112), George Ivanov (119), Elijah Sullivan (125), Bret Baumbach (135) and Derek Nightser (189). Josh Hoffman (130) and Kyle Moore (215) finished 4-1 in the duals. “On paper, Lewis Central is the favorite,” Frain said of the conference tournament, which Creston has not won since 1988. “We’d like to finish strong like we did Saturday and see where we’re at.” Before traveling to Carroll Kuemper for Saturday’s conference tournament, the Panthers seek a third straight Hawkeye 10 dual championship at Glenwood on Thursday. Glenwood is also hosting Harlan in a double dual, but Creston/O-M’s only remaining conference dual is against the Rams. Creston/O-M has won 27 consecutive conference duals. Peaking Several Panthers appear to be peaking at the right time. Long had two pins and two technical falls in steamrolling through the 125 division, including a 20-5 victory over Class 1A sixth-ranked Kendall Witt of Tri-Center in the finals. Leith marched to the 130 finals with a 15-4 major decision, a fall, and a 21-4 technical fall before rolling up an 18-3 technical fall against Tri-Center’s Ross Buboltz in the finals. Kautz, likewise, had all bonus point wins including a 13-5 major decision over Clarke’s Tyler Jones for his second championship. The Predicament’s state rankings at 140 pounds in Class 2A held up, as Tucker (No. 3) outlasted fourth-ranked Colby Pedersen of Clarinda, 3-1. Pedersen lost to Leith in last year’s 125-pound finals. Tucker had a pin and two major decisions on his way to the championship bout. Evans got his second first-period pin of Shenandoah’s Caleb Owens in a week, taking the championship match at 160 pounds in 50 seconds over the ninth-ranked Mustang. Owens has only three losses this season, two to Evans, who had two pins and a 17-6 major decision in the early rounds. Harris was one of the remarkable stories of the tournament. Top-seeded Tyler Hosfield’s only takedown in the semifinal match occurred in the final three seconds as Harris held on for the 4-3 win over the sixth-ranked (1A) Raider senior. Harris then rallied against Class 1A fifth-ranked Keith Rush of Griswold for a 10-7 win with repeated takedowns off a Russian tie-up. “That’s a big win for him,” Frain said. “When he went away (first semester at a boarding school in Keokuk) he wanted to come back and prove to everybody that he could be an important part of the wrestling team and baseball team. It’s exciting to have him with the team working so hard. He’s adjusting to wrestling the bigger, stronger kids.” ____________ Larry Peterson can be reached at 782-2141, ext. 232 or lpeterson@crestonnews.com