Two of Belle Plaine’s most experienced and successful wrestlers are getting ready for their final trip to the state tourney in Des Moines later this week. Both of them certainly know the way there, as each qualified for state for the third time.
At 103 pounds, Zakk Buch takes his 29-4 record into Thursday’s first round hoping to climb that last rung to a state title, after placing second last year. He reached 150 career wins in action last week.
Buch opens against Lance Maquire of Fort Dodge St. Edmond. Maguire, a senior, is 39-0 this season. Other wrestlers in the weight class include Jordan Bremer of Woodbury Centra Moville, a sophomore with a 39-2 record who placed fourth at state last year. Brance Simms, Twin River Valley Bode, is another sophomore who brings a 36-3 record into the meet. He was fifth at state last year. Pekin sophomore Phillip Laux is also undefeated this season at 36-0.
At 125 pounds, Plainsman senior Jack O’Brien is back aiming to climb the ladder. He was sixth at state as a sophomore and fifth last season. He takes a 39-3 record into this week’s meet. His first opponent is Dillon Buline, a senior from Lone Tree with a 41-8 record.
This weight class is loaded with state veterans. Don Bosco junior Brandon Welter was second at 112 pounds last year and ha sa 38-3 record this season. Jake Kadel, a junior from New London/WMU, was third at 112 last year and is 46-0 this year. Sophomore Logan Mulnix of North Linn was seventh at 125 pounds last year and has a 35-2 mark this year. Guthrie Center junior Kris Lehman is 44-5 and was eighth at 112 pounds in 2009.
“They are both very focused on bringing home the gold,” Coach Bob Yilek said. “We are excited as we feel these two have the talent and experience to do well in Des Moines. They just need to focus on one match at a time and just wrestle the way they have the past four years.”
The Plainsmen qualified nine wrestlers for last week’s district at Eddyville. But one of the qualifiers, Kurtis Osipchack, was sidelined with a viral infection.
“This is an exciting but very demanding day,” Yilek said. “You must go out and give it all you have and possibly a little more. We did not feel we wrestled up to our full potential but did manage a 4th place finish and two state qualifiers and had three wrestlers place 3rd. You are always expecting more but you take what you get. Lance Hinschberger, Cody Chekal and Reed Petersen all finished 3rd and will be back next season. Austin Chekal, Scott Wheeler and Jeremy Ellis all finished 4th.”
Earlier in the week, the Plainsmen qualified for the regional duals for the 19th time, but fell in the opening round to New London, 47-28.
“We wrestled hard but were beat by a better team,” the coach said. “Our schedule showed its toughness as there are eight schools who qualify for the state duals and we competed against five of them this season. We ended up 11-11 in duals this year.”
The coach expressed his appreciation to all of the Plainsman fans who supported the team at the district meet Saturday.
So the attention turns to the Wells Fargo Arena later this week, for one of the state’s biggest attractions of the year. Class 1A wrestlers open their action on Thursday at 9 a.m. with first round and first round consolation matches. Those who advance will wrestle again starting at 9 a.m. and the finals are set for Saturday beginning at 6 p.m.