This weekend at the Mid-American Center in Council Bluffs, IA the Iowa Lakes wrestling team had 7 wrestlers competing. When the dust settled Saturday night the Lakers finished in 13th place as a team with 3 All-Americans led by Matt Jordan a freshman from Des Moines, Iowa. Matt earned a trip to Saturday nights championship finals with an OT victory over #3 Andres Lucero of North Idaho in the semi-finals Saturday morning. Matt started the tournament off Friday morning with a 20-2 T-Fall win over Dylan Pesock from Mercyhurst CC in a pigtail match. The first round Matt earned his 2nd win of the day over Joel Avial from SW Oregon 9-0. Avila would eventually wrestle through the tournament taking 3rd place. In the 2nd round Matt claimed a 9-3 win over Nick Diagiacomo of Rowan CC and in the Quarter-final match Matt earned a hard fought 3-2 win over Tommy Russell of Triton CC. Russell had beaten Matt earlier in the season. However things would end with a loss as Matt struggled to get his offense firing in a 16-5 loss to Michael Spangler of Pratt CC in the finals Saturday night. Spangler entered the tournament with only one loss to an NJCAA opponent this season, that loss was given to him by Matt back in November. "As a coach there are times when you know something good is going to happen, our staff knew that about Matt entering the National Championships. There was a focus and grit to Matt as the tournament approached, he was ready, he knew and we knew it. Guys really make coaching fun when that is going on, otherwise it is pretty stressful at this time of year," Coach Alesch stated when asked about how he felt Matt would do this weekend. Coach Alesch added, "Matt made a commitment when he arrived on campus in August, he was all in. He wanted to know what he needed to do to win a national title and even was worried he was not going to have enough time to prepare himself and asked the staff about redshirt so he could be sure he was ready when the opportunity presented itself. That was all I needed to hear to know he was already more prepared then he even knew. So Matt went to work and he welcomed the process that earns young men a shot at a national championship."
Another freshman and high school teammate of Jordan, Deville Dentis also fought hard this weekend to earn his first All-American honor by placing 6th at 149 lbs. Deville opened up with a pigtail match also winning by fall over Jeremy Sandoval of Highline CC. He would then win by fall over LaMont of Nassau CC and another win by Fall over #7 Brayden Lowry of NW Wyoming. The next match Deville dropped a very close 4-3 match to eventual National Champion Jake Beeson of Pratt CC. Deville would come back and get two strong wins over Atlee Cullison of Rowan and 3-2 win over #4 Revelli of Western Wyoming. However, Dentis dropped his next two matches in heart ache fashion to #1 ranked Gissendanner of Niagara 7-6 and then returning National Champion Cardionte Wilson of Ellsworth 5-3 to end in 6th place.
The 3rd All-American is freshman Austin Hinzman at 174 lbs from Akron, Ohio. Austin started off with a win by Fall over Brain Torres of Nassau before losing to #3 Jayden Smith of NEO. Austin came back strong for 3 straight wins to earn himself AA honors for the first time. Winning by fall over Rodgers of Lackawanna and Klettheimer of NIACC. Then defeating #7 Porter Fox of NW Wyoming 9-6. Austin would lose by Fall to Bennett of Clackamas then injury defaulting to 8th place.
"There is no doubt we left matches out there we were very capable of winning but all 7 wrestlers gave it everything they had. They fought as hard as they could have and gave the Laker fans a lot to cheer about all weekend," mentioned Coach Alesch.
"I have to give a shout out to Robert Hall III who is the lone Sophomore of the 7 qualifiers. Rob has had some up and downs the past couple years and has grown tremendously as a young man. I am so darn proud to see where he is today and can not wait to see him go on to bigger and better things after Iowa Lakes. I know Rob wanted to do better then going 2-2 and missing out on being an All-American, but someday he will look back and realize all he has accomplished while being a Laker. We will really miss Rob and all he brought to the team everyday," stated Coach Alesch.
Three other freshman Logan Koedam at 184 lbs went 1-2 after opening with a first round win. Tyler Needham at 197 lbs. dropped his first round match then battled back for a win before being eliminated after his 2nd loss. Miles Knuckles at 133 lbs went 0-2 at the tournament with both losses coming to eventual All-Americans.