Bears sending seven to District competition

Published by admin on Thu, 02/06/2020 - 11:32am

English Valleys hosted a portion of Sectionals on February 2 and successfully had seven of their wrestlers qualify to advance to the Districts at Montezuma on February 9. Of the seven, two finished with individual titles and five were runners-up.

Champions:

Tanner Mihal (120 lbs.) – Mihal had little to no trouble getting to the Championship round, pinning Mason Fruendt (HLV) within a minute in the semifinal and finished the day pinning Rementon Smithson (Iowa Valley) in just over 30 seconds to take the gold.

Caleb Peach (170 lbs.) – Peach received a bye in the first round and got by Drew Demory (Regina) in just over one minute before going the distance in the Championship. Peach matched up with Breven Platt (Iowa Valley) and was able to establish a lead he never gave up. Platt scored a single point in their match with Peach winning it 10-1.

Runners-up:

Keegan Cope (113 lbs.) – Cope received a bye in the first round and picked up a quick pin over Seth Lenz (Regina) before getting pinned midway through the second period against Quincy Happel (Lisbon). Cope avoided a wrestle-back, having defeated Lenz earlier, and wound up finishing in second place.

Seth Thompson (132 lbs.) – Thompson had one of the longest days for the Bears by wrestling in four matches. He won the first by pinning Sean Nugent (Regina) late in the first period, then went the distance and edged out Ethan Hamilton (Belle Plaine) to win an 8-5 decision. Another battle with a chance at taking gold came up short with Cael Happel (Lisbon) pinning Thompson midway through the second period. He bounced back in a high-scoring match against Black Mann (BGM) to win a 16-11 decision and take second place.

The seven will be wrestling at Montezuma for Districts on February 9 with hopes of making it to State.

Pick up this week’s Sigourney News-Review to read the full recap, including coach Steve Hester's comments, and see the full list of District qualifiers.