Menke Earns Spot at State

PLEASANTVILLE – Sigourney-Keota junior Owen Menke admits he’s a nervous guy. He utilized that nervousness Saturday to earn a spot in this week’s state wrestling tournament. He finished second and won his wrestleback to find a space on the podium.

Sigourney had five wrestlers place fourth and the team finished fifth in the team race with 76.5 points. Alburnett was the runaway winner of arguably the toughest district in Class 1A this season with 271 points. South Iowa Cedar League champion and runnerup Iowa Valley placed second and third.

Menke entered the 285-pound weight class as the top seed with a 35-8 record. He had an opening round bye then pinned Iowa Valleys’ Jackson Slaymaker in 47 seconds in the semifinals. Alburnett’s Reed Slater pinned Menke in the finals. In the consolation semifinal Slaymaker lost to Pleasantville’s Carson Ammons on a 9-6 decision to earn the right to wrestle for a true second place against Menke.

Menke took little time and scored a takedown of Ammons quickly and worked to a pin in 36 seconds to earn his ticket to state.

“After practice last night (Friday) I took a shower and put on some music,” said Menke. “I went to bed but was really nervous and had trouble sleeping. When I got here, I felt more relaxed. After my finals match, I was nervous again but knew what I had to do.”

Menke will face Postville’s Anton Solvi in the first round of the Class 1A state tourney Wednesday afternoon.

Sigourney coach Corey VanDenHeuval was pleased overall but knew his wrestlers were so close in a strong district.

“It’s always quite a day here,” said VanDenHeuval. “You come here, and your hopes and aspirations are really high and sometimes you take it on the chin. It’s kind of a day of weddings and funerals. 

“Hats off to the kids who have put in a lot of work. At the end of the day, they just take two. This was a very tough with a lot of ranked wrestlers.”

Sigourney-Kota wrestlers put themselves in a position to compete for the final spot but could not turn the corner. Freshman Paxton Wehr at 113 pounds lost his quarterfinal match to Alburnett’s Atlee DeWitt by fall in 31 seconds. Wehr had a bye in the consolations and met Cole Peters of Cardinal in the third-place match Peters won with a 30-second pin giving Wehr fourth place.

Brady Clark scored a technical fall over North Mahaska’s Joel DeJong in the quarterfinal, 18-3 to advance to the semifinals. Clark pinned Cardinal’s Kyran Spees in 2:36 to reach the consolation final. Pleasantville’s Blake Rowson pinned Clark in 2:21.

Jacob Libe took home fourth at 157 pounds. The junior pinned BGM’s Ethan Bridgewater in 3:24 to reach the semifinals. Pleasantville’s Zane Mullenix won by pin in 1:06 sending Libe to the consolations. He pinned North Mahaska’s Chris Long in the semifinal by tech fall 18-3. Iowa Valleys’ Dane Smith defeated Libe by major decision in the consolation final 13-4.

Senior Ashton Schwab saw his high school career end in the consolation final. He had an opening round bye then scored a tech fall over Carter Ball of Wapello, 17-0. Mason Hoyt of Iowa Valley won a 6-2 decision to send Schwab to the consolations. Schwab pinned Jacob Romans of Pleasantville in 56 seconds. In the third-place bout, Schwab faced Ball again and lost by fall in the final minute by pin 5:10.

Sigourney-Keota’s final place winner came at 215 pounds. Senior Zach Guffey scored a 15-5 major decision over Wapello’s Jaime Prado then lost by fall to Alburnett’s Eaghan Fleshman in 1:41. In the consolation semifinal Guffey decisioned Nathaniel Olivier 8-5 to earn the right to battle Ian Smith of Iowa Valley. Smith scored the fall in 1:53.