Let me begin by saying that the people in charge of the Hawkeye Ten do a wonderful job, not every tournament gives you a complete guide of former champions and notable accomplishments. The Hawkeye Ten does and for that, they deserve a thank you.
Looking to become a three-time champ
Chase McLaren (Atlantic/CAM)
Austin Gutknecht (Clarinda)
Trevor Anderson (Glenwood)
Looking to become a two-time champ
Jonathan Erp (Red Oak)
Gabe Kjeldgaard (Lewis Central)
Jordan Renshaw (Glenwood)
Thomas Bentley (Red Oak)
John McConkey (Atlantic/CAM)
Caleb Sanders (Glenwood)
Kole Hansen (Atlantic/CAM)
Each Team's Total Individual Championships and Most Recent Champion
Atlantic/CAM (46)-John McConkey, 2017
Clarinda (44)-Austin Gutkencht, 2017
Creston/OM (109)-Kadon Hulett, 2017
Denison-Schleswig (4)-Jesse Preul, 2010
Glenwood (95)-Jordan Renshaw, 2017
Harlan (64)-Elias Schaeffer, 2015
Kuemper Catholic (8)-Alexander Schmitz, 2013
Lewis Central (144)-Mac Southard, 2017
Red Oak (19)-Thomas Bentley, 2017
Shenandoah (37)-Carroll Heitshushen, 2010
St. Albert (4)-Wyatt Lewis, 2014
I won't entertain you (or bore you) with any more statistics, lets look at the weights.
106 Pounds-I'm super excited and curious to see this weight class. I think four wrestlers have a legitimate shot and there might be one or two others that sneak up and surprise me. Benjamin Schmitz (Kuemper Catholic) is the only ranked wrestler in this weight class, ranked seventh in Class 2A, but Jonathan Erp (Red Oak), Joe Weaver (Atlantic/CAM) and Tanner Wink (Lewis Central) have all been ranked at some point this season. Not to mention, these guys have all beat up on each other, let's take a look.
December 1st-Weaver defeats Schmitz by 9-6 decision.
December 14th-Schmitz defeats Weaver by a 4-1 decision.
December 14th-Schmitz defeats Wink by a 4-0 decision
December 14th-Wink defeats Weaver by a 4-1 decision.
January 4th-Wink defeats Erp by a 4-0 decision
January 7th-Erp beats Weaver by major decision 14-4
January 14th-Weaver beats Erp by a 14-9 decision.
Add in the fact that Erp is the defending conference champion at this weight class and that makes it even more interesting. Good thing I'm not predicting winners, because this one might be nearly impossible.
113 Pounds-Last year this weight class featured a ranked match-up between Jacob Goodson (Creston/OM) and Kole Hansen (Atlantic/CAM), but this year the weight class features zero ranked wrestlers, this one is tough to decipher. Kaden Bolton (Creston/OM) had a strong showing last week, finishing second at John J., Aybren Moore (Atlantic/CAM) took home fourth place in the same tournament. It's also worth noting that neither Red Oak nor Kuemper Catholic have a 113 pounder listed on their roster, so we could potentially see Erp or Schmitz bump up.
120 Pounds-Another weight class with more questions than answers. Not every school has a 120 weight pounder listed, so there is a good chance that this will not be a full class. Keep an eye on Steele McLaren (Atlantic/CAM) and Garon Wurster (Creston/OM), the two grapplers finished third and fourth at John J. respectively with McLaren getting the win by fall. However, Ethan Lemon (Harlan) might have something to say about that rematch.
126 Pounds-Kole Hansen (Atlantic/CAM) looked pretty darn impressive at John J. last week. He defeated Class 1A fourth-ranked Teagan Lundquist (Southwest Valley) after Lundquist spent the whole tournament looking like a takedown machine. To get to the finals, Hansen had to defeat Kolby Hulett (Creston/OM) in an entertaining match that ended with Hansen getting the win by a 5-3 decision. It's also worth noting that Tanner Higgins (Lewis Central) beat Hulett by a 7-4 decision on Tuesday. Keep an eye on this one.
132 Pounds-Chase McLaren (Atlantic/CAM) dropped a tough one to Gabe Ruepke (Chariton) in the finals of John J last week, but the junior has been wrestling like a man on a mission all year. Perhaps his mission is to become a three-time Hawkeye Ten champ, which he will become if he is victorious. There's a possibility that Cam Vanderhoof (Red Oak) could wrestle at this weight class this weekend. Vanderhoof finished fourth at the conference meet at 120 pounds last year. I also would not be surprised to see Brandon Wieland (Lewis Central) or Kelby Luther (Creston/OM) advance to the finals.
138 Pounds-Perhaps no wrestler looked more impressive at John J. last week than Austin Gutknecht (Clarinda), the senior got the monkey off his back and took home his first ever John J. gold medal after defeating Class 1A fourth-ranked Connor Lange (Missouri Valley). This week, Gutknecht looks to become a three-time conference champion. Kyle Kuckta (Lewis Central) is currently 15-7 on the season and could find himself facing Gutknecht in the finals or it could end up being Cade Vicker (Creston/OM) who defeated Kuckta earlier this week.
145 Pounds-This weight class by itself, is worth the price of admissions. There are three ranked wrestlers in this class; 3A second-ranked Trevor Anderson (Glenwood), 2A third-ranked Mitchel Swank (Creston/OM) and 3A seventh-ranked Gabe Kjeldgaard (Lewis Central). Anderson beat Kjeldgaard by 3-2 decision on January 4th and Kjeldgaard defeated Swank by 6-3 decision earlier this week, but Anderson and Swank have not wrestled this year. This is awesome, we are most likely going to have a state-tournament caliber match in the semi-finals, and another one in the finals.
152 Pounds-This is a sneaky good weight class. The two favorites are likely to be Caleb Kingery (Lewis Central) and Jordan Renshaw (Glenwood), Kingery comes into the meet ranked 10th in Class 3A. Him and Renshaw wrestled each other on January 4th, the match ended with Kingery edging Renshaw in sudden victory. Last year, Renshaw surprised many people when he won the conference tournament, if he wins it this year, it will come as no surprise, or at least it shouldn't. However, Justin McCunn (Red Oak) could be considered a favorite to win as well. Last week, McCunn made it all the way to the finals before dropping to Skeeter Bostwick (Missouri Valley), McCunn has looked pretty darn impressive this year. Can he make a statement?
160 Pounds-This weight class features zero ranked wrestlers, but it could be a fun one to watch. Zak Hulsing (Kuemper Catholic) has been ranked at times this season and might be considered the favorite. The rest of this weight class is pretty wide open, Brett Mower (Glenwood) has split time this year wrestling at 160 and 170, so it depends on whether or not he wrestles at this weight. Ryan Higgins (Lewis Central) has been wrestling well as of late.
170 Pounds-This weight class could go a couple of different ways. Kyle Owens (Shenandoah) is the only ranked wrestler in this class, coming in ranked 10th in Class 2A, but he lost last week to Carter Maynes (Red Oak), William Waugh (Lewis Central) recently bumped up from 160 pounds and has been wrestling well, Brett Mower (Glenwood) could potentially wrestle in this weight class as well, It would not surprise me at all if any one of these four guys won it.
182 Pounds-The last two seasons, Anthony Sherry (Glenwood) has had the misfortune of running into Chase Shiltz (Creston/OM), he doesn't have to worry about that this year. The second-ranked wrestler in Class 3A is looking for his first Hawkeye Ten championship. Sherry's been dinged up lately, so hopefully he will be at 100 percent come Saturday. Thomas Bentley (Red Oak) has also been dinged up lately, the fifth-ranked wrestler in Class 2A sat out last week's John J. Harris Invitational with a shoulder injury, if he's healthy we could see a Sherry/Bentley match in the finals, but don't count out Nick Dickerson (Shenandoah) who looked pretty impressive last week at John J. taking home the runner-up spot.
195 Pounds-Nick Foss (Harlan) had the misfortune last year of being in the same weight class as both Shiltz and Sherry, the third-ranked wrestler does not have to worry about that this year as he also looks for his first conference crown. Brock Bortolotti (Lewis Central) began the year at 220, but has wrestled at 195 recently. Cole Nebel (Shenandoah) had a decent showing last week at John J, taking home a third-place medal and he could also definitely find himself facing Foss in the finals.
220 Pounds-I would assume that Isaac Bales (Glenwood) is the favorite here. Bales comes in ranked third in Class 3A and is 28-5 on the season with five tough losses. Tyler Courtier (Shenandoah) is ranked eighth in Class 2A with just two losses on the season, one of those losses came at the hands of Jaden Heiden (Denison-Schleswig), Bales has not wrestled Courtier this year, but he did pin Heiden on Tuesday night.
285 Pounds-Now I'm not a betting person, but if I was, I would bet that the final ends up being John McConkey (Atlantic/CAM) and Caleb Sanders (Glenwood). I would also bet that the match is going to end with a final score of 3-2. Check this out.
So there you have it, they have wrestled seven times in the past three years. McConkey has won four of them, including four of the last five. McConkey only has one loss this year and it was too Sanders. Sanders only has two losses this season, those two losses? Both to John McConkey.
This is going to be the last time these two ever wrestle and I expect nothing less than a classic, this should be fun.
Team Race-Last year Atlantic captured their first conference title since 1980. Creston/OM has had a stranghold on the conference for the better part of the last decade, but I think its Glenwood's year. The Rams are loaded and also have a handful of guys that can get them some valuable placement points, also don't sleep on Lewis Central who has a couple of studs that could bolster their chances and they defeated Glenwood in a dual earlier this year for what it's worth.
I am confident that these four teams will be the top four finishing teams on Saturday, just not sure in what order; I'm going to say 1) Glenwood, 2) Lewis Central 3) Atlantic/CAM, 4) Creston/OM.
I'm stoked for Saturday.
170 Pounds-This weight class could go a couple of different ways. Kyle Owens (Shenandoah) is the only ranked wrestler in this class, coming in ranked 10th in Class 2A, but he lost last week to Carter Maynes (Red Oak), William Waugh (Lewis Central) recently bumped up from 160 pounds and has been wrestling well, Brett Mower (Glenwood) could potentially wrestle in this weight class as well, It would not surprise me at all if any one of these four guys won it.
182 Pounds-The last two seasons, Anthony Sherry (Glenwood) has had the misfortune of running into Chase Shiltz (Creston/OM), he doesn't have to worry about that this year. The second-ranked wrestler in Class 3A is looking for his first Hawkeye Ten championship. Sherry's been dinged up lately, so hopefully he will be at 100 percent come Saturday. Thomas Bentley (Red Oak) has also been dinged up lately, the fifth-ranked wrestler in Class 2A sat out last week's John J. Harris Invitational with a shoulder injury, if he's healthy we could see a Sherry/Bentley match in the finals, but don't count out Nick Dickerson (Shenandoah) who looked pretty impressive last week at John J. taking home the runner-up spot.
195 Pounds-Nick Foss (Harlan) had the misfortune last year of being in the same weight class as both Shiltz and Sherry, the third-ranked wrestler does not have to worry about that this year as he also looks for his first conference crown. Brock Bortolotti (Lewis Central) began the year at 220, but has wrestled at 195 recently. Cole Nebel (Shenandoah) had a decent showing last week at John J, taking home a third-place medal and he could also definitely find himself facing Foss in the finals.
220 Pounds-I would assume that Isaac Bales (Glenwood) is the favorite here. Bales comes in ranked third in Class 3A and is 28-5 on the season with five tough losses. Tyler Courtier (Shenandoah) is ranked eighth in Class 2A with just two losses on the season, one of those losses came at the hands of Jaden Heiden (Denison-Schleswig), Bales has not wrestled Courtier this year, but he did pin Heiden on Tuesday night.
285 Pounds-Now I'm not a betting person, but if I was, I would bet that the final ends up being John McConkey (Atlantic/CAM) and Caleb Sanders (Glenwood). I would also bet that the match is going to end with a final score of 3-2. Check this out.
2016 Hawkeye Ten Final-Sanders defeats McConkey by 3-2 decision.
2016 District Final-Sanders defeats McConkey 3-2 in ultimate tie-breaker
2017 Dual-McConkey defeats Sanders 3-2 in ultimate tie-breaker
2017 Hawkeye Ten Final-McConkey defeats Sanders 3-1 in sudden-victory
2017 Council Bluffs Classic Semis-Sanders defeats McConkey 3-2 in ultimate tie-breaker
2017 Red Owens Holiday Finals-McConkey defeats Sanders 3-2
2018 Dual-McConkey defeats Sanders 3-2 in ultimate tie-breaker.
So there you have it, they have wrestled seven times in the past three years. McConkey has won four of them, including four of the last five. McConkey only has one loss this year and it was too Sanders. Sanders only has two losses this season, those two losses? Both to John McConkey.
This is going to be the last time these two ever wrestle and I expect nothing less than a classic, this should be fun.
Team Race-Last year Atlantic captured their first conference title since 1980. Creston/OM has had a stranghold on the conference for the better part of the last decade, but I think its Glenwood's year. The Rams are loaded and also have a handful of guys that can get them some valuable placement points, also don't sleep on Lewis Central who has a couple of studs that could bolster their chances and they defeated Glenwood in a dual earlier this year for what it's worth.
I am confident that these four teams will be the top four finishing teams on Saturday, just not sure in what order; I'm going to say 1) Glenwood, 2) Lewis Central 3) Atlantic/CAM, 4) Creston/OM.
I'm stoked for Saturday.
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