FORT DODGE —After winning a 215-pound district championship Saturday, 6-foot-7 Ames High senior wrestler Nathan Lubinus raised his arms and yelled “Wolfpack.”
The Little Cyclones’ wrestling team planned to use the term on T-shirts to signify the group that will compete at next week’s state tournament.
“Now it’s the Six-Man Wolfpack,” Ames coach Drew Kelly said after Ames qualified six wrestlers for state and surpassed his expectations “by far.”
Ames placed fifth in the tournament team point standings, but tied champion Mason City in the category that mattered most, the number of state qualifiers.
As expected, juniors Jake Agnitsch (112), fifth-ranked Luke Swalla (140) and sixth-ranked Ben Swalla (152) each will advance to the state tournament for a second straight year. But Lubinus, fellow senior Devin Becraft (135) and sophomore David Habhab (103) will also roam the mats at Wells Fargo Arena after qualifying for the first time.
With 40 seconds left in his finals match, Lubinus broke the grasp of Denison’s Jacob Heiden, who landed a shot into the leg of the giant Little Cyclone, who says he’s “as tall as Harrison Barnes.”
Once Lubinus (31-15) freed his leg, he circled around Heiden for the deciding takedown in the 3-2 victory. The Ames senior, who began wrestling last year, ran and jumped into the arms of Kelly.
“That’s a great way to end the round,” Kelly said. “We had a heck of a round, and it was a good exclamation point on the day. We’re tickled to have six guys. I know the rest of the team would have loved to qualify; that’s the goal, but that’s not realistic. We were in some situations in this tournament (that) we have to fight out of. But top to bottom, we wrestled hard.”
Agnitsch and the Swalla brothers were seeded first and won their brackets, while Habhab, in his first year as a varsity wrestler, was seeded second and lost to Fort Dodge’s sixth-ranked Matt Birnbaum in the finals.
Lubinus (31-15) was seeded fourth, but beat Spencer’s top-seeded Kris Rhode in the semifinals 7-1. Lubinus had never before won a varsity tournament.
His opponent in the finals was seeded second, and even though he claimed he’s “not very good,” Lubinus triumphed and is going to state.
“That is probably the best thing ever,” he said. “I’m real excited about it. I don’t know — to go from not wrestling ever to going to state the next year, I kind of bypassed all those kids who, like, started when they were four. I almost feel bad, but I’m just really excited. Hard work pays off, and we have some great coaches.”
Becraft, the only other senior starter, was seeded third with a 14-21 record. But a 3-2 win over second-seeded Ankeny senior Ryan Gean in the semifinals earned him a trip to state in his final year.
“It’s a big tournament, but if you don’t have the confidence coming into this, you’re not going to do well,” Becraft said. “So I just tried to stay calm during the day, and it paid off.”
Becraft lost in the finals to CIML Iowa rival Valentine Flores of Mason City, but said that going into the state tournament all records are 0-0.
Habhab (29-17) advanced to the finals with a 5-4 victory over Ankeny’s Austin Anderson before being pinned by Fort Dodge’s Birnbaum in the second period.
Habhab said he’d see the Dodger junior again, though, and “it’ll be a battle next time.”
But even after the loss, the sophomore was glad just to be joining his teammates at the state tournament.
“The Six-Man Wolfpack,” Habhab said. “We’re going to go at it.”
Agnitsch (34-7) beat Fort Dodge’s Nate Lentsch in the 112-pound finals, 8-3, while Luke Swalla (39-5) held onto a 13-8 decision victory over Spencer’s James Randall (39-6) in the 140-pound championship.
Ben Swalla (36-4) knocked off 10th-ranked Matt Wilkerson of Spencer, 8-4, in the 152-pound semifinals. In the finals, his first-period takedown and rideout was the difference in a 4-3 victory over Mason City’s seventh-ranked Max Krieger.
Ballard wrestlers win district
The second-ranked Ballard wrestling team easily beat fourth-ranked East Marshall/GMG at their district meet in Conrad Saturday.
Eight of the Bombers’ 11 competing wrestlers advanced to state, while East Marshall qualified a total of six.
Gilbert qualified three of four wrestlers for state, while Roland-Story’s fifth-ranked Bret Johnson stayed undefeated and was the team’s lone qualifier. Nevada had three wrestlers in districts, as did South Hamilton (1A), but none were able to qualify.
Collins-Maxwell-Baxter’s Jayme O’Hara, the team’s lone district representative was also unable to qualify. Boone’s Mitch Overland (125) had the team’s highest finish, placing third at the Fort Dodge Class 3A district, but lost to the weight division’s second-place finisher and couldn’t wrestle back for a state berth in consolations.
Local area state qualifiers
(Name, grade, district finish, and record)
Ballard
103 – Dillon Hansen, fr., runner-up, 34-5.
112 – Tim Miklus, fr., runner-up, 33-9.
130 – Dakota Bauer, so., champion, 33-1.
140 – Tanner Hiatt, jr., champion, 41-0
145 – Willie Miklus, so., champion, 36-1.
152 – Tanner Weatherman, jr., champion, 41-0.
171 – Brock Weatherman, sr., champion, 38-1.
189 – Dillon Weatherman, sr., runner-up, 32-9.
Gilbert
171 – Clay Long, sr., runner-up, 33-10
215 – Cole Jackson, sr., champion, 37-1.
285 – Jordan Harestad, sr., runner-up, 40-6.
Roland-Story
285 – Bret Johnson, jr., champion, 34-.0
103: 1. Dustin Horne, South Tama County; 2. Dillon.
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Ames sends ‘Six-Man Wolfpack’ to state
