Hounds sending three to Casey's

CENTERVILLE – The Fort Madison Bloodhounds are sending three wrestlers to next week’s IHSAA State Wrestling Tournament, but as Head Coach Nic Chiri said, “They sure didn’t make it easy.”
Fort Madison’s James Fuller at 120 lbs., Ren Watson at 215 lbs., and first-year wrestler Baylor Ferriera at heavyweight, all qualified with runner-up finishes at the Class 2A, District 3 qualifier at Centerville on Saturday morning.
Fort Madison finished second out of the eight teams at the qualifier with 132 points behind Eddyville-Blakesburg-Freemont.
Fuller went 2-1 on the day with his only lost coming in a chippy title match with E-B-F’s Simon Bettis, the No. 3 wrestler in the state at 120 lbs., per IAWrestle.
Just 17 seconds into the match, Bettis needed a medical timeout for a knee issue behind a wrapped right knee. Following the timeout, Fuller went to work again and grabbed an ankle in a legal move that twisted the knee. The referee stopped the match and Bettis shoved Fuller from the back, prompting a one-point penalty.
Bettis ended up winning the match in a tech-fall 20-4, but Fuller had already beaten the 3rd-place wrestler in the four-man bracket so earned the runner-up spot.
He got a bye in the quarterfinals as the No. 2 seed and then scored an 11-1 major decision over Chariton’s Lucas Johnson, setting up the title match with Bettis.
‘I thought I wrestled decent, and I think I could’ve wrestled better, but I did go from 126 to 120, so it’s been a pretty hard cut,” Fuller said.
Getting back to state was the goal, but he would rather have had the No. 1 seed.
“It’s a good feeling. Not the way I wanted to but…,” he said.
Watson, just a sophomore, said he learned a little at the district event that will help him at state, which starts for 2A at 2:30 p.m. Thursday.
“I feel like I learned a lot about what I need to do for state. I need to get better on bottom and better at neutral, but I feel like I performed pretty well today on top,” he said.
On top is where Watson ate for his two wins. Watson didn’t give up a point to Chariton’s Dace Dyer and set up the pin with not one, but two, cradles for four-point nearfalls. The Hound had multiple cradle moves for extended periods of time during the day that didn’t get a slap. Zane Houtz held a cradle for almost 20 seconds in his opening round match at 106 and ended up losing the match.
In Watson’s title match, he led 7-0 in the first period, executing a takedown in the first 15 seconds for a 3-0 lead and then wrenched up Centerville’s Jason Morrow and pulled him over for a cradle and a 4-point nearfall. The coaching staff was on their feet with arms wide open looking for the pin, but it never came. Watson kept Morrow bottled up for close to ten seconds before Morrow wriggled free to his stomach. With a 7-0 Watson lead, the two started neutral in the second where Morrow was able to get control with a takedown a minute in. Watson escaped but in the ensuing scrum, Morrow was able to register another takedown that he worked into the pin.
“I think the gas tank got a little empty and he got the better of me,” Watson said.
Chiri said he told Watson to flush the loss and focus on getting to state.
“That was gritty. That’s what I said to him after the loss. Short-term memory. You got one match to get what you’ve worked all year for. This is it. When we do the overtime drills in the room, this is exactly what we picture.
Watson got the job done in the true second match where he actually trailed 6-3 in the second period against Kael Patzel of E-B-F. Watson got going early with a takedown that Patzel would get out of. Patzel started on top in the second period, knowing Watson’s strength from there, and executed a two-point, and three-point nearfalls for the 6-3 lead.  Watson was able to score a reverse at 6-5 and then recorded the pin halfway through the second period to secure a trip to Des Moines.
Watson said he’s both excited and a little nervous about what’s ahead at the Casey’s Center starting Thursday.

“I’m just going to have to get what I’m good at and go from there,” he said.
Ferriera had a similar path to 2nd place. His title match with E-B-F’s Corbyn Padgett was a sheer test of strength and will as the two got locked in arms early and shoved each other around to the edge of the circle where both were trying to get leverage to the mat. Padgett won just barely as the two collapsed at the edge with Ferriera slightly turned more to the mat. Padgett was able to slip on top for the takedown and then pushed the Bloodhound over for the fall just before the one minute mark in the first period.
“I got my arms in and tried to pull him down and that didn’t work so I tried the other way and he was pulling and I was pulling. But he leaned into me and I couldn’t hold much longer and we fell and he got on top of me,” Ferriera said.
The sophomore from Central Lee wrestling in the shared program slapped the mat and jumped up clearly frustrated in the moment, but went back to work in the final match of the day against Angel Torres of Clarke. Ferriera, being a bit more aggressive with Torres, got caught off balance for a throw, but quickly reversed it and was able to chest press for the win at 1:12 in the first period.
“I just wanted to go to state,” he said. “I just need to do what I’ve been training for the last couple of months and I should be alright.”
Chiri said the three now have a chance to experience something special and they need to wrestle to their strengths.
“Just go out and let it fly. It’s going to be overwhelming to them in that atmosphere. I talk about levels, technique, and talent, and this will be that other level. They’re either going to be shell-shocked or they will absorb it, but it’s going to be an experience for them,” he said.
Chiri said the Centerville district had 20 returning state qualifiers from 2025 and they knew they would have their work cut out for them.
‘We knew it was going to be tough. We needed to have three or four guys wrestle out of their shoes and they almost did it. We wrestled to our seeds again. A lot of them are young and hungry for next year. Getting three is good. We had to do it the hard way… the stressful way,” he said.
The three or four other guys included Peter Seyb at 157, who also wrestles out of Central Lee. Seyb’s bracket had two of the top five wrestlers in the state and the Bloodhound wrestled his way back into a true-second match with No. 5 Zane Mullinex who showed why he’s the fifth best, taking Seyb out in 30 seconds after a quick takedown. But Seyb won 3rd place knocking off Lucas Hill of Clarke after trailing 10-1. Seyb started on top in the second period after getting an escape with seven seconds left in the first period. Hill got an escape on the start, but Seyb executed an aggressive move to get Hill to the mat and was able to control the action for the pin 30 seconds in, trailing 11-4 to get to the true-second match.
True seconds occur when the loser of the title match has to wrestle the 3rd-place winner if the wrestler who lost the title match hasn’t beaten the 3rd-place wrestler earlier in the day.
The Hounds also got a third-place finish from Oliver Schelich at 126. Schelich had two top 10 wrestlers in his bracket and fell in the second-place match to No. 10 Matt Genobana of Centerville by fall at 1:31 in the first period.
Ryker Peters captured the other 3rd-place finish and was literally seconds away from being eliminated in consolation semifinals down 11-0 and having suffered three nearfalls in the first period to Fairfield’s Dusty Haynes. On the second period restart, Peters chose the top position and was able to roll Haynes into a fall 20 seconds later for the upset. He then rolled Maquire Mullinex in the 3rd-place match, however, Centerville’s Ben Blizek had already beaten Peters in the quarterfinals, so the Hound didn’t get a shot at the 2nd-place match.
Chiri said he told the Bloodhounds to leave it all on the mat.
“I told them to just let it fly and then you can look yourself in the mirror tomorrow and say you did everything. It doesn’t matter if you won,” he said.
“And we were up 7-0 in, like, four matches and lost, and that’s the hard part. Managing a match as a teenager is tough and I’m not going to be upset - they attacked. We preach that. We’re just gritty dudes in a room and our biggest asset is our gas tank because we’re in such a good shape.”
Chiri said being from the far southeast corner of the state gives Fort Madison a little advantage at state.
“I expect them to win. We’ve wrestled tough competition and we’re in shape. They don’t know about Ren’s cradle and they don’t know how athletic Baylor is,” he said. “I always think the state tournament is great for us. We usually have specialty moves and nobody knows little Fort Madison, so we can go up there and shock the world, hopefully.”
Keokuk's Jarod Anderson also qualified at the Williamsburg District 12 qualifier. Anderson will be the only representative for the Chiefs at 190 lbs. Anderson lost to Washington's Blaine Rees in a tough 8-5 decision and didn't have to wrestle in a 2nd-place match.