DES MOINES – The Fort Madison Bloodhounds wrestling team was upbeat after the first day of wrestling at the IHSAA Boys State Wrestling Tournament Wednesday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. And they had a right to be.
The Bloodhounds went 4-2 on the first day of wrestling with Noah Riddle going 2-0 on the day at 157 lbs., scoring pins in both matches and advancing to the quarterfinals. Both Riddle and Ike Thacher are one win away from making the top 8, guaranteeing a spot on the podium Saturday night.
Cory Arnett (10th seed, 285 lbs.) went 1-1 on the day and moved to consolation wrestling after falling to North Scott’s Dawson Rheingans (7th seed) in second-round wrestling. He downed Clear-Creek Amana’s Vinnie Keller by fall 30 seconds into the third period in a bout marred by medical timeouts.
Joe Hartman (19th seed, 165) lost by fall in the first period and was moved to second-round consolation wrestling Thursday. Hartman fell 1:10 into the match to Linn-Mar’s Barrett Meiras after giving up a takedown 20 seconds in.
Hartman said he was disappointed in his effort the first time on the mat at Wells Fargo, but said he was blessed to be in the tournament and was looking to Thursday’s matches.
“I still have tomorrow and I’m going to make the most of that. I feel just blessed to be here,” he said.
Riddle said he felt a little underseeded in the tournament, but said none of that matters now. He set out to prove that he was under-seeded, rolling CC-A’s Trace Robertson in the first round, scoring a fall in the third period, while racking up a 16-0 lead before getting the slap.
“I think I was underseeded coming into here. But everybody goes for an underdog story and we’re going to see where it takes us,” he said.
Riddle, the No. 7 wrestler in 3A at the end of the season according to Iowa Wrestle, then got a pin over Cedar Rapids Prairie’s Wyatt Vlasek. Riddle got in a scrum with Vlasek off the horn resulting in both wrestlers trying to roll out of takedowns. Riddle would give up a takedown 30 seconds in but would quickly score a reversal at the end of the circle near the scorers’ table. Then, starting from the bottom, would get an escape in about one second with a sit-and-roll that he converted to a takedown and two nearfalls for a 10-2 lead before securing the pin with 20 seconds left in the period, moving him to the quarterfinals Thursday.
The senior Hound made it to state last year, but was eliminated on the second day. This year he said his mentality is clearer.
“I knew this year coming in I had to wrestle, and if I find myself in a bad position, I just have to keep wrestling and sooner or later they’ll break,” he said. “One time I got into that, but I kept wrestling through it and he broke.”
Riddle said this year is all about his offense.
“Offense, offense, offense. There’s a lot less nerves. My mentality has changed a lot. I was scared last year, but this year I’m just going out there and doing what I want to do."
He'll need that offense Thursday afternoon as Riddle will start with the state’s No. 2 157 lbs. wrestler in Linn-Mar’s Grant Kress. The senior is 31-1 on the year and is the top-seed in the bracket. Kael Voinovich, who got the best of Riddle at Saturday’s districts, is ranked at the top wrestler at 157 in the state and seeded 5th overall. He’s also in the top part of the bracket with Riddle.
“It’s good not that he’s just winning, but he’s putting points on the board. He’s putting people on their back, he’s going for the fall. That’s what is gonna get these guys to where they want to be, not just winning a one-point match. You can get bit in the butt there.”
Ike Thacher, wrestling at 190 and seeded 7th, recorded a second period pin over Isaiah Kellow of Indianola. Thacher said he’d never wrestled with Kellow prior to Wednesday but said he knew he was a good wrestler at 25-10.
Thacher scored the only points of the first period about halfway through when the two took some time getting to know each other with hand fighting and elbow collar holds. However, Kellow scored a takedown in a rolling move toward the edge of the circle, but Thacher would take about 20 seconds to roll out of the hold and convert a reversal that ended with Kellow’s back on the mat for a quick slap by the referee.
"I knew he was a pretty decent wrestler. But I just had to go in and get the job done. I knew where my advantages were on top and the bottom and I could feel he didn’t really want to tie up with me,” Thacher said.
He said having one match on the day with the bye was a benefit.
“I like having that one match and have that one thing to focus on.”
Thacher will now go up against Ames’ Denarii Mickel (43-2), a sophomore who beat Thacher in 2023 at the Urbandale Invitational, by one point.
“I just got do the same stuff and do everything I can to get prepared. Now’s not the time to be changing anything up.”
Fort Madison Head Coach Ryan Smith said Thacher had a bit of a slow start but recovered nicely.
“He’s a dangerous kid and explosive and when he makes up his mind, good things are gonna happen,” Smith said.
Arnett’s first match with Keller was at 9-0 in Arnett’s favor before he scored in the third period fall. He scored a takedown in each period and would likely have had a second period if the horn hadn’t prompted the 3-point near fall.
The Bloodhound then faced Rheingans and battled to a 0-0 first-period score. Arnett then popped from the bottom start in period two and scored a quick reversal. Rheingans would escape and then score his own reversal and would ride Arnett to the end of the 2nd period. Arnett would then get Rheingans close to a pinfall with three shots at a cradle in the opening minute of the third, but the Lancer would fend off the attacks and force an escape. When Arnett took the offensive and tried to pull Rheingans back down, the move countered and Rheingans came down on top for another takedown that turned into 6-2 decision, sending Arnett to consolation wrestling.
“He was right there. The first three minutes was a great job of keeping pressure on and a good job on the bottom exploding up and getting the reversal,” Smith said.
“Maybe he took his foot off the gas…maybe, but he did have a couple three shots at a cradle and, if he gets those locked up, it’s over for the other guy.”
“Now he knows he can hang with the big boys. But he needs to get over the hump and keep the mindset for six minutes. He had it for three minutes, but he needs to now focus on six.”
Arnett said he felt good in the first match, but the second match he lost his energy.
“The first match, I knew I was dominating the whole time. It felt great and I just kept pressure on the kid. But the second match, I did that for the first three minutes and somewhere in between that, I lost my energy,” he said.
“Now that I’ve wrestled against a guy of his stature, I know what I’m capable of. I can still place here and I intend on doing that. Going into tomorrow I feel bad for the people I’m going in against. I’m going in for some vengeance.”
Arnett will now face Andy Crowder (24th-seed, 11-14) in the second round of consolation wrestling. The best wrestlers can do coming out of consolation wresting is 3rd place.
Hartman will tangle with Pella junior Logan Bruxvoort (13th-seed, 20-5).
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