REGIONAL DUAL PREVIEW: All about the team

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Webster City Lineup

103-Avery Jackson (fr.) 17-20; 112-B.J. Bremer (so.) 4-16; 119-Tyler Raygor (sr.) 31-3; 125-Tyler Patten (jr.) 32-2; 130-Royce Nessa (so.) 29-8; 135-Joey Powers (so.) 28-13; 140-Eric Tolle (jr.) 19-17; 145-Luke Shannon (so.) 28-13; 152-Clay Nessa (sr.) 10-20; 160-Cody Crouch (sr.) 18-21; 171-Jacob Bullock (sr.) 16-19; 189-Garrett Johnson (sr.) 15-23; 215-Landon Johnson (fr.) 2-8; 285-Colton Doud (jr.) 14-7.

Feature Matches

103-Avery Jackson, Webster City (17-20) vs. Patrick Rooney, Bondurant-Farrar (21-2).

119-Tyler Raygor, Webster City (31-3) vs. Colby VanArklel, Bondurant-Farrar (22-6).

125-Tyler Patten, Webster City (32-2) vs. Matt Snyder, Bondurant-Farrar (12-6).

160-Cody Crouch, Webster City (18-21) vs. Devin Mitchell, Bondurant-Farrar (30-1).

WEBSTER CITY - The Webster City wrestling team will put individual aspirations on the backburner and focus back in on the team concept Tuesday night.

Maybe.

On the strength of a second-place finish at a Class 2A sectional tournament on Saturday in Huxley, the Lynx qualified for the team regional duals for a second consecutive season. They are scheduled to face Bondurant-Farrar in a regional semifinal dual Tuesday night in Gilbert at 6 p.m., with the winner meeting either second-ranked Ballard or Prairie City-Monroe in the regional final at 8 p.m. The champion of the four-team regional will advance to the state dual tournament at the end of this month.

But Mother Nature may have something to say about when the regional takes place. If Tuesday's mat action is postponed because of the weather, then the four teams will reconvene Wednesday night in Gilbert. And if the weather still isn't cooperating on Wednesday, then action will be pushed back until after the traditional state tournament.

But Webster City wrestling coach Ted Larson is preparing like Tuesday will be the night, and he says his group is itching to get back on the mat.

"We've been doing this all winter, so it's old hat now," Larson said of the possible shake-up to the schedule because of the weather. "We're preparing like we're going to go, and we just want to go out there and wrestle at the level we have been the last few meets. Each time we go out there it seems like we're picking up a little momentum."

In Webster City's way is a Bondurant-Farrar team that won a sectional title in Woodward on Saturday, and the Blue Jays feature six wrestlers that pushed on to districts. The Lynx qualified seven grapplers for the next round of competition.

"They're pretty tough, there's no doubt about that," Larson said of B-F. "Individually we don't know much about them, but it's one I think we should be able to get if we wrestle to our full capabilities."

There could be three match-ups that pit district qualifiers against one another if neither team decides to shuffle its lineup.

At 119 pounds, Webster City's eighth-ranked Tyler Raygor (31-3) will draw freshman Colby VanArkel (22-6). At 125, fourth-ranked junior Tyler Patten (32-2) is slated to tangle with Blue Jay senior Matt Snyder (12-6), and at 160 senior Cody Crouch (18-21) will butt heads with B-F junior Devin Mitchell (30-1).

Larson says that Patten is expected to wrestle despite his continuing inner-fight with a torn meniscus in his right knee. Patten is sitting on 96 career victories entering the regional dual competition.

"The intentions are that he will wrestle," Larson said of his two-time state tournament bronze medalist. "He's the same as he's been, no worse or no better, and he's just wrestling with it."

The elephant in the room is who will be wrestling on the other mat Tuesday night. Ballard is the two-time defending state dual champion and the undefeated Bombers are expected to be serious contenders yet again.

In other words, no one expects Webster City, Bondurant-Farrar or PCM to come out of the regional.

But Larson wanted no part of talking about Ballard.

"We'll worry about the first one first," he said. "But I don't ever want the kids to think that they can't do something. We just want to go out there and wrestle the best that we've wrestled."