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All 14 Lynx place in top 6, team second behind Cowboys

HAMPTON – All 14 wrestlers in the top six. Eight among the best three at their weights. Six finalists. Four champions.

Did Webster City represent itself well at Saturday’s 49th annual North Central Conference tournament? You better believe it.

With a point total that would have been good enough to win each of the past three league meets, seventh-ranked (Class 2A tournament rankings) WCHS walked away content with a second straight runner-up performance behind No. 4-ranked Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, which claimed its second consecutive team title.

It was the seventh time in the past eight years that WCHS has placed among the top two. The Lynx won titles in 2011, 2012 and 2014.

The Cowboys were the only other team to place all 14 of their entrants and they boasted a meet-high 11 grapplers in the top three en route to 231 points, a sizable enough gap over WCHS (205 1/2) that left little suspense during the championship round.

“Our goal is always the conference title, but I thought we wrestled about as well as we possibly could,” WCHS coach Chad Hisler said. “That’s the way you hope you’re going to wrestle going into it. We fought every match and went out there and placed above our seeds in quite a few of them.”

WCHS trailed CGD by nearly 60 points early in the day, but eventually closed the gap to just 9 1/2 points after the consolation semifinals. But the Cowboys went 5-2 in third- and fifth-place matches, while the Lynx compiled a 2-6 mark during that stretch.

Clear Lake was well back in third with 167 points. Humboldt (143 1/2) was fourth, Algona (105) and Hampton-Dumont (105) shared fifth, Iowa Falls-Alden (103 1/2) placed seventh and Fort Dodge St. Edmond (34) lagged back in eighth.

Led by its four champions – fifth-ranked Drake Doolittle (113 pounds), Cole Nokes (126), top-ranked Gavin Dinsdale (220) and second-ranked Cooper Lawson (285) – the Lynx compiled a 24-20 overall record. They racked up 17 falls and 20 of their wins came with bonus points attached.

“We were really prepared for this and the whole team wrestled well,” Nokes said. “Clarion is a good team.”

Derick Khaleck (106) and Zane Williams (152) both won bronze medals for the Lynx. Khaleck’s lone loss was to second-ranked and eventual champion Eric Faught of Clear Lake in the semifinals. Williams accumulated three pins, including Darek Garman of Algona for the second time in the consolation final.

Carson Hartnett (120) took fourth behind three ranked individuals, and Brandon Peck (145) was fourth as well. Sixth-place results went to Cade Felts (132), Gage Sadler (138), Rocco Miller (182) and Ashton High (195).

“This sets us up well for the rest of the year,” Hisler said.

Clear Lake No. 8-ranked senior Ryan Faught (152) became just the eighth wrestler in conference history to win four titles with a 4-0 shutout over Gus Arnold of Humboldt.

Humboldt was able to stretch its run to 28 years with at least one individual champion; freshman Joey Busse (132) did the honors with a 13-3 shellacking of CGD’s Caden Rosenbaum.

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