Was he going to be the hero? Or was he going to be the guy that his friends patted on the back and offered whispered words of support with the head side tilt?

Hey, McKade, go be the hero.

With the team championship hanging in the balance, the Iowa Falls-Alden senior clinched the Cadets’ first league title in 20 years when he pinned Algona’s Gavin Meints in 4:47 in the heavyweight final — the last match of the 8-hour, 9-minute tournament.

IF-A and two-time defending champion Clarion-Goldfield-Dows entered that last match tied with 1921⁄2 points. An Eisentrager loss would have meant the first co-champions in the tournament’s 53-year history.

Iowa Falls-Alden heavyweight McKade Eisentrager (facing) jumps into the arms of Cadets’ head coach Scott Patton after winning a NCC title and clinching the team crown for IF-A Saturday evening in Iowa Falls. DFJ photo/Troy Banning

Instead, the final impression was a massive celebration at mat’s edge for the host school.

“I thought it might come down to the final couple of matches,” Eisentrager, who is ranked ninth (Class 2A) at 220 pounds but bumped up to 285 for the tournament, told Justin Ites of the Iowa Falls Times-Citizen afterwards. “I had people patting me on the back telling me they had faith in me to get the job done. It feels good to come through for the team like that.”

Eisentrager sprinted towards Cadets’ head coach Scott Patton and jumped into his arms moments after the fall.

“I can’t even describe the feeling right now,” Patton told Ites. “It hasn’t fully sunk in yet. Sharing would have sucked. It would have been a good day, but kinda tough to stomach.”

The race for the hardware was a day-long sprint. IF-A, third-place finisher Humboldt (1871⁄2) and fourth-place finisher Hampton-Dumont (175) pulled away from the rest of the field midway through the day. CGD, which had won four of the past five crowns entering the tournament, fell behind by more than 20 points at one point. But the Cowboys slowly crept back into contention and even overtook IF-A briefly during the finals.

DFJ photo/Troy Banning

IF-A crowned a tournament-high four champions. Humboldt had three reach the top of the podium and was the only team to place all 14 of its grapplers in the top six. CGD, Hampton-Dumont and fifth-place finisher Algona all had two champs. Webster City, which was sixth, joined the gold rush courtesy of top-ranked (2A) 106-pounder Cam Phetxoumphone.

Phetxoumphone, 10th-ranked (2A) Jaycob Martzahn (132) of Hampton-Dumont and fourth-ranked (1A) Reed Abbas (145) of CGD all became two-time champions.

IF-A became just the third host school to hoist the hardware, joining Clear Lake in 2009 and CGD in 2019.

Clear Lake was shutout of individual gold for the first time since 1994, a streak of 26 consecutive seasons. It came two years after Humboldt saw its 29-year run of having at least one individual champion end.

The Lions best chance of continuing the streak was forced to watch. Seventh-ranked (2A) 126-pounder Sam Nelson, the holder of two NCC crowns, was unable to compete due to a hand injury.

DFJ photo/Troy Banning