Webster City’s Carson Doolittle faces North Polk’s Kacob Moeckly in the 126 pound second round on Wednesday in Des Moines.

DES MOINES — The opening day of the state wrestling championships brought back some fond memories for Webster City head coach Drake Doolittle.

Doolittle, a former state champion for the Lynx, saw qualifiers Linden Phetxoumphone and Carson Doolittle keep their title hopes alive with wins in Class 2A.

“Coaching at the well is a lot different than wrestling,” Doolittle said. “I think it helps that I’ve been through what they’re going through and can help guide them along the way but at the end of the day, they’re the ones that walk out on the mat and compete.

“Our guys have done well at taking the moment in stride and showing up ready to wrestle.”

Phetxoumphone, the No. 2 seed at 113 pounds, earned a convincing technical fall over Lane Travis from Creston inside Wells Fargo Arena, 16-1. Phetxoumphone (34-1) will now square off with Caiden Latch from Roland-Story in the quarterfinals when action resumes Thursday at 9 a.m.

Last year, Phetxoumphone placed third as a freshman, going 40-3. His older brother, Cam, was a two-time state champion for Webster City with a record of 158-8.

Doolittle, a three-time bronze medalist, needed just 90 seconds to take care of Jacob Moeckly from North Polk at 126 pounds. The senior, who earned the two-seed at 126 and is now 40-0, will now get Ethan Skoglund of Sergeant Bluff-Luton.

“It’s always important to start strong,” Doolittle said. “Linden and Carson have both been here before and know what it’s going to take to get where they want to be. They both came out of the gate strong in their first matches and looked tough.”

With the win, the Doolittle brothers now have a combined 330 wins in a Lynx singlet, with this marking the 155th for Carson. They also have seven state medals and eight North Central Conference championships between them.

After picking up round one wins, Carson Bertran and Landon Griffin were both topped in the second round. They, along with Luke Estlund, will battle in the consolations to stay alive.

Bertran earned a sudden-victory over Maison Copp of AP-GC at 190 pounds, 12-10, before falling to Benton’s Troy Kupka. Griffin downed Asher Molacek of Estherville-LC at heavyweight, 9-1, but was topped by Ethan Wood from Mount Vernon, 5-1.

Estlund dropped his opening round match to Kason Dopler from Columbus.WMU at 175.

“For our guys on the back side, and even the guys still going on the front, it’s all about taking one match at a time,” Doolittle said. “If we focus on taking care of the next match, eventually we will end up where we need to be.

“Even our guys that came up a little short on day one had positives that we can build on going into day two. The fun thing about the state tournament is that anything can happen and nobody is ever out of a match.”