Published: December 22, 2008 09:40 am         

Kreiter leads Sabers to third at own invite

DEWITT — The Hollywood version of Saturday's Saber Invitational wrestling tournament would have suggested there would be no way, no possible way, that Central DeWitt 189-pound senior Casey Kreiter would lose.

The fact that dad Kurt's public announcement, made just before the finals, that he was ending his 20-year run as head coach of the Sabers wrestlers just made the storybook side of things run that much higher.

And Casey didn't disappoint, coming out and dominating in the finals against Western Dubuque's Chris Koch, eventually earning a third-period fall in 4 minutes, 26 seconds, for one of two Sabers titles on the day. DeWitt finished third in the eight-team meet with 164.5 points.

"It (the announcement) kind of added to the excitement, but I'd been planning on winning this one ever since last year, when I lost a tough one by one point in the finals," Kreiter said. "I just really wanted to get this win."

Kreiter admitted that the early exit of the Sabers football team from the Class 3A playoffs really helped bring home the importance of making every moment count.

"It (the first-round home loss to New Hampton) more instilled in us that anything can happen at any time,” Kreiter said. “None of us expected that. Now, it's our last chance to do something great, and that motivates us to work harder in the room."

But he also admitted to feeling disappointed with his team's third-place showing.

"Today was almost a mediocre day for us," Kreiter said. "If you had been in our practice room, you'd see how hard we're working in there. There's almost fights breaking out in there every day, and that's a good thing. We know we should have done a lot better than this."

DeWitt's only other champion was Jacob Lancaster at 125 pounds. After a pair of first-period pins, Lancaster had to go a full six minutes to defeat Maquoketa's Shiloh Snyder by a 15-4 score.

"We all wanted to do good for him (Coach Kreiter) because it would be his last time here," Lancaster said. "I wrestled (Snyder) earlier in the season and it was a lot closer. The time in between, I just worked harder to make the gap between the scores bigger."

The Sabers also got runner-up efforts from Quinn Klinefelter (119) and Greg Schneckloth (145) during the tournament, with 13 of 14 wrestlers placing.

"We did not wrestle well; we lost matches that we should have won. The emotional highs and lows were pretty apparent today," Coach Kreiter said. "I thought we would struggle with this group early, but it's just a matter of getting in the work.

"I wasn't going to announce it (publicly), but I did tell the team before the season. There's no secret now, I guess."

Maquoketa had three individual champions and finished fourth as a team, with Tim O'Connell (130), Ryan Flagel (152) and Thomas Mayberry (160) all earning championships.

Mayberry stayed undefeated for the season, dominating Western Dubuque's Cody Schmitt 14-4 in the finals, but he wasn't very happy about how the match went.

"He (Schmitt) tried choking me out and headbutted me," a still-angry Mayberry said afterward. "I don't know, it was a good match for a while. I really poured it on halfway through the second period and all the way through the third, and that was really the deciding part of the match. I was just in better physical shape than he was, and I wanted it more than he did."

152-pound Ryan Flagel got the match's only takedown in the first period of his title match with Northeast's Spencer Lueders, and while both rode the other for long stretches, neither could get back points or ride out the other, and the match ended 3-1 for Flagel.

"The third period (when Flagel was in the bottom position) was good, but I could have been more aggressive, instead of letting things go because I was ahead in the match," he said. "He kind of stalled out on top by throwing the legs in, and I kind of couldn't defend against that."

O'Connell put together a convincing 7-3 decision over Western Dubuque's Joe Gotto in the final at 130, nimbly putting his track hurdling skills to good use to get out of Gotto's shots and attacks.

"I like to get in scrambles, but not to get in scrambles on my feet. That's too dangerous," O'Connell said. "If I'd let him in, the match would have been his. I'd wrestled him when I was a freshman, and I knew he's got a lot of strength."

Despite bringing only nine wrestlers to DeWitt, Maquoketa had eight of them place and finished fourth as a team with 139 points. In addition to Lueders, Northeast had one other finalist in Ivan Sandoval at 285 pounds and had eight placewinners, while Camanche had nine placewinners — but none in the finals. The Rebels finished seventh as a team, the Indians eighth.

SABER INVITATIONAL

Team standings

1. Western Dubuque 201.5; 2. North Scott 190; 3. Central DeWitt 164.5; 4. Maquoketa 139; 5. Solon 106; 6. Dubuque Senior 91; 7. Northeast 83; 8. Camanche 55.5.

103 pounds

Championship — Connor Ryan (NS) pinned Jake Gotto (WD) 1:10. Third — Blake Tebbe (N) pinned Nick Jewel (CD) 5:56.

112 pounds

Championship — Adam Perrin (NS) pinned Bryce Lyn (DS) 5:22. Third — Nick Steger (WD) pinned Luke Kelley (CD) 1:52.

119 pounds

Championship — Jim Gotto (WD) dec. Quinn Klinefelter (CD) 13-4. Third — Tanner Everding (NS) pinned Austin Walen (DS) 5:19.

125 pounds

Championship — Jacob Lancaster (CD) dec. Shiloh Snyder (M) 15-4. Third — Garrett Seligman (NS) pinned Josh Koerperch (WD) 1:48.

130 pounds

Championship — Tim O’Connell (M) dec. Joe Gotto (WD) 7-3. Third — Cody Snodgrass (C) dec. Drake Epkes (NS) 8-6.

135 pounds

Championship — Tanner Anderson (NS) dec. Dakota Snyder (M) 3-2. Third — Cody Fritz (S) won by default over Tyler Murphy (CD).

140 pounds

Championship — J.J. Hanus (S) dec. Connor Paulsen (NS) 11-5. Third — Cody Lawler (WD) pinned Dakotah Doolittle (CD) 4:25.

145 pounds

Championship — Kurt Runde (DS) dec. Greg Schneckloth (CD) 4-3. Third — Michael Kluesner (WD) pinned Greg Kramer (NS) 3:16.

152 pounds

Championship — Ryan Flagel (M) dec. Spencer Lueders (N) 3-1. Third — Devin Bender (S) dec. Jesse Lawler (WD) 6-1.

160 pounds

Championship — Thomas Mayberry (M) dec. Cody Schmitt (WD) 14-4. Third — Bryce Sellers (NS) dec. Brian Hoffmann (N) 5-3.

171 pounds

Championship — Walt Gillmor (NS) pinned Andy Ashton (S) 1:33. Third — Zach Posey (CD) pinned Damien Fahlbeck (C) 2:18.

189 pounds

Championship — Casey Kreiter (CD) pinned Chris Koch (WD) 4:26. Third — Josh Breeden (M) pinned Stephen Liske (NS) 2:47.

215 pounds

Championship — James Morris (S) dec. Mattias Delagardelle (M) 10-3. Third — Mike Wuertzer (WD) pinned Kyle Conkel (DS) 5:21.

285 pounds

Championship — Brian Theisen (WD) pinned Ivan Sandoval (N) 4:59. Third — Brock Goodall (CD) dec. Scott Schlickmann (DS) 6-4.

     

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