Montgomery headlines Cardinal trio at state wrestling tournament

Feb. 18—DES MOINES — The Newton boys' wrestling coaches expressed plenty of frustration on Thursday at the state wrestling tournament.

They weren't frustrated with the effort of their wrestlers. But the end results were definitely frustrating.

Freshman Kent Montgomery couldn't solve a conference rival and senior Wyatt Weter lost both of his matches by a combined three points as the Cardinals didn't make it past the second day of the Iowa High School State Wrestling Championships at Wells Fargo Arena.

"It's just frustrating. It is what it is though," Newton head boys wrestling coach R.J. Brown said. "They all wrestled well and gave it their all. The results will always be frustrating when you don't meet your goals."

Kent Montgomery

Montgomery had the best results on the mat as he opened with a 4-0 win over West Des Moines Valley's George-Grant Mavromatis and then downed Boone's Mason Oostenink (24-11) for the second time this season.

His first loss came against No. 1 Nico DeSalvo of Southeast Polk and No. 10 Avery Van Zelderen of Dallas Center-Grimes defeated Montgomery for the third time this winter.

Junior Kaiden Rogers (120) and Weter (190) both were 0-2 for the tournament.

Montgomery got a takedown on Mavormatis (17-17) and then rode him out for the rest of the first period. He extended his lead to 4-0 with a reversal in the second and then rode him out again.

"If it's a close match, being able to ride my opponents is important," Montgomery said.

He drew top-ranked DeSalvo (38-1) in the second round on Wednesday and trailed 7-1 and 9-2 before suffering a loss by pin with 15 seconds to go in the first period.

Montgomery (25-11) got in on DeSalvo in the first few seconds of the match but couldn't finish the takedown. DeSalvo went on to win the state title.

"He's a competitor, he's very experienced and he gets after it," Brown said about Montgomery. "Even in the loss to DeSalvo he had him almost taken down. He's wrestled a lot and he's still so young."

The Cardinal freshmen faced a pair of familiar foes in his final two matches on Thursday. And both matches produced similar results to earlier this season.

Montgomery stayed alive in the tournament when he downed Oostenink 7-0. He led 2-0 after one and extended the margin to 5-0 in the second with another takedown. A third takedown in the final period gave him the win by decision.

Coming back from a loss at the state tournament can be one of the biggest challenges a high school wrestler in Iowa faces.

"I just forgot about it. It's a new day and I needed to keep going," Montgomery said. "I knew he liked blast doubles and throws so i just wanted to stay out of that."

In another elimination match against Van Zelderen (33-12), Montgomery fell behind 4-1 after one and trailed 4-2 after two before losing 7-2. Van Zelderen went on to place seventh.

Wyatt Weter

Weter (18-8) made his second trip to the state tournament but went 0-2 this time around after battling through an injury this season.

He opened with 10th-ranked and 19th-seeded Lane Nelsen of Dallas Center-Grimes on Wednesday. The match was scoreless after one, but Nelsen (23-17) went up 2-0 after an escape and a second stall call against Weter.

Weter tied the match following a reversal with 55 seconds to go in the match. But Nelsen scored the match-winning escape later and Weter lost the match 3-2 after not being able to score to win or extend the match to overtime.

Facing elimination, Weter battled Waverly-Shell Rock's Zander Wedemeier in his first-round consolation bout on Thursday.

The match stayed scoreless after one, but Wedemeier (29-16) got two nearfall points in the second. Weter started the period in the down position but was ridden out for two minutes.

Weter produced a takedown in the third, but the Go-Hawks grappler scored two escapes to win 4-2.

"I think coming back from the injury, he just didn't feel like himself and thought he had to change what he does because of the injuries," Brown said. "His offense wasn't where it normally is."

Rogers (24-15) had the toughest draw of the three Cardinals. He faced No. 7 Cale Nash of Clear Creek-Amana on Wednesday and No. 6 Malik DeBow on Thursday in his two matches and both ended in pins.

Rogers trailed 6-2 at the time of the pin against Nash (48-6) and fell behind 7-0 against DeBow before losing midway through the second period. DeBow (34-4) wound up finishing fifth and Nash took seventh.

Brown liked the way Rogers recovered after starting the season 0-6 in his first six contested matches. He also dropped to 2-7 after that before rallying to make his first state tournament.

"It was all mental for him. Skill wise, he has it, but he didn't respond to adversity real well early. He started to mature after we did a lot of mindset training in the room.

"He also started coming in to the extra morning workouts and put himself in situations he didn't handle that well. He's upset with the way he lost. He was happy to be here though."

Kaiden Rogers

While Weter graduates, Brown and the Cardinals welcome back Montgomery and Rogers.

For Montgomery, it's all about getting stronger in the weight room.

"He needs develop more physically," Brown said. "He wrestles all year long so that's not an issue. Next year he will be on the podium if he keeps doing what he's doing."

Brown thinks Rogers will be more devoted to wrestling this offseason. That will be key in him taking the next step.

"He hasn't done any offseason work in his career so hopefully doing that with Kent will get him going places," Brown said. "I think he can be a place winner next year if he does that."