Parker a win away from medaling for Osky, Lorentzen eliminated

Feb. 15—DES MOINES — Oskaloosa's duo of Ty Lorentzen and Kaiden Parker were back on the mats on Thursday at Wells Fargo Arena at the Iowa State Boys Wrestling Tournament as one was looking to extend their tournament while another was trying to secure a spot in the semifinals.

After suffering a 16-0 tech fall loss in his opening match at 113 pounds on Wednesday, No. 19 Lorentzen needed a bounce back win on Thursday morning to keep his tournament hopes alive. Lorentzen would be matched up with No. 13 Evan Erpenbach of West Lyon for his second round consolation match and Erpenbach would prove to be a tough opponent on top.

Erpenbach scored the first takedown of the match and went to work on top. He would ride out Lorentzen the rest of the first period to go up 2-0. Lorentzen chose to start down in the second period but Erpenbach stayed tough on top with a three-point nearfall while still riding Lorentzen out. Erpenbach added another takedown and three-point nearfall in the third and closed out a 10-0 major decision to end Lorentzen's season.

Lorentzen ends his first state appearance going 0-2 and finishes his season with a 31-14 record.

"The biggest thing with Ty is we didn't score any points up here," Oskaloosa head coach Derek Moyer said. "That was the biggest struggle that we've got to make sure we're ready to go for next year when we come back. We've got to score points and put ourselves in those positions to win."

No. 12 Parker was up next in the quarterfinal round as he would try to get another upset win over a top five opponent. This time he would battle No. 4 Mason Avila of Decorah for a spot in the 132 pound semifinals.

Avila struck first getting the opening takedown 19 seconds into the match with Parker only needing seven seconds to escape. Parker chose to start he second period down and picked up another quick escape to tie things up at 2-2. Avila would strike again with another strong takedown with Parker once again gaining a quick escape. Avila elected to start the third period down and increased his lead to 5-3 with Parker getting 1:45 to try to get a tying takedown. Instead it was Avila putting up a tough defense as Parker couldn't close the gap and ended up falling 5-3 to suffer his first loss of the tournament.

"That kid had really good hands defense and we couldn't get through it," Moyer said. "That's something we've got to work on to get us to the top here. We're going to be working on that to get him ready for the rest of the tournament."

The loss drops Parker to the consolation side of the bracket where he will take on No. 24 Jayden Bucknell of NH/TV on Friday morning. A win in that match will secure a medal finish for Parker and showcase a big improvement after going 0-2 at state last year during his freshman year.

"It's been his mindset," Moyer said. "That's been the biggest thing we worked on for the whole year. As a freshman coming in, he wasn't quite there yet, maybe he could have been starstruck, but we've been working on that and it's obviously made a big difference. It'd be great to put another metal on that board. The biggest thing is we've got to get through this next match so that's going to be our focus."

Parker will be back at Wells Fargo Arena on Friday with the Class 2A session starting at 9 a.m.

Oskaloosa Results

2A-113: Ty Lorentzen (31-14) place is unknown and scored 0.0 team points.

Champ. Round 1 — Jon Gonzalez (West Marshall) 41-4 won by tech fall over Ty Lorentzen (Oskaloosa) 31-14 (TF-1.5 5:08 (16-0))

Cons. Round 1 — Ty Lorentzen (Oskaloosa) 31-14 received a bye () (Bye)

Cons. Round 2 — Evan Erpenbach (West Lyon) 36-5 won by major decision over Ty Lorentzen (Oskaloosa) 31-14 (MD 10-0)

2A-132: Kaiden Parker (28-9) place is unknown and scored 8.0 team points.

Champ. Round 1 — Kaiden Parker (Oskaloosa) 28-9 won by fall over Charlie Karam (Solon) 31-20 (Fall 5:15)

Champ. Round 2 — Kaiden Parker (Oskaloosa) 28-9 won by fall over Aiden Hippen (Clear Lake) 44-4 (Fall 5:32)

Quarterfinal — Mason Avila (Decorah) 33-2 won by decision over Kaiden Parker (Oskaloosa) 28-9 (Dec 5-3)

Colin Peters can be reached at 641-672-2581, by email at cpeters@oskyherald.com or on Twitter @ColinPetersOH.