COUNCIL BLUFFS – The weather couldn’t stop the wrestling at the Council Bluffs Classic, and it didn’t stop Evan Sorensen and Haley Armstrong from bringing home championships from the prestigious event.
Sorensen won the 285-pound championship in the boys’ division, grinding out a 10-4 win over Fort Dodge’s Joe Constable in the championship.
In the process, Sorensen became just the second Trojan wrestler to win a title at the Mid-American Center. Kadin Stutzman won the 170-pound title in 2021, and went on to win a state championship.
Sorensen was impressive, winning his first four matches by recording sub-one minute pins in each of them, the final coming in the quarerfinals over Kearney’s (Neb.) Xavier Martinez. Sorensen then went on to a 15-2 major decision victory over Waukee Northwest’s Henry Mohr before the championship match.
The championship match was tied at 3-3 going into the final period, but Sorensen got a quick escape and added a takedown about 30 seconds later to go up 7-3. Constable was able to escape, but Sorensen clinched the championship with a takedown with eight seconds left.
Sorensen, a two-time Iowa state meet qualifier who is now 11-0, was one of two Atlantic wrestlers to reach the championship, as Aiden Smith took silver at 138 pounds.
Smith rolled to four pool-bracket wins, winning three by pin and the fourth by technical fall, before getting a pin to open championship bracket action. He then got a pair of 7-4 wins, including a sudden-victory match over Hudson Loges of Blair (Neb.) to set up his title match with Cole Krutzfeldt of Iowa City West.
In the championship, Smith was beaten 7-2. Krutzfeldt broke from a 3-1 lead to add an escape and late takedown in the fourth to salt away the win. Smith is 14-1 on the season.
Both Sorensen and Smith wrestled former state champions and/or state placewinners from Iowa and other states.
The Trojan boys finished seventh in the team standings with 298.5 points at the Classic, a meet that brought 41 teams from six states to Council Bluffs, including some of the Midwest’s top wrestlers and teams. Lincoln (Neb.) East won the meet with 418.5 points, while the Trojans were the third-highest Iowa team at the meet (of 16 total from the Hawkeye state), with Waukee Northwest and Fort Dodge finishing ahead.
The Atlantic girls, which had just three wrestlers on the mat, scored 102 points and finished 30th out of 35 teams.
Armstrong became the first girls’ wrestler from Atlantic to win a championship in the girls’ division, pinning all of six of her opponents, including a 50-second win of Justice McBurney of Washburn (Kan.) Rural.
After deadlocking the first 45 seconds or so, Armstrong took down McBurney and quickly pinned her to win the championship.
Armstrong, who placed third at last year’s Iowa state girls’ wrestling tournament as part of the Southwest Area Team (SWAT), got four of her wins in the first period, with the other two never going to the end of the second period.
The three girls who competed for Atlantic each placed in the top 12. At 115 pounds Cadence Kinze reached the quarterfinals before being pinned. She was injured and had to take a medical forfeit in her final three matches, placing her 12th.
Leiah Thomas was 11th at 170 pounds, also reaching the championship bracket. She was pinned in the first round of the championship bracket, but came back to go 2-2 in her final four matches, including a 57-second pinfall of Alivia Juarez of Platte County (Neb.).
Going back to the Atlantic boys, the Trojans placed seventh, with Collin Harris (113) and Braxton Hass (126) placing fourth, and Keaton Schroeder placing seventh at 106.
All the wrestlers who competed at Atlantic won at least two contested matches, with Donovan Hedrington taking 13th at 190 (4-3), Kalvin Hayes 17th at 144 (5-2), Jayden Harter 20th at 150 (3-4), Carter Hadley 21st at 132 (4-4), Dreven Smith 28th at 157 (2-5).
The Trojans’ seventh-place finish matches the best team finish, the other coming in 2017, when six wrestlers reached the top eight.
“This was a good tournament. All of the guys competed hard, even the guys in the silver bracket ... kept their intensity through the (tournament),†said coach Tim Duff. “It’s kind of one of those tournaments where it tests you mentally and prepared for the next match. It’s one of those situations where you’ve got to be tough and just compete to the best of your ability, with seven or eight matches in two days. It was good to see the wrestlers come out and compete well.
“We were pleased as a coaching staff. If they lost a match they came back and tried to win their next match. For the most part, the kids stayed focused and just wrestled the next match.â€
