The Washington wrestling team’s season is almost to a close.  For nine Demon wrestlers, though, it all comes down to today: districts.

Today’s district round comes after a successful sectional round last Saturday, in which the Demons took home the team championship by nearly 50 points.  Nine wrestlers came in either first or second in their sectional bracket to advance to the district round, where they will compete against some of Southeast Iowa’s best for a berth to the state tournament in Des Moines.

The wrestlers going today will be Walker Ikerd at 120, Brandon Dickel at 126, Garrett Ikerd at 138, Dillan Sanders at 145, Ayden Frazier at 152, David Hora at 160, Tristin Westphal at 182, Logan Escher at 195 and Tristan Allender at 220.  Head coach Brent Van Weelden says his guys will have to be prepared for anything right out of the gate.

“There’s a lot of first-round matches that are real important, so we’re going to have to come out and be ready to wrestle right off the bat,” Van Weelden said.  “[The semifinals] happens to be the first round this Saturday, so we have to get going right out of the chute. There’s going to be a lot of close matches. We know that, so we’re going to have to be prepared to wrestle six minutes, maybe some overtime matches.  But those first-round matches are real important, so we’re going to have to be ready for that.”

Today’s sectional round will be at Washington High School with action set to start at noon.