Photos Courtesy of Columbus CSD and MP Wrestling Social Media

The big day has arrived, the district tournament is Saturday for local wrestlers. A pair of area teams will travel to their 2A tournament site at Solon today.

The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks come to Solon after finishing fourth at the WACO Tournament last weekend, led by a championship for Quinn Callahan at 215lbs and second place finishes for Josh Turner at 165, Jarron Thomas at 175 and Burke Berry at 285. Mid-Prairie ended their dual season with a 7-10 record and finished in ninth place at the River Valley Conference Championship meet where the top performance came from Berry taking third. Individually, Berry, Trevyn Riley, Max Howe and Callahan have each won a tournament this year. Berry is the team leader with 25 match wins. That group along with Mason Howe, Tucker Miller, Austin Bush, Noah Freeman, Max Kipp, Dom Shively, and Brock Fisher all enter the day with winning records.

The Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union Wildcats will also be in Solon today. The Wildcats put together a 24-4 dual record this season, qualifying for 2A regionals. They won the Southeast Iowa Superconference team championship and had a pair of individual Superconference champs in Karson Dopler at 175lbs and Russel Coil at 285lbs. According to the final 2A poll this season from Iawrestle.com, the Wildcats have three ranked wrestlers in their lineup with Dakota Aney No. 12 at 106lbs, Ty Scorpil No. 8 at 126lbs and Russel Coil No. 3 at 285lbs. Coil is the team leader with a perfect 43-0 overall record. Scopril is also in the 40 win club with 41 this season and Dopler, Cole Storm, Jacob Nelson and Aney have each won at least 30 times this year.

Those two teams will be joined today in Solon by Camanche, Central DeWitt, No. 3 Mount Vernon, Tipton, West Liberty and the home Spartans. There are a total of 15 ranked wrestlers in today’s field. Individuals who finish second or better will advance to the traditional State Tournament held next week at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. Action gets underway at 10a.m. and continues all day Saturday At Solon High School.