103
- Mark Rial, So., Fort Dodge
- Casey Doyle, So., West Delaware, Manchester
- Nick Mitchell, So., Johnston
- Josh Budke, Fr., Cedar Falls
- Jeremy White, Sr., Cedar Rapids Jefferson
- Cory Garner, Jr., Western Dubuque, Epworth
- Holy cow, THIS bracket… It’s tough. Well, I’m not familiar with 5-6, so I’ll just write a couple things about 1-4.
* Mark Rial… the more I do this, the more and more respect I continue to accumulate for that entire family, their outlooks and how they’ve consistently and persistently given back to the sport. He won 3 titles, was competitive on the “World” scale with some of the guys he beat after HS and is now coaching at Buena Vista. His “Remember The Wrestler” was a source of wrestling enlightenment for me.
- It took Casey Doyle a couple more years than he would have liked, but he eventually won state as a Senior, which meant he placed 2-3-1. He was idolized in that community.
- Nick Mitchell was a freaking stud. He had some of the toughest competition at state year after year and beat a lot of the elite guys in his weight range every year… If he were just in a different class at a different time or in just a REGULAR state bracket, he would have one 1-2 titles, I’m guessing. Look at some of the guys he placed with… following this year, he placed 4th…behind Mark Rial, Casey Doyle and Eric Juergens. His Senior year he placed 3rd in a bracket that included Matt Pence, Scott Vance, Josh Dorothy and Rick Healy. He beat Dorothy for 3rd and 4th… Dorothy is from my area…Mount Pleasant dude. He is a legend in Mount Pleasant. People still talk about how good he was. And Rick Healy placed 5th in that one… he was one of my college coaches and when he was weighing 135 or so, he could beat some of our varsity upper-weights. Mitchell is one of the most successful college coaches ever, most notably as HC of the Grand View Vikings… a perennial powerhouse in NAIA.
- Josh Budke never lost another match at state again… and he had 3 more tries. Won 3 titles. His finals match against Jesse West his Senior year is something I will never forget. There will be more on Budke soon!
