Lashbrook seeking for third straight state trip

NASHUA — When the dust settled from the Class 1A Sectional 2 meet at Nashua-Plainfield High School, AGWSR was left with only one district qualifier.

That lone Cougar was junior Trey Lashbrook, who is seeking to make it 3-for-3 in state appearances.

And, he only had to wait to wrestle the championship match as the top seed at 120 pounds.

“I’m happy,” Lashbrook said. “I really wanted to win that match. It’s been a long day even though I didn’t really wrestle much. Sitting around is not very fun. I love to wrestle, so when I have to sit and the nerves build up, it’s a long day.”

AGWSR head coach Chad Gerbracht added, “it’s tough, he doesn’t get to wrestle until the final. But, he did and will go in as the No. 1 seed next week. He’ll have the kid from Lake Mills and we feel pretty good about that. Hopefully, we get a rematch against Central Springs.”

The rest of the Cougars fell short of the goal of reaching the district meet, including Ali Gerbracht, who was seeking to make school history as the first girl from AGWSR to reach the state meet and only the third girl ever to reach the traditional boys’ state tournament. She was state champion and runner-up the last two years at the girls’ meet.

She started off with a fall against North Butler-Clarksville freshman Zach McPherson in 1 minute, 7 seconds, but ran into second-ranked Garret Rinken of N-P, who pinned her in 1:13. She went on and wrestled a tough third-place match and had she won, it would have given her a wrestleback, however, she fell short by a 4-3 decision, gaining a late reversal and a stalling point against Sumner-Fredericksburg’s Cael Judisch.

“Ali, we knew it would tough to get through at this weight class with the top-two in this one here, but she knew what she was supposed to do,” coach Gerbracht said. “She came out ready to wrestle, got the fall. The wrestleback against the Sumner kid for the fourth time this year, good match. No regrets there.”

Had she gotten the wrestle back, she would have had to face ninth-ranked (IAWrestle.com) Kale Petersen of West Fork, who is the younger brother of Kaden Petersen, the wrestler who upset her last year in the sectional opener when he wrestled for Rockford.

Despite a pair of second seeds at the meet, Roder (160) and Jacob Haley (182) lost their quarterfinal matches and finished fourth. Roder lost a close 9-7 decision against N-P’s Cael Brunner, on the wrong end of a couple of close calls as time expired.

“Brody Roder came up a little short there, a couple of close calls there,” coach Gerbracht said. “That’s out of our control. Can’t let them affect him when he wrestles the rest of the day.”

Haley, meanwhile, was stunned with a quick fall in 1:00 against Denver’s Nathan Eggena.

“We just have to get the mental part right,” coach Gerbracht said of Haley. “Clean up some things in there. He forced some things. He did some things he didn’t normally do. Try to improve that in the off-season here.”

Bo Gerbracht took a medical forfeit win in the opener at 113, then lost to Denver’s Joe Ebaugh and went on to finish third.

“It’s not really a rough day, we’re young,” coach Gerbracht said. “We’ve got a lot of young kids in our lineup this year. We had some upperclassmen in there. Ali, Brody, Trey, Jacob. Some matches didn’t go our way.

“Bo, a freshman in there, did a good job. Obviously, he has some room to grow physically. Technique still needs some work. It’s good for him to get some experience.”

Also finishing fourth were Zach Johnson (132) and Tate Miller (285).

All of that boils down to Lashbrook going it alone for a state trip.

“It’s okay,” Lashbrook said. “Our team is young, we’ll mature. We’ll definitely get better next year and send a few more through.”

The game plan for this Saturday?

 “Definitely wrestle hard for sure,” Lashbrook said. “I want my revenge on this Bryce McDonough, the kid that beat me earlier this year.

“Earlier in the season, I was down on myself and my coach says, ‘your time to shine is not now. You always mature late.’ I’ve just been waiting for that; I think I’ve finally done that.”

2020 Class 1A District 2 Sectional

Team Scoring

1. Nashua-Plainfield 241; 2. Denver 240.5; 3. North Butler-Clarksville 158; 4. Sumner-Fredericksburg 132; 5. AGWSR 108; 6. West Fork 92; 7. Rockford 33; 8. Tripoli 15.

AGWSR results

106– Third-place match, Cael Judisch (S-F) dec. Ali Gerbracht 4-3

113– Third-place match, Bo Gerbracht pinned Trace Meyer (S-F) 1:42. No wrestleback.

120– Championship match, Trey Lashbrook major dec. Chase Lyons (Denver) 14-0.

126– Fifth-place match, Cade Hardy (NB-C) pinned Jayden Bowles 3:16.

132– Third-place match, Nathan Egan (S-F) dec. Zach Johnson 8-4.

152– Fifth-place match, Dakota Lau (WF) pinned Ben Puente Moralles 0:43.

160– Third-place match, Treyce Ensign (S-F) pinned Brody Roder 1:00.

170– Fifth-place match, Daniel Alariksson dec. Carson Nuehring (WF) 6-3.

182– Third-place match, JC Ulrich (NB-C) pinned Jacob Haley 4:53.

195– Fifth-place match, Tristan Halfpop (WF) pinned Jared Granzow 1:01.

285– Third-place match, Jacob Titus (Rock) pinned Tate Miller 0:15.