Columbus High wrestling had five champions crowned at Saturday's Norfolk Invite in their final tournament before districts.
The Discoverer boys placed second with 152 points. Norfolk won the meet with 202.5 points.
Brenyn Delano, Mason Petersen, Caydn Kucera and Kaden Brownlow stood atop the medal stand with Liam Blaser taking home silver. Levi Cerny, Carter Fedde and Cooper Buxton finished with bronze.
In the girls' tournament, Marissa Anderson completed her regular season with a gold medal. Ella May Shevlin and Diana Orozco placed third and fourth, respectively, with Danica Taylor making her season debut going 1-2.
"It was a pretty good day. Three of them beat Norfolk guys in Norfolk, that's hard to do with the hometown crowd. Those guys are looking good," Discoverers head coach Adam Keiswetter said. "I think our guys are kind of starting to the peaking phase and are still looking their best as the season progresses. That's exciting as a coach to see that happening."
Delano (37-1) bounced back from his first loss of the season Thursday with four victories on Saturday. He pinned Norfolk's Tanner Thompson at 1 minute, 47 seconds, Millard North's Ian Kling at 2:48 and Fremont's Roberto Morales at 3:44 to reach the 120-pound final.
The junior defeated Grand Island's Madden Kontos 1-0 on a third-period escape with 1:29 remaining in regulation. Delano completed the meet earning his 100th career win.
Mason Petersen (13-3) competed in his first tournament since Dec. 16 and took the top spot at 132 pounds. Petersen recorded falls against Omaha Westside's Amir Rasulov at 2:51 and Grand Island's Cristian Cortez at 1:51.
In the first-place match, the freshman defeated Norfolk's Calvin Empkey 9-4. It was tied 4-4 after one period with Petersen recording one takedown and two escapes.
Petersen pinned Empkey for a three-point nearfall in the second period and he scored a reversal in the third.
On Thursday, Petersen won his first match back pinning Omaha Creighton Prep's Preston Woodward.
"We're trying to ease him into it. He's (Petersen) a highly motivated kid. Our sports medicine people are top-notch and they're working with him to rehab," Keiswetter said. "He's been focused on those things for like a month. He's looking awesome. He's been practicing really well. I'm excited for his districts and state and see how it turns out."
Kucera (24-3) earned three wins at 138, pinning Brian Wales of Bellevue East at 1:45 in the quarterfinals and Fremont's Kevin Perez at 2:45 in the semifinals. In the final, the senior defeated Norfolk's Gavin Van Driel 7-4.
Kucera was tied 4-4 with Van Driel on a reversal and a takedown. In the second period, he escaped and took down Van Driel to take the lead for good.
Brownlow (26-10) secured two falls and a win by decision to capture gold at 145. He pinned Grand Island's Gavin Pedersen at 4:34 and Fremont's Ayden Bohaboj in 59 seconds.
In the final, the junior won by a 4-2 decision over Norfolk's Joel Thompson. Brownlow recorded an escape and a takedown in period one to lead 3-2. He tacked on an insurance point in the second on an escape.
"Kaden Brownlow is wrestling the best, not just this year, but probably best ever. Really good performance," Keiswetter said. "That kid (Thompson) beat him the first time they wrestled at our dual meet and then he (Brownlow) got him at the conference tournament in a real close match. He's building more separation, which is hard to do. Normally when you wrestle a guy over and over and over it gets closer. He's winning by more."
Blaser (32-6) went 2-1 on Saturday, pinning Millard North's Thomas Roth at 3:38 in the quarterfinals and defeating Fremont's Benny Alfaro. Blaser avenged his head-to-head defeat against Alfaro from the HAC meet with a 6-4 decision, breaking a 2-2 tie in the third with two takedowns.
In the final, the senior lost to Norfolk's Kayden Kettler by a 12-0 major decision.
"That was an awesome match. He's wrestled that Fremont kid (Alfaro) five or six or more times. It was awesome," Keiswetter said. "Really happy for him to win that match. It was the way he won it. It was kind of a back-and-forth battle and he got the match-winning takedown with authority.
"Liam's (Blaser) in amazing shape. Against Fremont, he really wore the guy down. Liam, he looked fresh. If we can wrestle that kind of pace, I like his chances against everybody."
Cerny (16-20) bounced back from a semifinal defeat to win two consolation matches and take home bronze at 106. He secured a 1-minute fall of Fremont's Michael Nichols in the consolation semis followed by a pin of Millard North's Carter Swearingen at 2:20 in the third place match.
Fedde (25-16) won three of his four matches. The junior opened the tournament with a pin at 1:03 of Millard North's Cooper Grant in the quarterfinals.
After suffering a defeat by fall in the semifinals, Fedde pinned Jackson Wing of Westside and earned a 9-3 victory over Chase Timm of Bellevue East to earn bronze at 220. He recorded four takedowns and one escape against Timm.
Buxton (13-13) split his four matches at 285, securing a 3-1 victory against Millard North's Franklin White and a 4-1 win against Westside's Broc Regner. In the two wins, Buxton recorded three takedowns and one escape.
In the girls' tournament, Anderson improved to 18-8 with her second gold medal of the season. In her third bout against Norfolk's Jazmin Haller this season, Anderson prevailed for the first time with a 53-second pin.
She defeated Papillion-La Vista's Talia Astorino by injury default in the 115 first-place match.
"Marissa Anderson, she looked the best she's looked all season," Keiswetter said. "She was super dominant."
Shevlin (17-12) split her four matches at 170, earning a 6-4 win over Papio's Kirsten Clark and a 2-0 victory over Orozco. Shevlin recorded two takedowns and two escapes in the win over Clark. A first-period takedown was enough for Shevlin to defeat Orozco.
Orozco (15-12) pinned Clark at 3:50 for her lone victory in Norfolk.
Taylor (1-2) stepped onto the mat for the first time this season after recovering from shoulder surgery. In her first match, the junior defeated Norfolk's Raegan Mangelsen 2-0 in the 155 quarterfinals on a third-period reversal with 1:43 remaining.
Taylor was pinned by Westside's Piper Zatechka in the semifinals and by Fremont's Sheccid Vallin in the consolation semifinals.
"You're just thinking it's over and now you get a second chance, so that's a pretty awesome feeling," Keiswetter said. "Just being able to get out there and try to do it is something she's (Taylor) happy for. You're still not in the shape you would've been in if you're training all season."
Both wrestling teams will prepare for their respective district meets. The Discoverer girls will compete in the District A-2 meet beginning Friday at Madison with the state qualifiers determined on Saturday.
"Danica's (Taylor) going to be the bracket buster. She's going to be a returning state qualifier and she's going to walk in there with a losing record. We're walking in there with four girls and the goal is to qualify as many as possible," Keiswetter said. "Marissa's (Anderson) looking amazing right now. She might win the district tournament. Both Diana (Orozco) and Ella (Shevlin) have had moments where they've looked really good If they keep eliminating the mistakes and keep doing the good stuff they've been doing, I can see those two having a chance too."
The Discoverer boys just missed out on qualifying for the NSAA State Duals Wrestling Championship following an 11-9 season. They finished ninth in the wildcard points standings, finishing 0.0421 points behind the final qualifier Millard North.
They fell to Millard South 53-19 before defeating Creighton Prep 45-27 in Thursday's triangular. Fedde earned a 5-1 decision, Delano secured a 17-6 major decision and Kucera and Brownlow posted falls against the Patriots.
In their final dual against the Jr. Jays, Blaser, Cerny, Adrian Bice, Petersen and Kucera secured falls. Brownlow won with a 17-2 tech fall and Jaeston Delano earned a 10-2 major decision.
Sam Ficarro is a sports reporter with The Columbus Telegram. Reach him via email at [email protected]stelegram.com.
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