Faught and Leisure onto State Wrestling Tourney

Two Clear Lake wrestlers will compete for a State title this week in Des Moines.

Ryan Leisure has the opportunity to become Clear Lake High School’s first three time State Champion, while Eric Faught is looking for his first title.  He was runner-up at 106 last season.

Leisure, undefeated through 35 matches heading into Saturday’s District meet, dominated the 145-pound field.  He opened the meet with a technical fall over Gabriel Yingst, of Woodward-Granger, then pinned Clayton Reis, from Pocahontas Area, in the second round in 1:15.

Faught won his first match at 113-pounds by fall, pinning Garrett Tasler, of Greene County, in 0:53.  In the first place match he faced Drake Doolittle, of Webster City, for the third time this season.  Doolittle, who was a bronze medalist at State last season, won the rubber match between the two, 8-5.  Faught, a sophomore, earned his second trip to State by pinning Garner-Hayfield-Ventura’s Austin Case in 1:23. Case, who was pinned in his opening match,  ended his senior season with a record of 38-16.

Clear Lake sophomore Braxton Doebel was hoping to earn his first trip to state after being sidelined at Sectionals a year ago.  This year he advanced to Districts, but was denied a State berth.  He finished third at 132-pounds. Trey Lawrence, from Southeast Valley edged Doebel in the opening match, 6-4.  Doebel pinned Carson Devine, from Algona, but lost by rule to Lawrence, who was defeated by Carson Hartnett, from Webster City, and won the weight.

At 170, second rated Conner Shaw, from GHV, was denied a return to State by rule.  He was edged by Kyler Fisher, from Southeast Valley, in his opening match, 6-5.  Although Shaw bounced back to defeat Sam Wigins, from Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, by fall in 0:51, he placed third at the weight by virtue of Fisher’s loss in the first place match.  The GHV senior finished his season with a 43-5 record.

Clear Lake’s Dalton Mennenga (16-25) faced the tall task of meeting Cody Fisher (43-5), of Woodward-Granger, in his opening match at 195.  Fisher won by fall and went on to win the weight.  Mennenga, a junior, was pinned by Ben Powers, of Clarion-Goldfield-Dows in the third place match.

Clarion-Goldfield-Dows captured the District title with 99.5 points.  Webster City was runner-up with 96 points.  Clear Lake finished sixth with 45.5 points, while GHV was 10th in the 12-team field with 20 points.