Mertz one of three to place at John J. tourney
CORNING—The Red Oak wrestling team had three place finishers at the John J. Harris Tournament in Corning Saturday.
Tanner Mertz led the way as he took home the title at 106 pounds. In the championship match, Mertz had an easy time as he defeated Corning’s Logan Wood via a 13-0 decision.
“It feels great, because I’ve been working hard and this is what you deserve when you work hard,” Mertz said.
Mertz jumped out to a big lead in the first period and never looked back. The sophomore was able to score reversals, preventing Wood from picking up points.
“It was to keep working hard, being aggressive, just keep pounding and keeping my mind right,” Mertz said about being focused for the tournament.
To reach the championship match, Mertz needed to get past Missouri Valley’s Nick Rounds. There was familiarity between Mertz and Rounds as they’ve wrestled at clubs.
“It was pretty difficult because we had the same style and we knew what we were doing,” Mertz said about Rounds. “It was tough.”
Mertz won the match against Rounds by a 9-8 decision to start the day Saturday.
In the early rounds, Mertz was able to win his first two matches by first period pinfalls.
In the second round, Mertz pinned Landon Spurgin of Clarke in 45 seconds.
He then went on to pin Atlantic’s William Weppler in 39 seconds.
Mertz said his mindset is different from last season. He’s put in a lot of work since the offseason.
“I just knew I need to push harder and work harder to get better and better,” he said.
Geoff Sellers finished second in the tournament at 126-lbs. Sellers lost in the championship match to Devin Harberts of Chariton via a 9-8 decision.
The difference came in the final seconds of the match when Harberts secured a takedown to take the lead.
“He wrestled some real tough competition. He didn’t have the best day, he didn’t feel the best,” Red Oak wrestling coach Tiegan Podliska said. “That’s going to happen some days, you’re going to have to overcome some adversity and I thought he did a good job of that.”
Sellers was able to score pinfalls in his first three matches of the tournament Friday and early Saturday.
Dakota Petty was the other top place finisher for Red Oak as he took home sixth place.
“It’s good to have a champ, it’s good to have three people place, but overall just some more tough wrestling, tough competition,” Podliska said. “We can do better here. I want to do better.”
Podliska said the team had some tough draws, as well as some close matches, but they were able to score a lot of points.
“They might have lost in an early round, but most of our kids won a match or two so that’s definitely a positive,” Podliska said.
The Tigers scored 70 points at the tournament, putting them in 10th. They were ahead of Bedford/Lenox, East Mills, Griswold and Missouri Valley among others
“A lot of the kids we lost to are kids you’re seeing in that first place match or third place match,” Podliska said. “That’s kind of a telling tale as far as if we wrestled the best competition.”
Red Oak vs. Creston & Shenandoah
The Red Oak wrestling teams lost both of their duals last Tuesday on the road in Creston. Red Oak lost a close one to Shenandoah 43-33 Creston Orient-Macksburg 62-15.
Red Oak picked up six wins against Shenandoah. John Sands, Nick Leinen, Tyler Terry and Mertz all picked up pinfall wins. Sands pinned Brenden Dostal in 1:36, while Leinen pinned Patrick Richardson in 40 seconds. Terry picked up his pinfall victory in 15 seconds. Mertz pinned his opponent Nate Hoyt in 53 seconds.
Sellers and Austin Streicher also picked up wins. Sellers won an 8-0 decision against Jake Johnson, while Streicher won via technical fall versus Austin Larson.
Three wrestlers scored victories against Creston Orient-Macksburg. Mertz won via pinfall over Stone Hammons in 1:15, while Sellers pinned Bryce Briley at 4:29. Bailey Akers had the other win for Red Oak as he won a 13-7 decision against Zack Peppmeier at 138-lbs.