Garvey leaves state wrestling tournament with a medal

By Jeff Yoder
Posted 2/24/21

Mid-Prairie junior Cael Garvey had been to the Iowa State Wrestling Tournament many times before February 18.  

As a fan. 

But on Thursday, he finally made it to the mats of Wells …

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Garvey leaves state wrestling tournament with a medal

Posted

Mid-Prairie junior Cael Garvey had been to the Iowa State Wrestling Tournament many times before February 18.  

As a fan. 

But on Thursday, he finally made it to the mats of Wells Fargo Arena in Golden Hawk gold for the first time. And in the second period, things were going well. Really well. A five-point move gave Garvey a 7-3 lead over Emmetsburg’s fourth-ranked Matthew Wirtz. 

Then Wirtz came back, and took a two-point lead with a takedown near the edge of the mat with 43 seconds left. 

From the corner of the mat, his coach and father Justin Garvey yelled, “everything you’ve got!” 

But with 20 seconds remaining, Cael was still trying to get up off the mat. 

“I could see (Cael) was getting tired,” Justin said.  “And that’s the bad thing about not wrestling full matches all season.

“We gave two stall calls, which was bad, bad, bad. And then got taken down. 

“And it’s like, how bad you want this thing? You know, this has been your dream for how long? How bad You want it?”

Cael felt Wirtz shift to the side and his arm came across Cael’s neck. He grabbed the arm, sat down quickly on the mat, and threw Wirtz to the mat, evening the match at 9-9. 

Cael hooked a shoulder, threw his leg over his opponent and forced his back to the mat for two back points and the win. 

“That was big. It was real big,” Justin said after the match. “It was everything. Real proud of his effort tonight.”

Cael added a win in the second round of the consolation bracket to finish with a medal in eighth place. Josh Wallington went 1-2 for the week, and Ben Meader lost both of his matches. 

“I think it was a successful weekend,” Justin said. “I would have liked to pick up a couple more wins up there. But it’s tough sledding when you get to that tournament. And this year, the weight classes we were in – they were stacked, a lot of tough, tough wrestlers. And I thought we represented pretty well. But like I said, you always want more.”

Wallington lost a quick match in the first round, but bounced back to pin Nick Wacha of Ballard in the third period to make it to day two. 

Wacha pulled within 3-2 early in the second period with a takedown.

“I left my arm out and he was able to pop it up and throw me to my back a little bit. And I just rolled right out of it,” Wallington said.

“It kind of made me mad, since my first match, I got headlocked and pinned. So I just went into it. And knew I had to roll through it, otherwise I was out of the tournament.”

With the win, Wallington was one of 12 wrestlers in 2A at his weight class to make it through to Friday. 

“It means everything to me, and my family loves it,” Wallington said. “It’s crazy. Sitting down there. Even just walking out there is an awesome experience.”

Ben Meader’s season ended in the state wrestling tournament with a 7-5 loss to Washington’s Ayden Frazer in a rematch of a district match, which Meader won 8-4. 

“It may not have went the way I wanted it to but the experience itself to be here with my buddies, coaches… It’s real,” Meader said. “I mean, I’ve been working for this since freshman year and this experience – awesome atmosphere, awesome people.”

After Cael’s quarterfinal loss to the eventual state runner-up Jacob Reicks of New Hampton, he faced a familiar opponent in Nathan Keating of Anamosa. 

As a sophomore, Cael had a 9-6 lead over Keating in the second period of a wrestleback to qualify for state, before surrendering a reversal and pin. After three straight losses to Keating, Cael finally got a win over the Blue Raider senior with a first-period pin on January 14. 

On Friday, Cael quickly fell behind 6-1, before getting a reversal late in the first. He started on top in the second and added four back points. In the final period, he scored a reversal to take the lead and then pinned Keating to claim a medal. 

“I tried to keep wrestling and I knew eventually I’d wear him out,” Cael said. “I don’t know, that seems to happen a lot here. So I just had to keep wrestling and trying to wear him out. And eventually I did. And by the middle of the third, I pinned him in a butcher.”

It took Cael nearly a period to find his offense in the must-win match. 

“I think today was just there was so much on the line – he didn’t wrestle well in the first,  and didn’t wrestle great in a second,” Justin said. 

“But you know, he dug deep and I think he knew what was on the line and once he started actually wrestling and not second guessing himself – everything he did, he did really well.”

Cael Garvey’s tournament ended with a pair of frustrating losses. 

In the third-round consolation, Cael trailed 7-3 when Brayden Smith went to his back just before the clock hit zeros. The official blew his whistle and slapped the mat. Cael celebrated the pin. But seconds later it was waved off as time had expired. Not even a two-point takedown was awarded and Smith went on to a 14-5 decision. 

In the seventh-place match, Cael took an 8-1 lead with two takedowns and four back points. He had Mason Askelsen on his back, working towards a pin when the match was stopped for blood with a minute left in the first period.

Askelsen would come back to take a 13-11 lead and win with a pin with 11 seconds left in the second.

“We had the guy, it was done right there,” Justin said later. “The kid wasn’t going anywhere, and they stopped it for blood.” 

After the match, Justin pointed at the blood on the mat where Cael was pinned, questioning why there was no stoppage that time, but the official just shook his head no. 

“I don’t know how long they had to clean that mat up,” Justin said. “But it was a blood bath. There was blood everywhere.”

The three wrestlers that went to the state tournament began the season as practice partners, along with 220-pound Terry Bordenave. 

Eventually Gannon Callahan was in the mix with the heavier wrestlers and Vinnie Bowlin with Ben Meader. 

“Those kinds of guys all worked out together and trained with each other every day towards the end of the season,“ Justin said. 

“It was so good that we had Josh’s size, and power and Ben’s length. “It was pretty apparent during the grand march that (Cael) was one of the shortest guys not only in his weight class, but maybe in the tournament. But a lot of power built in there. 

“So they all got a feel for wrestling with different body types and different styles and, and I really think it helped them. Ben’s conditioning was second to none. And that helped everybody in the room.

“That’s kind of the key to success on the high school wrestling mat – having a lot of numbers with guys that are quality, that can push each other. And as they push each other everyone gets better.”

 

182

Champ. Round 1 - Austin Roos (Benton Community) over Ben Meader; MD 12-2

Cons. Round 1 - Ayden Frazer (Washington) over Meader; Dec 7-5

 

195

Champ. Round 1 - Cael Garvey over Matthew Wirtz (Emmetsburg); Dec 11-9

Quarterfinal - Jacob Reicks (NH/TV) over Garvey; Fall 3:58

Cons. Round 2 - Garvey over Nathan Keating (Anamosa); Fall 4:45

Cons. Round 3 - Brayden Smith (South Tama County) over Cael Garvey; MD 14-5

7th Place Match - Mason Askelsen (Ballard) over Garvey; Fall 3:51

 

220

Champ. Round 1 - Kain Nelson (Clarion-Goldfield-Dows) over Josh Wallington; Fall 1:17

Cons. Round 1 - Wallington over Nick Wacha (Ballard); Fall 4:42

Cons. Round 2 - Easton Fleshman (West Lyon, Inwood) over Wallington; Dec 6-1