The Golden Hawks put four wrestlers in the finals of the Saber Invitational on Saturday, and left DeWitt with a pair of champions in juniors Mose Yoder at 106 and Kaden Meader at 170. 

Despite taking just ten wrestlers to the tournament, the Golden Hawks finished fourth out of 14 teams with 113 points. Central DeWitt finished first, while Mid-Prairie finished just seven points behind second-place Iowa City Liberty and ahead of four other 3A schools, including Cedar Rapids Jefferson. 

Meader wrestled for a total of two minutes and 28 seconds on Saturday. His longest match was a 57-second pin of Clinton’s Craig Mercado in the semifinals. 

Staying in good position has been the focus for Meader (17-6) all season long, and he excelled in that area on Saturday according to coach Justin Garvey. 

“At one point in the finals, he got a little wild and out of control as they went out of bounds and I just had to remind him, ‘don’t let your head get over your feet, don’t let your hands get over your head.’ And composed himself and he got the takedown.”

He pinned DeWitt’s Elston Lidner in 45 seconds to reach the top of the podium. 

“He had a great day, and stayed within his technique. He made everybody that he wrestled, wrestle his match.”

Yoder (14-3) got a bye into the semifinals and won both of his matches by first-period pin. He got a takedown of Moline freshman Devon Jones 58 seconds into the final and put him on his back to secure first place. 

“He wrestled a great tournament,” Garvey said. “He just looked really good, in control all day long.”

It was the junior’s first varsity matches down at 106 pounds, which could be a possibility now moving forward. 

“It just leaves options for down the road,” Garvey said. “He wrestled 113 on Thursday night. Coming into practice on Friday, he was about 110 and after practice he stayed really focused on his diet and exercise and he got down there pretty easy, he was about a half a pound under.”

Golden Hawk senior Cael Garvey, ranked No. 1 in 2A at 195, met 3A No. 6 Cade Sheedy (Davenport North) in the semifinals. He got a takedown with 43 seconds left in the first period and added back points with just a few seconds left. He went up 5-0 before Sheedy got an escape in the third. 

“I think he wrestled a great match,” Justin Garvey said. He was in control the entire match, just wrestled really well, just stayed in really good position.”

Midland senior Cayden Miller (17-0), ranked No. 2 in 1A, took first place with a pin of Garvey (15-2) in the first period of the final. 

“Hoping for a better outcome, but things just didn’t go his way,” Justin Garvey said. “I wish we would have had a little bit better showing there at the end of the day, but it’s a long season.”

Terry Bordenave also had a runner-up finish at 220 pounds. He had a quick pin in the quarterfinal round and a 12-1 major decision to reach the finals. 

“ He went out and took the match and wrestled it his way and went after his attacks,” Garvey said.  

He had a takedown in each period and added back points in the first and third. In the final, Bordenave (11-4) gave up a pin to DeWitt senior Mitchell Howard (19-2).

“He just didn’t wrestle his best match there,” Garvey said.  “That’s something that we’ll have to work on moving forward — just to continue to keep that intensity up as the day goes on, but he wrestled really well until that very last match.”

Senior Brodey Neal (8-7) won his quarterfinal match with a first period pin and finished fourth. 

“He wrestled really comp-etitively throughout the day,” Garvey said. “He’s shown a lot of growth here in the first half of the season.”

Colin O’Rourke, Landry Gingerich, and Jarron Thomas each had a win in the consolation bracket on Saturday. 

At Fort Madison

The Golden Hawks split a pair of duals against Southeast Conference opponents on Thursday, getting a 60-24 win over Mount Pleasant and falling 52-27 to the host, 3A power Fort Madison. 

Mid-Prairie took a 56-0 lead with first period pins from Manny Watts and Terry Bordenave and 15-second pins from Dom Shively and Brodey Neal along with three forfeited matches. 

Landry Gingerich scored Mid-Prairie’s final points of the match with a pin at 132. He had seven takedowns on the way to a 15-7 lead before getting the pin with 20 seconds left. 

“Landry is a guy that’s taken some lumps here as a freshman wrestling in that 132-pound weight class and it’s always great to see those guys come out and get a pin for the team and have had some success.”

While the varsity dominated, the highlight of the day came in the junior varsity matches where junior Jaxsen Timmerman got the first win of his career. 

“That was a pretty special moment for him,” Garvey said. It’s always great to see for guys who show up to practice regularly and put in the work and just haven’t found the success yet. For him to get a pin and a win — it meant a lot to him and the team was super excited for him.”

Kaden Meader, Neal, and Andrew Kaufman each had a pin against Fort Madison.

“That was a nice, pleasant surprise,” Garvey said about Kaufman the freshman. “We weren’t really sure how that match was going to go and he came out and got after it and got a pin in under a minute, so that was pretty cool.”

Cael Garvey got a competitive match against sophomore Issac Thacher.

“The kid was fired up and came after him,” Garvey said. “Cael stayed extremely composed. We couldn’t pin the kid, couldn’t put him away but won a pretty good decision there and showed some really good technical aspects.”

Bordenave took a 4-1 first period lead in a match that was stopped several times to clean up blood from both wrestlers. Bordenave was still leading 4-1 when he got caught out of position and gave up a pin in the third.

“Terry wrestled a really good match,” Garvey said. “It’s just a positional thing that a lot of our guys are struggling with right now, and we’re working through it. But he wrestled tough.”