Highland hosted some of the top 1A and 2A wrestlers in eastern Iowa at the Gary Curtis Invitational on Saturday.

And several of them were in the 132-pound bracket with Highland junior Carlos Valenzuela.

Valenzuela wrestled one of the most competitive matches of the tournament with Cascade’s eighth-ranked Trever Freiburger in the semifinal. Freiburger got the only takedown of the match with two seconds left in the second period and won a 3-1 decision. 

Valenzuela bounced back to take third with a quick pin of Regina freshman Will Aitchison, who defeated Wilton’s No. 12 Trae Hagen to reach the semifinals. 

“I was really happy with Carlos and his effort today in a loaded bracket,” Highland coach Nick Cole said.  “He lost to a highly-ranked guy from Cascade and fought him until the end — even came back and finished third. Sometimes coming back to finish third is harder than winning a tournament.”

Jack Peiffer earned a 2-0 decision over Wilton senior Lucas Dora in the quarterfinals. He took the lead with a takedown in the first and rode out the third without allowing an escape. He fell by tech fall to three-time state champion Marcel Lopez in the semifinal and finished fourth.

“I was really impressed with Jack Peiffer’s first match,” Cole said. “He wrestled well against a kid that has beaten him in the past and Jack came out and won a tough match 2-0. That was really good.”

Junior Carter Schmidt joined the Highland wrestling team two weeks ago. Schmidt wrestled as a heavyweight two years ago, but down 80 pounds he took the mat at 170 on Saturday. He won his first match of the season with a quick pin and took Regina’s No. 2 Aidan Udell into the second period before giving up the pin. He got another quick pin in the consolation bracket. 

“He came out and won a couple matches in his first tournament in two years, so I was really happy with his effort,” Cole said.

Alburnett won the team title on Saturday with 172.5 points, and Wilton finished second with 159.5. The Huskies finished 11th out of the 15 teams. 

Spencer Grout went 1-2 on the day and Remington Fields was 2-2.

“I thought Remington Fields wrestled as good as he has all year and finally got a couple wins, so I was super proud,” Cole said. 

“Overall, I was happy with our effort today. As always, there are things to work on. But, we're coming down the homestretch here. We're gonna tighten some things up and continue to work, and then we're in the postseason. So it's time to get tough.”