2010 State Tournament

Clarken of Ft. Dodge happy to be wrestling instead of listening to State on the radio

By Matt Pfiffner
This time last year, Cole Clarken of Fort Dodge was laying in a hospital bed listening to the State Tournament on the radio.

Clarken, a junior at the time, had qualified for his third trip to State, but started feeling sick after Districts. Spinal taps and blood tests were administered and in the end, it was determined Clarken had a serious case of the flu. His temperature reached 105 degrees at one point and wrestling at State soon became out of the question.

"I thought I would be fine, but it just kept getting worse," Clarken said. "I couldn't even stand the next morning."

That next morning was the first day of the 2009 State Tournament and the 3A tourney was set to start in just a few hours. Clarken had to medical forfeit and wait another year for his next chance at a shot at State glory.

That happened today, as Clarken, ranked second in 3A at 145, took on Jon Stegall of Iowa City West. The Dodger senior scored a pair of takedowns and three near fall points in the first period and led 9-1 in the second when he recorded the fall in 2:44.

"It took a while, but it finally happened," Clarken said of getting back to and winning at State. "It's pretty big to get a win under my belt.

"It takes all the pressure off myself. I wanted to prove to everyone that I was the same wrestler I was last time I was here."

Clarken has his sights set on the top of the award stand to close out a career that has seen him qualify for State four times, but only get to wrestle in Des Moines three of those years. Today was a good first step at grabbing that gold medal.

"Ever since listening to it on the radio in my hospital bed, I've been waiting to get down here," he said.

So far, the wait has been worth it.

In other highlighted matches:

At 103, top-ranked freshman Colby Knight of Urbandale led No. 5 Drake Swarm of Bettendorf 2-0 in the first, but gave up a reversal to knot the match heading into the second. Knight scored an escape and another takedown in the second and rode Swarm the entire third period for a 5-2 win.

""I made one mistake (on the reversal), but after that I knew I had to be safe and wrestle my match," Knight said. "It felt good. I just have to keep the momentum going."

Knight said getting a win to kick off Urbandale's tournament was big in what could be a very tight team race between four or five schools.

"Any points are going to help us. We have good potential in this tournament with the five we have here," he said.

At 135, a pair of sixth-ranked wrestlers met in the first round. Gradey Gambrall of Iowa City West, ranked sixth at 135, took on Duane Richardson of Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson, who was ranked sixth at 130, but bumped up to 135 at Districts.

Richardson led 3-2 at the end of the first period, but Gambrall controlled the action from there. He took advantage of a couple sloppy shots by Richardson for counter takedowns and cruised to a 10-6 victory.

The Trojan sophomore said he got a pretty good scouting report on Richardson.

"I talked to people who had wrestled him before and they said he would take wild shots and you could get around on him," Gambrall said. "I thought I prepared well for the match, but I didn't come out as well right away as I wanted."

Being down 2-0 early was no big deal to Gambrall.

"It's been like that for a lot of my matches. I tend to get in a hole early and dig myself out," he said. "But it wasn't a big hole tonight."

Some of the big matches to watch tomorrow in the quarterfinals include:

No. 3 Tyler Willkers of Pleasant Valley vs. No. 4 Juan Coulter of Muscatine at 103; No. 2 Connor Ryan of North Scott vs. No. 4 Tanner Werner of Waverly-Shell Rock at 112; No. 1 Bo Schlosser of Bettendorf vs. No. 2 Josh Greiner of Ottumwa in a battle of undefeated wrestlers at 135; No. 1 Justin Koethe of Iowa City West vs. No. 3 Joey Trizzino of Bettendorf at 152; No. 3 Anthony Walther of W-SR vs. No. 4 Thomas Mayberry of Maquoketa at 160; No. 1 Kyven Gadson of Waterloo East vs. No. 3 Evan Knight of Urbandale at 189 in a battle of 2009 State champs.