Laux earns Cadet freestyle gold
Hathaway and Sorensen settle for silver medals

BY MATT PFIFFNER
It took a while for it to become official, but Phillip Laux of Pekin is a Cadet freestyle National Champion.

Laux had to sit through a video review during his match and a protest afterwards before he could finally be sure he had won the title at 98 pounds.

Two other Iowans, Jack Hathaway at 112 and 135-pounder Brandon Sorensen, fell short in their title bids Friday afternoon in Fargo, N.D.

TITLE WINNER
Laux was the first of the three Iowans to take to the raised stage under the spotlight in the FargoDome. He met Darian Cruz of Pennsylvania.

After a scoreless two minutes in the first period, they went to the flip and it came up Cruz's color, so he got to start with a single leg clinch. As he tried to take Laux down off the whistle, the Iowan hit a counter turn for three points and the 3-0 period win. After video review, the score was confirmed.

"I wasn't concerned," Laux said of the review. "If I would have lost, I just had to win the next two periods."

It wouldn't come down to a video review in the second, as Laux scored a point on a push out with 30 seconds left and held on for the 1-0 period win for the National title.

"I've been working on Fargo since the State Tournament," the Class 1A 103-pound third-place finisher said.

Laux adds the gold medal to the silver he won at 91 pounds a year ago. That second-place finish motivated him coming into this week.

"It was a big disappointment last year," he said.

After he won the title this year, Laux did not celebrate. He just had his hand raised and walked off the mat. He said that was out of respect for his opponent, not because he wasn't excited with the win.

"I just don't believe in celebration. The other person has worked just as hard for it," he said. "I just don't think it's a nice thing to do."

Pennsylvania protested the match, but it was denied. Laux was forced to wait more than an hour to find out if he was going to have to go back out and wrestle or not.

SILVER MEDALISTS
Hathaway was looking to add a freestyle gold to the Greco-Roman title he won earlier this week. He took on a familiar opponent in Jered Cortez of Illinois.

Like in Laux's title match, the first period went to the coin flip. Hathaway won the flip and easily pushed Cortez out of bounds for a point and 1-0 period win.

Cortez took the second period, 4-1, to send the title bout into a third and deciding period.

It appeared as though the third was going to end with a coin flip, as it was scoreless late in the bout. But Cortez was awarded a takedown, although Hathaway was holding onto his ankle in a counter attempt during a long scramble. A video review confirmed the takedown and Hathaway couldn't get close enough in the final seconds for a takedown opportunity and fell, 1-0.

Sorensen also met a wrestler he had faced several times in the past, Jake Short of Minnesota. Both won State titles this past season as freshmen.

Short scored a takedown midway through the first period and used a leg lace for another point for a 2-0 first period win.

The Minnesota wrestler scored a takedown 30 seconds into the second period on another nice high crotch and used solid defense the rest of the match to win the period, 1-0, and take the title.

It was the second year in a row that Sorensen had to settle for a silver medal in Cadet freestyle.

"This year's a little more disappointing, because of my mistakes," Sorensen said. "It wasn't really fun. It was my mistakes. I beat him in June. He just got his lead and hung on.

"I knew he was going to be defensive. I tried going side to side, but it didn't work."

MEDAL MATCHES
The first Iowan to wrestle in the afternoon was 84-pounder Sam Phillips of West Delaware versus Gannon Volk of Minnesota in the fifth-place bout.

Volk used a takedown and gut wrench turn to jump out to a 3-0 lead in the first period. The two traded turns on a scramble and Phillips added a takedown to cut the deficit to two at 5-3. Volk added a late takedown for a 6-3 period win.

In the second period, Volk once again jumped out early with a 4-0 lead and used a takedown with exposure later in the period for a 6-0 win to take fifth-place honors.

Phillips added the sixth-place freestyle medal to the seventh-place honor he claimed earlier in the week in Greco-Roman competition. Phillips won a pair of matches in freestyle, while he placed in G-R despite going 0-2 in his pool.

"It always feels better knowing you've earned the place," he said.

Despite a lower number of matches than many place finishers because of the size of the bracket, Phillips said it was still a tough week of wrestling.

"You don't get many matches. But the matches you do get are high intensity," he said. "You don't want to be the one in a small bracket who doesn't place."

Overall, Phillips, who will be a freshman this year, was very pleased with his double All-American week.

"It was about as good as I expected," he said. "The final round was really fun with the lights turned out and everything."

There wasn't another Iowan on the outside mats until Jake Marlin of Creston took on Joey Lavellee of Nevada in the third-place match at 140.

Marlin started quickly with a takedown for a 1-0 lead, but gave up a takedown and turn to fall behind 3-1. A Marlin reversal and takedown later in the bout knotted the score at 3-3. Lavellee scored a late takedown with exposure for a 5-3 lead and avoided a fleeing the mat call in the final seconds to take the period.

The second period was all Lavellee, as he scored a takedown and three quick turns for a 7-0 technical fall, as Marlin finished fourth to go along with his seventh-place Greco-Roman medal.

"A lot of tough matches and a lot of good kids here," Marlin said of his first experience in Fargo.

In the seventh-place match at 145, Dylan Blackford of Southeast Polk took on Jason Grimes of Georgia.

Blackford scored three points late in the first period on a takedown to Grimes' back and added a late takedown and turns to win the first period by 8-0 technical fall.

It was more of the same in the second, as Blackford used a double leg takedown to put Grimes on his back for a 3-0 lead. Another takedown and a late push out gave Blackford a 5-0 period win for the seventh-place medal.

A pair of Iowa wrestlers met for the bronze medal at 160. Alex Meyer of Southeast Polk faced Andras Lukacs-Farkas, a foreign exchange student at Storm Lake.

Meyer scored a counter takedown and used a leg lace for a two-point turn to take the first period, 3-0. Meyer scored a pair of takedowns in the second for a 2-0 lead. Lukacs-Farkas scored a late takedown to cut the lead to 2-1, but Meyer held off a late turn attempt to take the match and bronze medal over his Iowa teammate.

Meyer had lost to Lukacs-Farkas in three periods at an earlier tournament and knew he had to push the pace this time.

"I knew I had to score on him first. Because if he was winning, I couldn't score," he said. "It was weird seeing the same singlet out there."

Meyer, who hurt his knee at Cadet Duals, said he did better than he thought he would coming into the week.

"I had to change my strategy," he said.

The final Iowa wrestler of the afternoon was Mickey Pelfrey of Iowa City West in the 189-pound fifth-place bout. He took on Ryan Cone of Wisconsin.

Pelfrey wasted little time getting after Cone, as a takedown and two turns on gut wrenches made it a 5-0 score. Pelfrey ended the period with another takedown, for a 6-0 win.

The Trojan grappler threw Cone to his back early in the second period and recorded the fall in 52 seconds to end the match and take fifth-place honors.

"I know if I can get underhooks and beat on their head, I can beat anybody, he said. "It wasn't like getting first, but I had close matches with the guys who took first in both styles."

Pelfrey finished third in Greco-Roman earlier in the week. He finished both tournaments with a fall in his place match.

"I'll take a fall whenever it's open. I like getting a match over with," he said. "It's a lot better to go out with a win than get beat in your last match."