Des Moines, IA- The 2026 Iowa High School Athletic Association’s (IHSAA) State Wrestling Tournament is slated to start tomorrow, February 18th, and finish up on championship Saturday, February 21st. The southeast Iowa region will have plenty to watch out for with 32 local wrestlers making the pilgrimage to the mecca of Iowa high school boys’ wrestling.
Here’s the first-round matchups.
Class 1A
106-Pound Weight Class
Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union’s #8 Justin Knipfer receives the bye into the second round. He will wrestler either #9 Wyatt Hieber of MVAOCOU or #24 Aaron Domeyer of Beckman Catholic.
113-Pound Weight Class
#19 Dakota Aney of Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union will have to pull off the upset, as he starts his day against #14 Eli Rieb of Alta/Aurelia. The winner will take on #3 Brady Burton of Westwood.
WACO’s #2 Ian Maize navigated his way to the championship as the #7-seed last year as a freshman and in an epic, he fell to #1 Kaiden Belinsky of Don Bosco. Those two enter as the top two seeds and receive first-round byes.
Maize will face off against either #15 Jaxon Shew of North Butler-Clarksville or #18 Lincoln Russell of Baxter. The sophomore enters the tournament with only one goal in mind,
“My goal is to be a state champ.”
120-Pound Weight Class
WACO has now produced consecutive freshman to earn a trip to the state tournament, as #12 Rydge Sterna won his district championship. Despite that victory, the Warrior will wrestle an opening match against #21 Quinton Helstand of Woodbine.
The winner will advance to take on #5 Crosby Yoder of Logan-Magnolia.
Entering the state tournament as a freshman may be dauting, but Sterna is taking it in stride,
“My confidence has grown quite a bit because when I wrestle those good guys and I lose to them, it just makes me think, I got to get in practice and practice harder so that I can eventually beat those guys. And when I was a kid wrestling at the youth age and went to state, that was cool. But then I told myself, I need to get better so I can make it to the high school state tournament because that just seems like a lot of fun.”
132-Pound Weight Class
“My main goals are, I want to get my 100 wins” said Bowen Thomson earlier in the season. “I think I’m about 15 away, so I want to get my 100 wins… And obviously I would love to make it to state. I’ve never made state my whole high school career. And that is something that would be the icing on the cake. I’d love to make it. And then once I make it, I’d love to play. So that’s what I’m looking forward to.”
The Wildcat has accomplished both of these goals he set for himself at the start of the year and in his first trip to the state he garnered the #16-seed and will wrestle #17 Johnny Cortez of Coon Rapids-Bayard. The winner will compete against Cooper Hinz of Jesup, a possible rematch for Thomson.
WACO’s #21 Teage Pepper has familiarized himself with adversity at this point as many did not expect the junior to qualify for the state tournament, especially when the season got off to a rocky start,
“Yeah, so I had a big setback at the beginning of the year. I actually, first week back, I broke my hand in the wrestling room. And that kind of just fueled me to want to get better and get back at it. And first year back, obviously, there’s a lot of nerves that’s going with that. I haven’t wrestled at a big stage like this since pee wee. Obviously, I’m very excited. But there’s obviously going to be nerves that go with that. I just have to walk those nerves out and show everybody who Teague Pepper is.”
His first chance to do that will be against #12 Tayler Kibbee of Janesville in round one. The winner will take on #5 Blake Irvine of Don Bosco.
150-Pound Weight Class
In a district championship rematch, #23 Harley Larrimore of WACO will tangle with #10 Wade Sankot of Belle Plaine in the opening round. The winner will face off against #7 Aydan Groom of North Mahaska.
The senior talked about his mindset when he earned his way to Des Moines,
“It was great. I was very emotional because I know that with that wrestle back, either you win it, or you go home. And I was not going home that day. I was just very emotional and instantly I just was thinking about my parents, my coaches, and just I wanted to make them proud.”
157-Pound Weight Class
Wapello’s Cohen Wolford is back at the state tournament, and he grabbed the #6 seed and a first-round bye. Wolford will wrestle either #11 Ty Christensen or #22 Brodie Hoffman.
175-Pound Weight Class
#22 Trevor Phillips of Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union will take on #11 Landen Schuelle of South Winneshiek in his first-round action. The winner will face off against #6 Cody Hageman of Beckman Catholic.
Class 2A
113-Pound Weight Class
A pair of local wrestlers earned a first-round bye, as #8 Cael McCabe of Fairfield is looking to end his senior season with another medal and #2 Kohen Dietzenbach of Burlington Notre Dame will look to end the season unblemished.
McCabe will face off against either #9 Sebastian Brooks of Winterset or #24 Evan Gleason of Solon. Dietzenbach will compete against either #15 Estuardo Lopez of Clarion-Goldfield-Dows or #18 John Amos of Clear Lake.
120-Pound Weight Class
This weight class is crowded with local talent, including a pair of district champions.
#5 Rowan Berdnt of Burlington Notre Dame earned the first-round bye and will tangle with either #21 Eli Peiffer of Grinnell or #12 Brody Black of Glenwood.
Mt. Pleasant’s #14 Levi Evans is the first Panther to qualify for the state tournament since Carson Coleman did so in the same in the same weight class for the 2020 state tournament. He will take on #19 Noah Garcia of West Liberty in the first round.
Evans talked about the moment he qualified for the state tournament when he claimed the district championship,
“It was awesome. All my coaches and everybody was so happy for me. And there was a bunch of youth wrestlers that even came to watch because they all heard about let it be the first person in six years. And then I won districts, and everybody was in my corner and really happy and excited.”
The winner will face off against #3 Simon Bettis of Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont.
Lastly, #15 James Fuller of Fort Madison returns to the state tournament and will wrestle against #18 Keaton Schroeder to start his journey through the bracket. The winner will face off against #2 Urijah Courter of West Marshall.
126-Pound Weight Class
Burlington Notre Dame’s #5 Ryan Rose earned a bye into the second round. He will wait for either #21 Owen Lewin or #12 Wyatt Wilson.
132-Pound Weight Class
#5 Colt Boyles of Burlington Notre Dame will look to make a run in the state tournament, starting with a first-round bye. He will tangle with either #21 Hunter Waldo Martinez or #12 Brody Strother of Hampton-Dumont-CAL.
138-Pound Weight Class
Washington’s Caleb Greiner earned the #7-seed and a bye. The Demon will face off against either #23 Jonny Hayden of Humboldt or #10 Calden Latch of Roland-Story.
150-Pound Weight Class
#4 Kael Cook of Burlington Notre Dame enters the state tournament as a district champion and with only one loss to his season record. He will compete against either #12 Aiden Frascht of Forest City or #20 Gage Miller of AP-GC.
157-Pound Weight Class
Washington’s #22 Jace Kinzenbaw will have an uphill climb at the state tournament as the underdog will start his day against #11 Cooper Franklin of Alburnett. The winner will advance to meet #6 Colin Sesker of Clarion-Goldfield-Dows in the second round.
165-Pound Weight Class
As the only non-district champion to qualify for Burlington Notre Dame, #17 Jared Glendening will be looking to prove some people wrong with a matchup against #16 Ryland Morgan of Clarion-Goldfield-Dows in the opening round. The next task would be a match against #1 Boden White of Denver for the winner.
175-Pound Weight Class
Fairfield’s Dain Burkhart will be looking for a deep run in the tournament as the Trojans enters ranked as the #6 seed. He will take on either #11 Easton Beyer or #22 Tatian Freeman of Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont.
In his fourth year at the state tournament, #2 Kyler Crow of Mediapolis is looking to finish off his senior season with the gold and he has a perfect opportunity to accomplish that. His second-round matchup will be between either #15 Marcus Bear of South Tama County or #18 Tysen Stangel of Osage.
190-Pound Weight Class
Two members from the Southeast Conference make an appearance in this bracket. #20 Jarod Anderson of Keokuk will scramble against #13 Logan Gardner of Eddyville-Blaksburg-Fremont. The winner will compete against #4 Brendan Lamfers of Sioux Center.
Washington’s #10 Blaine Rees, a district champion, will tangle with #23 Gabriel Nebergall of West Liberty in the opening round. Waiting for them will be #7 Brian Snyder of Centerville.
215-Pound Weight Class
Ren Watson of Fort Madison found the #19-seed and will face off against #14 Maddon Evans of Hampton-Dumont-CAL. The winner will move on to the second-round and wrestle #3 Gavin Muller of Osage.
Washington’s #22 Brayden Vermillion will look for an upset against #11 Carter Eddy of Independence. The winner will face off against #6 Danny Small of Center Point-Urbana in the second round.
285-Pound Weight Class
Two members of the Southeast Conference qualified for the 285-pound weight class bracket with both having first-round showdowns. #21 Rudy Wolfe of Washington will square off against #12 Gable Eddy of Independence, while #19 Baylor Ferreira of Fort Madison will clash with #14 Gunner Martwick of Creston.
#5 JT Kelso of Clarion-Goldfield-Dows will wait for the winner between Wolfe and Eddy, while #3 Layne Kleppe of North Fayette Valley will take on the winner between Ferreira and Martwick.
Class 3A
132-Pound Weight Class
Burlington will have three wrestlers total in Des Moines with #22 Roy Brown getting the first shot against #11 Isaac McCleish of Mason City. The winner will take on #6 Avery Van Zelderen of Dallas Center-Grimes.
175-Pound Weight Class
Adrian Perez-Hall of Burlington claimed the #17-seed and will compete against #16 Temi Otanlyl of Spencer. The winner will get the dubious distinction of wrestling #1 Jaxon Miller of Carlisle.
190-Pound Weight Class
Despite winning his district championship, Burlington’s Owen Difederico will have to wrestle in the first round as an #11 seed. The Grayhound will clash with #22 Kougar Sargisson on Le Mars. The winner will attempt to knock off #6 Louden Bloxham of Prairie.
More Information
KILJ will be providing updates throughout the four-day tournament, starting tomorrow! KILJ would like to thank all of our tournament sponsors for allowing us to cover the 2026 Boys’ Wrestling State Tournament.