Brady Fritz at 132 pounds, Tanner Probasco at 138 and Isaac Judge at 152 all won their opening-round matches to advance to the quarterfinals of the championship bracket, while Colton Vest and Dalton Rosenburg rebounded from losses to start the day with big wins in their first consolation matches.

Fritz, ranked No. 5 in Class 2A, started things off for STC with a pin of Brody Roll from Osage 3 minutes and 27 seconds into their match. Probasco, currently No. 4 in his weight class, followed suit by taking a 13-5 major decision victory over Adam Ahrendsen from Union Community. Judge, who came in ranked No. 1 in the class, showed why he is defending champion at 152 with a decisive victory over Roberto Cardenas from Sioux Center, pinning him 1:48 into the first period.

Trojans head coach Nate Van Dyke said it was a good day for his group, even though they didn’t go 6-for-6 on the day.

“I thought we performed well, our goal was six alive after today and we thought realistically four on the front side but Vest did a good job coming back and Rosenburg did too,” he said.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

Rosenburg had easily the most difficult challenge of the day, going against currently No. 1 and undefeated Julien Broderson from Davenport Assumption to open the tournament. Rosenburg actually shocked Broderson to start their 182 match, scoring an early takedown and following that with a near-fall, but once he got his head back in Broderson controlled the rest of the way until his eventual pin of Rosenburg at the 2:52 mark.

Rosenburg, ranked ninth at 182, made quick work of Lane Albertsen of Union Community in the first round of the consolation, earning a victory with a second-period pin.

Vest also had a challenge, starting his 145 bracket with a match against Mitchel Swank from Creston/O-M, who was ranked No. 3 coming in. Vest struggled against Swank, as he was pinned just 1:27 into the first period, and starting the consolation against Tiger Terpstra from Centerville he still didn’t look right, falling down 0-4 to in the first period.

In the second period, however, Vest came to life, roaring back strongly to score 15-straight points to end the match and win with a 15-4 decision.

Mario Moncada was the only person to go 0-2 for the Trojans, though he was both out-sized and out-ranked for both of his matches. Moncada started the day with a loss in the heavyweight bracket to John McConkey from Atlantic/CAM, currently ranked No. 2, then he fell to Mitchell Huisenga from Washington to end his tournament in the consolation bracket.

Van Dyke said Moncada did all he could against the tough draw, and he shouldn’t feel bad about what he has accomplished.

“Can’t ask for anything more from Moncada, he is a second-year wrestler and weighs 209 pounds, both of those guys he wrestled had to have been pushing 285. It was an awesome experience for him to get to be down here,” Van Dyke said.

Now the five remaining Trojans head to either the quarterfinals of the championship bracket or await their opponents in the next round of the consolation, but either way Van Dyke said his guys will be ready to come out and do what they do best.

“Have to take care of business each round,” he said. “The morning session is nice because we get a nice little break here the rest of the day and reevaluate and relax, do some nice team bonding. Tomorrow the same thing, best match every round is kind of our philosophy. I think every match we won was by bonus points, so that helps out a little bit too.”

Day two of 2A action at the Iowa High School State Wrestling Championships starts at 9 a.m. this morning at Wells Fargo Arena.