T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - Marshalltown’s Lucas Bantz, left, and Xayvion Anderson pose for pictures in the wrestling room at Marshalltown High School. Bantz and Anderson will reprent the Bobcats at the state wrestling tournament this week at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

Familiar foes await Marshalltown’s boys state wrestling qualifiers when the four-day tournament kicks off from Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines on Wednesday.

Xayvion Anderson and Lucas Bantz have drawn rematches of close matchups from earlier in the season as part of the Class 3A session that begins at 1:30 p.m. with first and second round matches in the championship bracket.

Anderson, a district champion on Saturday in the Roundhouse, received the 10th seed at 157 pounds and will take on Ben Backes of Cedar Falls in the first round, a match Anderson won by a narrow 6-5 decision at the Allie Morrison Duals earlier this year. Bantz, who finished third at 126 pounds on Saturday, is the 20th seed and meets the only wrestler that beat him at districts, Xavier’s Jack Foster, in a first-round clash. Foster won their match on Saturday, 3-1.

“What we need to avoid is thinking about the next match, because if we start doing that then you don’t get past the first match,” MHS head coach Luke Cross said. “We just need to give 100 percent effort and like my old coach used to say, ‘Empty your pockets,’ leave everything out there and good things will happen.”

Anderson is a returning state qualifier, reaching the tournament as a freshman in 2022, where he went 0-2.

“It was truly eye opening seeing how big it was with all the people in the stands,” Anderson said of his maiden voyage at “The Well”, “I got a bad seed that year, went up against one of the top guys in the state [eventual runner-up Koy Davidson of Fort Dodge] first round. So this year, I already know what to expect, I got a pretty good seed, and I just need to go out there and do it on the mat.”

Even with a previous head-to-head victory, Anderson and the Bobcats aren’t overlooking Backes.

“He’s an incredibly strong kid – he looks like a bodybuilder to be honest,” Cross said. “So we’ll have to use our technique against him because we’re not going to have the muscle. We have a game plan, and like I said the other day, if Xayvion is firing on all cylinders, he’s unstoppable. If we’re confident and push the pace, we should get our hand raised.”

The winner of that match will take on seventh-seeded AJ Pontier of Indianola in the second round later in the session. The losers of first-round championship matches will not wrestle again until the second round of the consolation bracket on Thursday.

Anderson doesn’t intend on doing any losing this week.

“This was my first time being district champ and seeing all the people in the hallways at school talking about it and seeing it all over the internet, it was really cool,” Anderson said. “Now I want to go out there and go for a state title, show everyone in Iowa who I really am.”

The state-qualifier experience is new to Bantz, who admitted to being taken aback by the extra attention of representing the Bobcats in Des Moines.

“A lot of attention, not quite used to that,” Bantz added. “A lot of support from family, friends and people are really noticing now, which is really nice.”

Bantz hopes to exact some revenge on Foster on Wednesday.

“I watched that film this morning and Lucas made one mistake in that match that was the whole difference in that match,” Cross said. “One sloppy shot on the edge of the mat and the kid hits a quick go-behind. Other than that they’re very similar wrestlers, it’s almost like Lucas is wrestling himself out there. He just can’t be the one that makes a mistake. But that’s a great first-round match for him and one that we’re looking forward to.”

The winner gets fourth-seeded Ryker Graff of Waverly-Shell Rock in the second round.

“I want to be more confident in my shots and working on some specific moves that I need to work on,” Bantz said. “I’m excited to learn at state and really figure it out, just take it one match a time, not really look too far ahead into things.”

This tournament can certainly provide valuable experience for both heading into their senior year, but that shouldn’t discourage the Bobcats from shooting for their best efforts in Des Moines, Cross said.

“I never want anyone on our team to have that ‘next year’ philosophy,” Cross said. “I want them on the podium this year. We don’t know what next year is going to bring, we don’t ever want to plan for next year. But I want them to take away from this that they are satisfied with their performance, and I believe if these guys give everything they have in every match, we’ll put their pictures on the wall as state qualifiers.”

Area wrestlers to watch this week

• Gavin Bridgewater, South Tama County … the Trojan senior is the highest-seeded wrestler in the Times-Republican coverage area with the second seed at 215 pounds in Class 2A, he’s in search of his third state medal after finishing as 220 runner-up as a sophomore and 195 third-place as a junior. … Two other Trojans received top-8 seeds in Amare Chavez (126) and MaCael Bear (138).

• Kolt Knaack, North Tama … Knaack is the last remaining undefeated wrestler in the T-R area at 43-0 and has the fourth seed in the Class 1A 144-pound bracket. Knaack went 0-2 as a freshman and climbed to fifth as a sophomore. Logan-Magnolia’s Corbin Reisz (43-0) is the top seed in the bracket and is a potential semifinal matchup for Knaack.

• Shane Hanford, West Marshall … Hanford was fifth at 120 pounds last year and bumps up to 138 pounds this year, where he has the fifth seed in the Class 2A bracket. … Hanford was one of five state qualifiers this year for West Marshall, joining Jon Gonzalez, Kinnick Geers, Dillon McMorran and Ben Gonzalez who will all compete in first-round matchups on Wednesday.

• Trent Cakerice, Aplington-Parkersburg/Grundy Center … The Iowa football preferred walk-on and lineman for back-to-back state champion Grundy Center football teams was denied a spot on the podium last season with a loss in the blood round. The senior has battled to a six-seed in the 2A heavyweight bracket – a potential rematch against Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union’s Russell Coil could be brewing for Thursday’s quarterfinals.

Wednesday’s state wrestling schedule

(number in parentheses denotes seed, top 8 seeds receive byes to second round)

Class 2A, 9 a.m.

Championship first round

113: (24) Cale Graff, jr., South Tama County, 28-18 vs. (9) Jayce Curry, so., Sergeant Bluff-Luton, 40-6

113: (14) Jon Gonzalez, fr., West Marshall, 39-4 vs. (19) Ty Lorentzen, jr., Oskaloosa, 31-12

126: (18) Carter Liston, jr., Aplington-Parkersburg/Grundy Center, 28-9 vs. (15) Jacob Moeckly, sr., North Polk, 26-6

132: (14) Gage Miller, fr., Aplington-Parkersburg/Grundy Center, 31-6 vs. (19) Kameron Kremer, so., Independence, 35-13

144: (18) Kinnick Geers, so., West Marshall, 32-11 vs. (15) Peyton Pilgrim, sr., Davenport Assumption, 32-11

157: (21) Dillon McMorran, sr., West Marshall, 32-13 vs. (12) Cason Miller, jr., Fairfield, 13-1

165: (16) Ben Gonzalez, jr., West Marshall, 35-9 vs. (17) Christian Dunning, so., Clear Lake, 37-9

165: (19) Cyrus Mathes, sr., South Tama County, 39-9 vs. (14) Logan Powers, sr., Roland-Story, 28-3

190: (9) Maison Copp, fr., Aplington-Parkersburg/Grundy Center, 20-5 vs. (24) Carson Bertran, jr., Webster City, 20-20

215: (21) Jesse Brouwer, jr., Aplington-Parkersburg/Grundy Center, 32-13 vs. (12) Jake Trenary, sr., Clear Lake, 31-10

Championship second round

126: (6) Amare Chavez, sr., South Tama County, 31-4 vs. Winner of Jordan Young, Charles City vs. Josh Hoffman, Sheldon/South O’Brien

138: (8) MaCael Bear, sr., South Tama County, 38-6 vs. Winner of Barrett Morgan, Algona vs. Jayse Jensen, Winterset

138: (5) Shane Hanford, jr., West Marshall, 38-1 vs. Winner of Tate Germann, North Fayette Valley vs. Jax Miller, West Delaware

190: (3) Zach Adelmund, sr., Dike-New Hartford/Gladbrook-Reinbeck, 26-2 vs. Winner of Bryan Riedel, Williamsburg vs. Dylan Monk, Monticello

215: (2) Gavin Bridgewater, sr., South Tama County, 41-1 vs. Winner of Quinten Fuller, Creston vs. Trevor Dieren, CL/G-LR

285: (6) Trent Cakerice, sr., Aplington-Parkersburg/Grundy Center, 37-3 vs. Winner of Sam Christensen, CL/G-LR vs. Brooks McFarland, Western Christian

Class 3A, 1:30 p.m.

Championship first round

126: (20) Lucas Bantz, jr., Marshalltown, 34-10 vs. (13) Jack Foster, jr., Cedar Rapids Xavier, 29-10

157: (10) Xayvion Anderson, jr., Marshalltown, 38-4 vs. (23) Ben Backes, jr., Cedar Falls, 31-16

Championship first round

113: (16) Maxon Monat, so., North Tama, 32-8 vs. (17) Kenny Colsch, so., Clayton Ridge, 36-12

Championship second round

144: (4) Kolt Knaack, jr., North Tama, 43-0 vs. Winner of Colton Torres, East Buchanan vs. Isaiah Malm, G-T/R-A