DES MOINES — North Tama boys wrestling junior Kolt Knaack bounced back with two quick wins in the consolation bracket of the Class 1A 144-pound bracket as part of the state wrestling tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines on Friday night.

Knaack made efficient use of his time on Friday night, pinning Sibley-Ocheyedan’s Dawson Beyer and Pleasantville’s Zane Mullenix in a combined mat time of less than two minutes to not only guarantee his second state medal but launch him into the consolation semifinals where he can reach as high as third with two more wins tomorrow. Knaack was fifth last year as a sophomore.

“He was taking care of business,” North Tama head coach Andrew Knaack said, “wrestling with confidence.”

Thursday night’s loss hit Kolt Knaack hard, losing his first match of the season in the Class 1A state quarterfinals and scuttling his hopes for a perfect ending.

Even with that pit sitting in the stomach, Andrew Knaack knew Kolt had to regroup for Friday’s action.

“We knew he’d feel a lot worse if we didn’t come home with a medal,” North Tama head coach Andrew Knaack said. “We thought his confidence might have been knocked back a bit after that loss but he got it back in that first match today and rolled right into the second match.”

Next up for Kolt is Collin Holm of South Winneshiek in Saturday’s session beginning at 9 a.m. The winner of that match takes on either Tiernan Boots of Lisbon or Jordan Dusenberry of Wilton in the third-place match, while the losers meet in the fifth-place match.

“He’s laser-focused right now,” Andrew said. “We think we can get a rematch in the third-place match with the Lisbon kid, but we’ve gotta get that first one first.”

Knaack is one of two Redhawk qualifiers this week — Maxon Monat was bumped out of the 113-pound bracket yesterday with a second-round consolation loss.

“He’s a sophomore, he’ll come back stronger,” Andrew Knaack said. “The next time he’s here it’ll all feel normal to him and he’ll be able to get ready to go. He faced a senior in his second match that dictated the pace and he took a back seat, we can’t let that happen. But he’s ready for next season to get going.”