WILLIAMSBURG — The West Marshall boys’ wrestling team qualified at least four wrestlers for state for the fourth year in a row, racking up third place at Saturday’s Class 2A District 12 tournament at Williamsburg High School.

The Trojans totaled 189 points to finish behind Williamsburg (212) and Burlington-Notre Dame (199) in the eight-team event, sending four wrestlers to state as district runners-up. Three of them — Urijah Courter, Jon Gonzalez and Kinnick Geers — will make back-to-back appearances at state.

Defending state champion Courter suffered his first loss of the season, however, as the top-ranked Trojan fell 7-6 to No. 5 Rowan Berndt of Burlington-Notre Dame in the 120-pound final. Berndt (41-5) claimed the district title while Courter (39-1) went on to pin Williamsburg’s Charlie Foster (36-19) in the bout for true second place.

Seventh-ranked Gonzalez (38-4) dropped an 8-5 decision to Burlington-Notre Dame’s Ryan Rose (38-7) in the 126 finale, but rebounded with a 64-second pin of Keokuk’s Camden Briggs in the match for true second.

Ben Buck, a junior, earned his first state meet berth with second place at 144. Buck (32-16) was 2-1 on the day with a semifinal pin of 12th-ranked Tate Sherwood (32-8) from Burlington-Notre Dame. He fell in 3:56 to Davis County’s Paxton Thompson in the finals.

Geers (31-12) earned his way into the 150 finals with a 10-1 major decision over Peyton Thede (30-21) of Williamsburg, but lost by fall to No. 3 Kael Cook (43-1) of Burlington-Notre Dame.

West Marshall had six third-place finishers on the day in Garrett Bear (106), Landyn Gutierrez (113), James Decker (132), Riley Hanford (138), Dalton Eldridge (175) and Jacob Dare (285).

Bruner to represent Storm

MANCHESTER — The South Hardin-BCLUW boys qualified at least one wrestler for the fourth time in the last five years with sophomore Garett Bruner’s advancement through Saturday’s Class 2A District 11 tournament at West Delaware High School.

Bruner came in atop the 126-pound bracket, improving to 40-9 after a 2-0 day on the mat. He beat Liam Exline of West Branch, 12-11, before scoring a 13-8 triumph over West Delaware’s Owen Lewin in the finals.

Beau Towne was unable to advance back to state, getting third at 157. Towne (30-12) lost in the semifinals to Kyler Patton of Iowa Falls-Alden, 4-1, but won his next two matches to win the consolation bracket. There was no wrestleback opportunity for Towne, however, after Patton fell in the finals.

Sawyer Kane (190) and Logan Kolbe (215) both placed fourth in their respective brackets.

The Storm were last out of seven teams with 57 points in the district. Host West Delaware won with 217 points, followed by Iowa Falls-Alden (151) and West Branch (133.5).

Mustang Meling moving on

COLFAX — East Marshall senior Jordan Meling qualified for state for the second year in a row by finishing second at Saturday’s Class 1A District 2 tournament at Colfax-Mingo High School.

Meling (35-13), rated 10th in 1A by IAwrestle, went 2-1 in the 138-pound weight bracket, winning twice to reach the finals before falling to No. 8 Jett Kramer of Lynnville-Sully. Kramer (27-3) pinned Meling in 3 minutes, 8 seconds, but no wrestleback match for true second was needed as Meling advanced to state as well.

None of the other five Mustang wrestlers made it past the consolation semifinals. East Marshall finished last out of 11 scoring teams in the district with 25 points. AC/GC won with 186.5 points and ninth-ranked North Mahaska was second at 175.5.