DES MOINES
When the 2022-23 Anamosa boys’ wrestling season started four months ago, Anamosa sophomore Austin Scranton had some pretty specific goals.
One. Make it to the state tournament.
Scranton had his freshman campaign cut short in the sectional round and did not wrestle in Des Moines. Something he sorely wanted to rectify this year.
Two. Make the medal stand inside Wells Fargo Arena.
And three. Win a state championship.
After a marathon journey through the class 2A 170-pound state tournament bracket Wednesday, Feb. 15, through Saturday, Feb. 18, Scranton accomplished just about all of those lofty pre-season goals.
All but one.
Hey, two out of three ain’t bad.
“Up until my last day of the state tournament, I thought I wrestled well,” said Scranton, who posted a 3-3 overall record in Des Moines where he placed sixth in the class becoming Anamosa’s first state place-winner since Morgan Rowley stood eighth on the podium at 126-pounds back in 2018.
“I completed two of my three goals, missing just the state championship. I’m hoping that’s something I can get accomplished before my career is over. Actually, it’s something I now hope to get done next season, and I’m going to do whatever it takes in the off-season to make sure I’m ready to come back next winter and get that title.”
Scranton, ranked fourth in the state and seeded fifth in Des Moines, received a first-round bye and once on the mat Wednesday afternoon, quickly disposed of AP-GC’s ninth-ranked and 12th-seeded Clay Saak in the second-round bout, pinning the senior in 3:37 for his first-ever state tournament triumph.
“I didn’t know too much about the kid, other than what he was seeded so I knew I needed to go out there and take care of my business,” said Scranton, who controlled the match from start-to-finish. “He got gassed by the second period and I was able to lock up a wing and get him on his back to end the match.
“Getting my first win at the state tournament was nice, but I’m not really into showing too much emotion on the mat. I just want to focus on the next one.”
The win advanced Scranton to Thursday’s 2A 170-pound quarterfinal round of wrestling where he was handed his first-ever state setback, coming up on the short end of a 6-4 decision against Forest City’s fourth-ranked and fourth-seeded Kellen Moore.
“I felt I wrestled that match well, but just wasn’t quite able to do what I needed to do to get the win,” Scranton said. “I had a couple of chances to score and wasn’t able to and it wound up costing me the match. This was a frustrating one for me, one I felt I should have and could have won but didn’t. I left one out on the mat there, and it’s something I’ll learn from.”
The loss ended Scranton state championship dreams, and dropped the sophomore to a consolation fourth round bout Friday afternoon where he dominated Atlantic’s Jarrett Armstrong cruising to a 1:59 pin win.
“I knew this was win or go home time, and I wasn’t ready to head home yet,” Scranton said. “This was also the match where if you win you make the podium, and with that in my sights I wanted to take care of this one quickly.
“I wanted to get out fast and stay on top and I was able to lock up another wing and get him on his back right before the first period ended. That felt so good, such a relief. I knew I was capable of making the podium and this match got me there. Now I wanted to see how far up I could go.”
In a fifth-round consolation match on Friday, Scranton pinned Saak for a second time, this time in 3:10 to advance to the consolation semifinals Saturday morning.
“It was less of a struggle for me this time to get him on his back,” Scranton said. “I knew I had to be ready to go though, I had the confidence of beating him earlier, but he had the revenge factor and I wanted to make sure to take control early and not give him any confidence at all.”
Saturday morning didn’t quite go as planned for Scranton however, opening with a consolation semifinal 11-8 loss at the hands of Roland-Story’s Hesston Johnson before the Raider sophomore’s state journey came to an end with a 6-1 setback against Sergeant Bluff-Luton’s Zayvion Ellington in the fifth-place bout.
“On Saturday, for some reason, I just didn’t wrestle like I normally do,” Scranton said. “This was another match I should have won. I had the Roland-Story kid on his back twice and didn’t get any points and then just struggled to get anything else going.
“In the fifth-place match I was still in my own head a little bit from the first match on Saturday. I out-shot the Sergeant Bluff-Luton kid like 50-1, but I got a little out of control and just tried muscling him too much and doing things and taking chances I don’t normally do. That really cost me, and this sure wasn’t the way I wanted to end my state tournament with back-to-back losses.”
Osage’s Nicholas Fox claimed the class 2A 170-pound state title defeating Sioux City Bishop Heelan’s Ethan DeLeon on Championship Saturday Night in Des Moines as Scranton wrestled four of the top-8 place-winners in the class (Moore, third; Johnson, fourth; Ellington, fifth and Saak, eighth).
“I want to thank coach Looney and all of the coaches for everything they did for me this season,” Scranton said. “I couldn’t have done it without them. I plan on doing a lot of freestyle and greco wrestling this summer and come back next season more than ready to go.”
Scranton wraps the winningest single-season in program history with a phenomenal 48-5 overall record.
“Anytime you can bring home hardware from the state tournament, that’s a good thing,” said Anamosa boys’ wrestling coach Chris Looney. “I know Austin wanted more than a sixth-place finish, but he had a pretty amazing state tournament run wrestling all four days and six times. Making the podium is a pretty big deal, and he’s my first as a coach to get there, something I’ll never forget.”
