Although half of his 12 wrestlers advanced to Saturday’s district meet at Center Point-Urbana, Mid-Prairie head coach Justin Garvey felt a range of emotions.

“Saturday was a bitter sweet day for us,” he said. “Our goal was to qualify eight and qualify the team for regional duals. We fell short on the first goal which in turn we fell short on the second goal. I’m proud of the way the team wrestled. We were aggressive and left it all on the mat.”

The top two wrestlers in each weight class and the top two teams from Saturday advance to districts. The Golden Hawks qualified six individuals and narrowly missed out as a team as they placed third with 169 team points. Williamsburg won the Class 2A-Section 8 meet with 273 points and Mount Vernon took second with 187.

Claiming first-place honors from Mid-Prairie were Vinnie Bowlin at 152 pounds and Isaac Boucher at 195 pounds. After receiving a bye in the quarterfinals, Bowlin won his semifinal match over Jonathan Barns of Mount Vernon with a fall at 1:49. He dominated Gable Dayton of Williamsburg in the finals with a 14-5 major decision.

Boucher wasted no time in claiming victory at 195. He only spent just over two minutes on the mat in his two fall wins. He defeated Tyler Portwood of Williamsburg in 43 seconds then topped Clark Younggreen of Mount Vernon in 1:20.

Four wrestlers claimed second-place performances to advance to Saturday’s districts.

At 145 pounds, Mason Hartley fought his way back through the wrestle backs to claim a runner-up spot. After falling in the semifinals, he earned a 7-3 decision win over Bryce Radeke of Vinton-Shellsburg and topped Walker Lawrence of Mount Vernon in a hard-fought 7-6 decision.

Cael Garvey worked his way to the first-place match at 160 pounds before dropping a 13-10 to Riley Holt of Williamsburg. He came from behind in the third period to record a fall win at 5:11 over Collin Hoskins of Center Point-Urbana in the second-place match.

Ben Meador advanced at 170 pounds and Cory Allen at 182 pounds each advanced to districts. Both won semifinal decisions in their respective classes before losing in their first-place matches. Both won their second-place matches by no contests.

Saturday’s district meets determines who wrestles at state the following week in Des Moines. The top two wrestlers in each weight class will qualify.