Thompson and Schlabaugh trained together, medal together

The Huskie senior and sophomore each finished fifth at 1A state tournament

By Jeff Yoder
Posted 2/24/21

As the 1A second-round consolation matches began on Friday, Highland senior Bryce Thompson waited for crews to finish cleaning the blue surface of mat three on the Wells Fargo Arena …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Thompson and Schlabaugh trained together, medal together

The Huskie senior and sophomore each finished fifth at 1A state tournament

Posted

As the 1A second-round consolation matches began on Friday, Highland senior Bryce Thompson waited for crews to finish cleaning the blue surface of mat three on the Wells Fargo Arena floor. 

Win, and he leaves with a medal. With a loss, he just leaves.  

He saw his teammate Easton Schlabaugh, just 38 feet away, putting his opponent in a cradle, taking a 4-0 lead. Then it was time to wrestle. 

Schlabaugh held on for a 5-3 decision. Thompson went up 5-0, and then after giving up a third-period takedown, came back with a reversal and added back points on the way to a decisive 11-3 major decision. 

The sophomore and the senior who trained together for two years walked off the adjacent mats, having secured a place on the podium about a minute apart. 

“I think it’s pretty cool,” Thompson said. “We were supposed to be on opposite ends, and then they moved us right next to each right before our match. 

“I was thinking, ‘oh, how cool would it be, two (teammates) right next to each other and they both end up placing.’ It’s pretty neat.”

On Saturday morning, with Thompson’s 8-2 decision and a 4-2 victory from Schlabaugh, the pair climbed into fifth place on the podium – each finishing the tournament with four wins and two losses. 

“You want to walk off with a win,” coach Derick Ball said. “To walk off and get to go to that table one more time is pretty special.”

Thompson had a familiar opponent in his final match. He earned a 7-4 decision over Dawson Bergan in a dual with Edgewood-Colesburg for his 99th career win on January 7. On Saturday, he was confident he would wrap up his high school career with a victory. 

“I felt good going in,” Thompson said. “I mean, I knew I was going to take it to him from the get go.”

Thompson went up 7-0 before giving up a late reversal. But he hung on to win the final match of his high school career.

For Schlabaugh the tournament began with a devastating loss. He gave up a five-point move in the final seconds of a 10-8 defeat in his first match. 

But he bounced right back to win the next one. And then the next one, and then the one after that. 

“You look at yesterday and the heartbreak, and then you come back today and it’s like, complete jubilation,” Ball said after the pair won third-round consolation matches on Friday. 

“There’s no other sport in the world that provides you with that emotion. And with that emotion comes lessons. 

“Yesterday, after that first round match, he could have freakin’ folded the tent and been done. But he’s just a grinder. He grinds and we’re still climbing.”

Throughout the tournament Schlabaugh and Thompson were often wrestling at the same time at 106 and 113 pounds. It wasn’t a coincidence that the Huskies had fifth-place finishers at similar weights. For the past two years, the two lightweights have been making each other better. 

“Every day was a grind in practice,” Ball said. “You know the old cliche saying is iron sharpens iron, but you know there’s 100 percent truth behind that. When you have good practice partners, it raises your level. And I think each one of these guys raises the other one’s level.”

The guys Ball referred to also includes Carlos Valenzuela, who finished first at his sectional and third in a tough bracket at districts as a second-year wrestler. 

Two years ago, Schlabaugh and Thompson were usually practice partners, but adding Valenzuela into the mix was beneficial for Thompson during his senior year. 

“That kid has a crazy pace,” Thompson said. “And he’s bigger than me so it was really nice. You find out what you can and can’t do, and what’s going to work in a match and what’s not.”

When Thompson transferred from Lone Tree to Highland two years ago, one of the benefits was working with Schlabaugh, a talented wrestler at a similar size. 

“We’ve been practice partners with each other quite a bit,” Schlabaugh said. “And we’ve been pretty good friends in the offseason. We’re always going up and wrestling together and it’s going to be a bit different next year.”

After a tough start to the tournament, Schlabaugh was happy to bounce back and leave with a fifth-place medal. 

“That last match was pretty tough,” he said. “I was beating him there at the beginning, but he was on top of me third period. There was a fight on bottom from there, but I was able to tough it out and win the match.

“I really exceeded expectations a lot,” Schlabaugh said about the week. “Super proud of myself, super happy for everyone that helped me get here.”

Ball believes that the sophomore has bigger things in his future over the next two years. 

“For Easton the sky’s the limit,” he said. “We’re going to the top, that’s the goal moving forward. You know, this opened his eyes to what he can accomplish in this sport and we’re expecting big things out of him moving forward.”

 

106

Champ. Round 1 - Tegan Slaybaugh (ACGC) over Easton Schlabaugh; Dec 10-8

Cons. Round 1 - Schlabaugh over Rylan Jimenez (SE W, Lib. Ctr./M.D.); Fall 0:40

Cons. Round 2 - Schlabaugh over Easton Krall (Wapsie Valley, Fairbank); Dec 5-3

Cons. Round 3 - Schlabaugh over Drew Ehlen (Mount Ayr); Dec 4-2

Cons. Semi - Caleb Coffin (Don Bosco, Gilbertville)  over Schlabaugh; Fall 3:53

5th Place Match – Schlabaugh over Kendrick Huck (Nashua-Plainfield); Dec 4-2

 

113

Champ. Round 1 - Bryce Thompson over Zach Williams (St. Albert, C.B.); TF 16-1

Quarterfinal - Donavon Hanson (West Bend-Mallard) over Thompson; Dec 5-2

Cons. Round 2 - Thompson over Noah Strohmeyer (Colfax-Mingo); MD 11-3

Cons. Round 3 - Thompson over Andrew Kimball (Don Bosco, Gilbertville); Dec 4-3

Cons. Semi - Dawson Schmit (Wapsie Valley, Fairbank) over Thompson; Dec 6-4

5th Place Match - Thompson over Dawson Bergan (Edgewood-Colesburg); Dec 8-2