RIVERSIDE 

Entering the new year fresh off a break for the holidays, it was home tournament time for the Highland Huskies, as they hosted their annual Gary Curtis Invitational on Jan. 6. 

Highland High school was packed with competitors from 18 different schools and Mid-Prairie was one of the many teams that took part in this Highland tourney. 

Coming out on top with a team score of 272.5 was Alburnett. Second place belonged to Wilton and third place was awarded to West Branch with 232 and 183 points respectively.  

Highland Results 

The Huskies finished in ninth place in the team standings with a final overall score of 83. Giving Highland its top performance of the tourney was freshman Tyler Pierson.

Pierson, in the 113-weight class, scored 20 points and placed third. He wrestled in four matches, winning three of them. He won his first match by fall in 4:00. 

In his semifinal match he suffered his only loss of the tourney. Wilton’s Mason Shirk defeated Persons by fall in 3:09. Shirk, who only has one loss on the season, won his next match by decision, 8-4, to place first at Highland. 

Rebounding from his loss, Pierson won his next match by fall in 2:54 to advance to a third-place match. 

Claiming third place, Pierson won his last match of the night by fall in 2:31. 

In the 106-weight class Landon Bell scored 14 points for Highland and finished in fourth place.  

Bell, a junior, opened the tourney by being defeated by fall in 3:24 but he did not let that loss snowball into more defeats. 

Regrouping from a loss, Bell won his next three matches to advance to a third-place match. 

He won his three matches by fall in 21 seconds, by fall in 1:45, and by virtue of a 9-7 decision. His string of wins came to an end at the hands of West Branch’s Ethan Humphrey. Humphrey defeated Bell by fall in 3:48 to claim third place. 

Highland had four wrestlers place sixth in their own respective weight classes. Those wrestlers were Luke Guseman, Brock Thomann, Remington Fields, and Jack Peiffer. 

Guseman, a senior in the 126-weight class who qualified for state last season, won his first match by major decision, 16-6, and his second match by fall in 1:07. 

His next three matches did not go his way, as Guseman was defeated by fall in 2:42, by a 10-6 decision, and by fall in 3:51.

Thomann in the 132-weight class won his first match by fall in 3:02 but lost his second match by major decision, 16-6. Showing great resilience Thomann won his next two matches, by an 8-3 decision and by fall in 1:20. 

He ended the tourney with a loss in the consolation semifinals, by fall in 33 seconds, and with a loss in the 5th place match, by a 6-0 decision. 

Wrestling in the 150-weight class, Fields lost his first match by decision, 10-3, but won his next two matches by decision, 6-4 and 8-4. In his second to last match of the tourney he lost by tech fall. In his final match, Fields was defeated by fall in 1:58. 

Peiffer, another senior who qualified for state last season, ended the tourney with three matches won and three matches lost. 

He won all three of his matches by fall with his first win being in 1:39, his second win being in 3:12, and his third win being in 54 seconds. He lost his latch match of the night, a fifth-place match against Cascade’s Ty Frasher, by decision, 6-0. 

Mid-Prairie Results 

The Golden Hawks had four wrestlers compete at Highland, but only two earned placements. Mid-Prairie ended the Gary Curtis Invitational with 24 points to tie for 16th place in the team standings. 

Giving Mid-Prairie its best finish of the night was junior Burke Berry. Berry, in the 285-weight class, won three matches to claim fifth place and earn 13 team points. 

He won all his matches by fall with his wins coming in 11 seconds, 1:41, and 27 seconds. In his fifth-place match he defeated Louisa-Muscatine’s Hunter Hahn. 

Quinn Callahan, a junior wrestling in the 215-weight class, collected three wins and finished in sixth place to earn 11 team points. He won by major decision, 15-5, by fall in 2:38, and once again by major decision, 9-0. This season Callahan has a 11-12 record.