CD’s Ranney, Wells finish fifth at state wrestling

DES MOINES — Two of the three wrestlers Central Decatur sent to the State Wrestling Tournament here last weekend came home with fifth-place medals.

Seniors Colton Ranney (160) and Trenton Wells (182) each placed fifth in their respective brackets.

Sophomore 220-pounder Trace Carson went 0-2 on Thursday and was eliminated on the first day.

“I guess you could kind of say it’s a good way to end,” Central Decatur head coach Dan Christensen said. “We came up here and we hoped the boys would do well. They’ve done a good job. Both of them got fifth-place medals. Tough weight classes, 2A. I’m happy with them. They finished things off right. They’ll remember this forever.”

Ranney dominated his way to the Class 2A 160-pound semifinals with a 12-0 major decision in the opening round and then pinning Garner-Hayfield/Ventura’s Conner Shaw in 3:02 in the quarterfinal round.

In the semifinals, Ranney gave up a first-period takedown to ADM’s Zach Johnston, before getting an escape to start the second period. But another takedown put Ranney in a 4-1 hole.

Trailing 5-2 late in the match, Ranney got a takedown with :28 seconds left in the match to cut the deficit to 5-4, but was unable to turn Johnston to his back for the winning points.

“Brian (Carson) and I even sat in the corner and said if he would have started that first period, because you could see by the end of the third period, it was Colton’s advantage,” Christensen said. “He actually got that takedown with 28 seconds to go. Didn’t think he was maybe going to get another one at that point in time, because we thought maybe Johnston would be able to stall it off, so we thought maybe get a real cheap fast tilt, but it didn’t happen.”

Ranney picked back up in the consolation semifinals Saturday morning, but lost an 8-3 decision to second-ranked Cole Erickson of Mediapolis.

He got another match with Shaw in the fifth-place match, once again dominating the Garner-Hayfield/Ventura sophomore with a 16-5 major decision.

“He had a good weekend,” Christensen said. “I think that puts him at 54 victories, basically 144 career victories. That puts him second on the list at Central Decatur High School. He’s had a great career.”

Wells won his opening-round match Thursday, 9-2, over Center Point-Urbana’s Trevor Rommann.

That’s when the Central Decatur senior ran into Algona’s Joe Teague, who went on to win the 182-pound state championship. Teague won an 8-2 decision over Wells.

“Another outstanding job for Trenton,” Christensen said. “He had a tough weight class. Algona, that Teague kid had one loss. We went out and we thought Trenton could hang with that kid. That’s the first time Trenton’s been tilted all year long.”

Wells bounced back with back-to-back wins in the consolation bracket, pinning Mediapolis’ Ethan Timmerman in 2:22 and then winning a 5-2 decision over Fairfield’s Bryce Lunsford.

In the consolation semifinals on Saturday, Wells fell 7-6 to fourth-ranked Julio Sanchez of Grinnell, before winning the fifth-place match 5-2 over Western Christian’s Zach DeJager.

Wells got an early takedown in that match and surrendered only a pair of escapes in the win.

“Since that match with Teague from Algona, he’s come back on that backside and he’s wrestled very well,” Christensen said. “It was a really good weight class. Western Christian boy he just got done wrestling only had three losses coming into the tournament.”

Christensen said losing Ranney and Wells to graduation will be tough.

“There’s two guys you’re really going to miss in your program,” he said. “Start looking at their victories and their leadership, and what they’ve done for the their team this year, they make a big difference in the success and failures of your team. They’ll be missed, both of them.”

But, with Carson making it state as a sophomore in the 220-pound class, there’s hope for the future.

“Looking forward to Trace Carson and his future,” Christensen said. “He’s got a lot of bright things going to happen in his life. Just hope that the man coming up next is going to keep them going on. Good class of sophomores, so I look for eve better things happening for CD wrestling in the future.”