East Marshall/GMG sophomore Dominik Ridout and junior Conner Murty both powered through the first round with convincing wins while South Hardin-BCLUW sophomore Carter Kolthoff wanted more out of his victorious debut at Wells Fargo Arena.

South Tama’s three state qualifiers each bowed in the first round, but two of them found success on the back side of the bracket.

Ridout, the top-ranked wrestler at 120 pounds, pounded out a first-period pin of Mount Pleasant’s Carson Coleman to advance in just 1 minute, 18 seconds. Ridout led 4-0 thanks to a takedown and back points, and he maintained control before turning Coleman again for the finishing touches.

Ridout (35-0) meets Red Oak’s Johnathon Erp (37-14) in this morning’s quarterfinal round after Erp pinned Van Meter’s Riley Harger in 1:18 too. Erp placed eighth at 113 pounds a year ago.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - East Marshall/GMG senior Carson Burchland, right, tries to collect near-fall points against West Liberty’s Talen Dengler during their 138-pound consolation-round match in Thursday’s Class 2A state wrestling tournament in Des Moines.

Murty (39-3), who is the first state qualifier from GMG since Tim Mooney made it in 2007 and 2008, maintained control throughout his 12-3 major decision of Central Decatur’s Tegan Carson (36-7) in their 195-pound match.

EM/GMG’s Carson Burchland, the lone senior of the area’s seven 2A qualifiers, put a scare into Centerville’s highly ranked Nathaniel Genobana (33-4) before bowing by major decision, 18-8, in the first round. On the back side of the bracket, Burchland (32-6) hung tough with a reversal late in the first period before getting reversed to his back and pinned in 3:57 by West Liberty’s Talen Dengler (32-9).

South Hardin-BCLUW’s seventh-ranked Kolthoff overcame a shaky moment in the third period while attempting to protect a lead. After riding out Waukon’s Jakob Regan for the entirety of the second period, Kolthoff took a 4-0 lead with a reversal to start the third but got caught out of position and put on his back. Regan (32-11) got the five-point move to take the lead, but another reversal from Kolthoff (39-2) provided the final 6-5 victory for the Storm sophomore.

“I know I could have done better,” he said. “I was nervous coming in, you just gotta get out of that mindset.”

South Tama sophomore Logan Arp had the most favorable draw of the Trojans’ trio of qualifiers, as the eighth-ranked 126-pounder met Sioux City Heelan’s Ethan DeLeon (40-13) in the opening round. But Arp (31-10) got stuck in the mud and never got his offense going in a 5-2 loss.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

He snapped out of it in the consolation round, scoring a 7-1 victory over West Delaware’s ninth-ranked Evan Woods (26-10).

“I really wasn’t mentally prepared, it was my first match at state ever so I was tight and not really ready to go,” said Arp. “My second match I really opened up and got to my shots and was able to score a lot of points.”

Neither Brayden Smith nor Payton Vest got much of an opportunity to do that in the first round, both drawing top-ranked opponents. Jared Voss (32-5) of West Delaware pinned Smith in 2:48 at 170 pounds, and Sage Walker (45-0) of Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont pinned Vest in 1:53 at 182.

Smith (27-14), junior, suffered a similar result in his wrestle-back match, falling in 1:55 to Harlan’s No. 10 Carter Bendorf (34-7).

Vest (25-14) rebounded with a second-period pin of Sergeant Bluff-Luton’s Bradyn Barclay (26-18), getting the fall in 3:15.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

“It’s crazy, the atmosphere is crazy and those matches, well, they’re crazy,” said Vest. “I don’t know how else to say it.

“They’re both really nerve-racking. I was pretty tight, pretty nervous. It’s a big arena, there’s a lot of people here.”

Both Arp and Vest will await a losing opponent from this morning’s 2A quarterfinals.

Kolthoff opens the day with a match against No. 2 McKinley Robbins (35-1) from Greene County. Ridout rolls out against a former placewinner in Erp, while Murty meets No. 2 Evan Rosonke (36-3) from New Hampton.

T-R PHOTO BY TROY BANNING