West Branch High School advanced four of five district wrestlers to this week’s state tournament, possibly tying a record for the team.


Senior Matt Smith, sophomore Jake Slocum, junior Rilen Carew and senior Jayson Madsen will wrestle at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines when the state’s top grapplers take the mat starting Thursday.

Carew took first in the 145-pound class at the district tournament Saturday in Durant. Taking second were Smith at 135 pounds, Slocum at 140 pounds and Madsen at 160 pounds. The top two wrestlers in each weight class advance to state, even if the team as a whole does not place.

Madsen and Slocum return to state for the second year in a row; Madsen and Smith enter state with more than 100 career wins.

“This is a great accomplishment” for the team, Madsen said.

Madsen said it would have been better if the team could send more, but teammate and co-captain Carew believes sending four is either a team record or at least a tie for the record number of Bears to advance to state.

“We feel really good about it,” Carew said.

Head Coach Marc Juergens was glad as well.

“I am very excited for each of them,” he said. “Hopefully they will continue to work hard and do good things at state.”

All four wrestlers were getting intense one-on-one practice sessions with coaches as well as “live,” nothing-held-back matches prior to driving to Des Moines on Wednesday.

Juergens said on Monday that the players will spend more time on technique and “focus on what it takes to win,” no matter who they face on the mat.

At the district tournament, West Branch’s five grapplers finished sixth with 58.5 points. Lisbon took first with 109. Fourteen teams competed.

Derrick Miller took fourth at districts on Saturday, which Juergens was pleased to see for a sophomore who just this season started wrestling for varsity.

“He didn’t get to wrestle the match he wanted to in the first round,” the coach said. “Derrick had a tough match for third and fourth place, but he wrestled quite well. I think he is starting to realize that he can compete with anyone when he wants to.”

West Branch competed Feb. 9 in a district dual, though the team fell to East Buchanan 42-28.

Results in that contest, with West Branch wrestlers listed first: 103 — Will Seydel pinned Cody Rylan; 112 — Tyler Oswald fell to Jarred Hadeert; 119 — Bears forfeited to Brixdon Malford; 125 — Drake Martens fell to Casey Crawford; 130 — Bears forfeited to Mitch Maston; 135 — Matt Smith beat Travis Johnson 5-4; 140 — Jake Slocum beat Max Chevry 7-3; 145 — Rilen Carew pinned Justin Hoffman; 152 — Jake Rozinek fell to Tim Maroney; 160 — Jayson Madsen pinned Taylor Connolly; 171 — Bears forfeited to Will Bird; 189 — Cade Jones lost to Jason Gerrett 9-7; 215 — Derrick Miller lost to Harrison Burrage 4-3; HWT — Mitch Slocum beat Luke Bird 10-1.

Madsen said that wrestling in the arena is a “huge adrenaline rush,” but he forces himself to stop and think: “I’m here to wrestle, not look at the people.”

“It’s a great feeling,” he said, but can intimidate some to the point that they do not perform as well.

Carew agreed that, at state, every wrestler knows that “anything can happen.”

While this is his first trip to the state tournament, Carew wrestled freestyle at a national competition his freshman year.

“You’ve got to block all that out,” he said. “When the whistle blows, you’re in another whole world.”

In the first round at state, Smith (31-7) will face Matt Hemesath (34-6), a senior from West Marshall State Center; Slocum (28-9) will face Troy Hansen (20-10), a senior from Don Bosco in Gilbertville; Carew (29-7) will face Wyatt Towne (37-9), a junior from Hartley-Melvin-Sanborne; and Madsen (31-5) will face Blake Faucher (42-1), a senior from Guthrie Center.