Slaybaugh Wins District Title--On to State!

ACGC wrestler Tegan Slaybaugh captured first place at the Underwood district wrestling tournament Saturday and, in the process, earned the opportunity to wrestle at the state tournament in Des Moines this week. Slaybaugh earned a repeat trip to Wells Fargo Arena, as the sophomore also went to state last year. He will wrestle on Thursday evening with first matches scheduled for 6:30.

On Saturday Slaybaugh won both of his 113 lb. matches by major decisions. In his first match he defeated Taylor Conn of Tri Center (Neola),15-2, and then won by a 9-0 score over Brayden Maeder of Southwest Valley (Corning) in the title match.

Two other Charger grapplers also competed at Underwood including Gavin Sloss at 120 lbs and Dawson Muller at 160. Sloss won a semifinal match over Braden Fineran of AHSTW (Avoca) by fall in 3:37. He then lost two consecutive matches by fall including one to Blake Allen of Underwood in 0:59 and a second one to Chase England of Bendford/Lenox in 4:42.

Muller lost both of his matches which included a semifinal loss to Caleb Iliff of Treynor by fall in 2:24 and a third place match to Kaedon Lindsay of West Central Valley by a 6-4 decision.

ACGC coach Lane Rumelhart was clearly pleased with how the Charger trio performed. "Districts can be an up and down day and this year was no different. Tegan went out and wrestled well, beating both of his opponents by a combined score of 24-2. This kind of offense is what you love to see heading into state.

"Gavin Sloss had a rough weekend, losing his wrestle back match to a kid he beat previously. He got some good experience this weekend to build off of over the next three years. Dawson Muller wrestled his heart out. He may not have placed in the top two, but he left it all on the mat. That's exactly what I want to see as a coach, to leave it all out there. I'm very proud of him and all that he accomplished this year."