Wildcats Have Two Placewinners At RVC Meet

Durant's Cameron Ruggerio, right, placed 7th at the 160-pound weight class at last weeks River Valley Conference meet at North Cedar High School in Clarence.  Photo by Ryan Stonebraker.

By Ryan Stonebraker
Sports Editor, Tipton Conservative

CLARENCE — The Durant Wildcat wrestling team had two place winners at the 2019 River Valley Conference wrestling meet. There, Ethan Gast placed 3rd at 113 and Cameron Ruggerio placed 7th at 160. Both won three matches at the tournament. Durant placed 14th at the meet in the team race with 25 points. West Liberty won the team title for the fifth straight season. The Comets scored 215 points to edge out Camanche who placed second in the team race with 198.5 team points. There were seven of the 14 scoring teams that scored over 100 points at the meet.

Gast was 3-1 on the day in four matches. He had a bye in the first round and pinned Jack Wruck from Camanche in 1:25 in the quarterfinals. Gast was pinned by Owen Ray from Monticello in the semifinals and had to work his way through the consolation rounds. There, Gast won a 9-6 decision over Kole Murray from North Cedar in the consolation semifinals; and won a 4-1 decision over Quinn Hayden from West Branch in third place match to finish third. Gast leads Durant in wins with 24 going into the sectional meet this week.

Ruggerio improved to 22-15 with three victories in five matches. He started the day winning a 7-0 decision over Levi Mohr from Tipton in the first round. He was pinned in 0:14 by Baylor Crigger of Camanche in quarterfinals sending him to the consolation bracket. There, he would lose another match, but pin Chantz Steves of Wilton and Scott Blondin from Iowa City Regina to capture seventh place.

Kenny Salemi and Tysen McKinley also wrestled for Durant. Salemi competed at the 138-pound weight class and McKinley at the 145-pound weight class.

The Wildcats will travel to West Branch this week for a Class 1A sectional meet. Teams there are Durant, Highland, Lone Tree, North Cedar, Northeast, Wapello, West Branch, and Wilton. The first and second place winners in each weight class from the sectional will advance to the district tournament on February 9 in Wilton.

River Valley Conference Tournament
At Clarence
Saturday, January 27

Team Scores: 1. West Liberty 215, 2. Camanche 198.5, 3. Wilton 140, 4. Monticello 135, 5. Tipton 122, 6. Cascade 107, 7. North Cedar 105, 8. Anamosa 94, 9. Bellevue 89, 10. Iowa City Regina 89, 11. Mid-Prairie 83, 12 West Branch 55, 13. Northeast 54, 14. Durant 25.

113 - Ethan Gast (24-8) - had bye in first round; pinned Jack Wruck (CAM) in 1:25 in quarterfinals; pinned in 5:06 by Owen Ray (MONTI) in semifinals; won a 9-6 dec. over Kole Murray (NC) in consolation semifinals; won a 4-1 dec. over Quinn Hayden (WB) in 3rd place match. FINAL PLACE — 3rd.

138 - Kenny Salemi (10-16) - pinned in 2:47 by Will Bobst (ICR) in first round; had bye in consolation round; pinned in 1:17 by Isreal Gomez (WL) in consolation round.

145 - Tysen McKinley (8-20) - pinned in 1:14 by Casey Koppes (CAS) in first round; had bye in consolation round; had bye in consolation round; pinned in 0:42 by Nick Thoms (CAM) in consolation semifinals.

160 - Cameron Ruggerio (22-15) - won a 7-0 dec. over Levi Mohr (TIP) in first round; pinned in 0:14 by Baylor Crigger (CAM) in quarterfinals; pinned in 3:37 by Ty Schmidt (NC) in consolation round; pinned Chantz Stevens (WIL) in 4:40 in consolation semifinals; pinned Scott Blondin (ICR) in 1:52 in 7th place match. FINAL PLACE — 7th.