ANAMOSA — In front of a packed to overflowing crowd inside the Anamosa High School gym Saturday, February 9, Raiders Derek Young, Travis Keltner and Mitch Hewitt made their bids for trips to the state wrestling tournament in Des Moines competing at the pressure-filled class 2A district tournament.

“A lot of guys feel there’s more pressure here at districts than there is at the state tournament,” said Anamosa wrestling coach Ron Timp. “Everyone wanted to get to state so much, once you’re there, the pressure is off a little bit. That’s what makes districts so tough. It’s the last meet before state.”

With not only a state berth hanging in the balance, but his high school wrestling career as well, Young earned a trip to Wells Fargo Arena and followed in the footsteps of his brother Robert who qualified for state a year ago for the Raiders.

“It’s always a good feeling getting someone to the state level,” said Timp as Young placed second at 140-pounds to secure his trip to Des Moines and the four-day state tournament which begins Wednesday, February 13. “It’s a great accomplishment for Derek, his family, the school and the community making it to this level. We’re very proud of his accomplishments this year and he’s worked very hard to get to this point.”

Young opened his district tournament with an impressive 5:10 pin win over Davenport Assumption’s Tommy Argo.

The Raider senior dominated the 140-pound semi-final bout leading 10-3 before putting Argo away in the third period.
“Derek was ready to go and went out and wrestled a great match,” said Timp. “He controlled the whole match and never let Argo in at any time.”

In the championship, Young was handed a 12-4 loss against No. 7 ranked Ryan Hand of Wilton.

“In this match, Derek didn’t stick to his game plan and things just kind of got more and more out of control,” said Timp. “He was able to re-gain control in the third period and made a run at the kid, but it was way too little too late.”

ANAMOSA — Wins have been hard to come by for the Anamosa girls basketball team lately, and with just one more chance to shine before class 3A regional basketball gets started, Raider coach Jack Leighty really wanted to see a solid effort out of his club in their WaMaC and regular season finale hosting a talented West Delaware team Saturday, February 9.

“We took the approach with this game as being the start of a new season,” said Leighty as his team hosted the Hawks at the Strawberry Hill gymnasium as the Anamosa High School gym was packed to the rafters with wrestling fans as the Raiders hosted the class 2A district tournament. “It had been quite a while since we had actually played a game with all the weather cancellations we’ve been having lately and I think that probably wound up being a good thing for us.”

Anamosa (7-12, 6-9) hoped the new environment and a renewed approach was exactly what Leighty had ordered in getting the Raider girls back into the win column.

The strategy proved perfect as Anamosa pulled away for a big 55-40 victory over the Hawks with three girls scoring in double figures and everyone contributing to the triumph in some way, shape for form.

“I think next year, we’ll play all our home games here at Strawberry Hill,” said Leighty jokingly who works as a gym teacher in the facility. “I think it was a neat experience for the girls to get to play a game here. We all enjoyed it.”

Raider fans also enjoyed the start to the contest as the Anamosa girls stormed to a quick 13-6 advantage and at the first quarter horn, led 13-7.

“We had quite a few girls get into the action there in the early going,” said Leighty as Kayla Sanborn, Paige Goetz, Lauren Buck and Jackie Engelbart all scored baskets getting the hosts going in the first half. “Our ball movement was very good and we also did a good job of taking care of the basketball too.”