ANAMOSA— You have to go back more than a decade to find an Anamosa wrestling team that was more successful that the one Raider coach Ron Timp put on the mat this past winter as Anamosa posted a solid 17-12 record during the 2006-2007 campaign.

“Being able to fill the weight classes makes a big difference, but so does putting quality wrestlers on the mat and we had quite a few of those this year too,” said Timp as his team not only logged more wins than any wrestling team the past decade, but also claimed a share of the Tri-Rivers Conference River Division dual team title after going 4-1 against league foes in divisional dual meet play. “The 17 wins is the most I’ve had since I’ve been coach here and it’s thanks to a lot of different things.”

Key to the Raider 2006-2007 wrestling success was the leadership and performance from a stellar senior class in Mike Levasseur, Jordan Alderdyce, Robert Young, Curtis Paustian and Ricky Ulferts while an influx of 11 talented freshman also made their immediate impact.

“Our seniors really stepped it up this year,” said Timp. “We needed that leadership because almost half of our team were freshmen this year.”

Freshmen Dan Bieber, Andrew Lindley, Jon Hartman, Ryan Dolan, Jesse Hansen, Mitch Hewitt, Evan Taylor, Kenner Ahrendsen, Jacob McWilliams, Matt English and Sawyer Frazier all gave the Raider wrestling program depth at the varsity and JV levels.

“Normally we give up forfeits at most of the lighter weights but we even had 103-pounds covered big time this year,” said Timp.

AUBURN HILLS, MI — Already ranked as one of the top wrestlers in the country almost all season long at 157 pounds, University of Northern Iowa sophomore Moza Fay only cemented his status as one of America’s elite wrestlers after a sensational performance at the NCAA Division-I National Wrestling Championships at The Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan Thursday, March 15, and Friday, March 16.

Fay just missed earning NCAA all-American status wrestling at the highest possible level finishing his three-day journey with a 3-2 record at the national championships and overall for his sophomore campaign logged a 35-10 record.

“It came down to one match and I just came up a little short,” said Fay who wrestled against Stanford’s Josh Zupancic with the winner taking all-American honors in a round-of-12 thriller Friday night. “He built a little lead on me and then just rode out the rest of the match. I kept attacking but he kept backing away. It made scoring any points pretty tough. He was called for stalling, but there wasn’t a whole lot I can do with the way he was wrestling.”

DES MOINES— After dazzling thousands of fans with his dizzying athletic ability during the 2006-2007 campaign, Anamosa junior Colten Kelly was rewarded by the Iowa Newspaper Association (INA) as a third-team class 3A all-state basketball back-court selection picked by a panel of sports writers from across the state of Iowa Saturday, March 17.

Kelly, who was already named a unanimous first-team all-Tri Rivers selection earlier leading the entire league in scoring, led the Raider boys basketball team scoring 369 points playing 20 games for an Anamosa team scoring at an 18.5 points per game clip. He also averaged 6.2 rebounds, 3.20 assists and 2.20 steals a night for a Raider team that posted a 10-11 record overall this past winter and who were 8-8 in league play.

It wasn’t just Kelly’s gaudy statistics that impressed voters however, but also his high basketball IQ and phenomenal ability to break down defenders with not only his high-flying jumping ability attacking the basket, but his perimeter game drilling 20 3-pointers on the season and at a solid 36-percent clip.

Overall Kelly shot a blistering 51-percent from the field (144-of-282) while also connecting at a phenomenal 78-percent clip from the free throw line (61-of-78) while his points, assists and steals numbers led the team this past winter.

WYOMING— Coming into the 2006-2007 season, Midland wrestling coach Erik Wagler knew he had a team capable of accomplishing some good things.

Now that the campaign is over with two Eagles once again reaching the state level and five recording 20+ wins and two topping the 30-win plateau, Wagler’s vision proved a reality this past winter.

“We did some good things and had some kids step up and wrestle well,” said Wagler as his team logged a 8-15 dual meet record overall this past season and also sent junior Spencer Bowen and senior Adam Gudenkauf to the state tournament for the second straight season at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. “Getting two wrestlers back to Des Moines is quite an accomplishment especially considering the tough sectional and district we competed in. I would have liked to have had a better dual record than the one we had, but considering the experience we had on the team this year, that was probably about where we belonged too.”

Leading the Midland charge into the 2006-2007 campaign were senior Adam Gudenkauf and junior Spencer Bowen, who were both 2005-2006 state qualifiers and who both earned return trips this past winter after turning in stellar campaigns on the mat for the Eagles.

Gudenkauf led all Midland wrestlers compiling 35 wins while also topping the club in pins (27).

“Adam has had a very successful season and a very good career here at Midland,” said Wagler. “He worked himself into one of the best wrestlers in the state of Iowa over the last couple of years and closed out his senior season being ranked in the top-10 all season long and almost placed again for a second straight season at state.

Gudenkauf in his opening round tilt at state, had eventual 215-pound class 1A runner-up Jadd Dithmart (Ogden) on the ropes before a head injury allowed Dithmart to score the winning points late in the third period.

“Both of his losses at state were close,” said Wagler. “I know he was disappointed not placing at state, but he still had a very good year.”

Bowen also turned in a stellar campaign posting a 31-17 mark while also topping the team with 70 takedowns, 33 escapes, 20 2-point nearfalls and 29 3-point nearfalls.