State wrestling: Arends in title match; Maitland will medal

DES MOINES – Dike-New Hartford heavyweight Chase Arends will wrestle for a Class 1A state title on Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

The championship session begins with the Grand March at 6 p.m., followed by all three classes wrestling their respective weight classes' championship matches simultaneously.

Arends will wrestle Jesup's Brian Sadler, a familiar opponent--four of Arends' six losses this season have been to Jesup, including three in the previous three weekends.

In the quarterfinals, Arends won a 3-2 decision against Missouri Valley's Arron Olson. Arends won a 5-3 decision in the semifinals, vanquishing Manson Northwest Webster's Enrique Maravilla.

Maitland guaranteed to earn medal

A-P/GC senior Hunter Maitland can finish as high as third and no worse than sixth place after winning two consolation matches on Friday.

He'll wrestle Red Oak's Thomas Bentley in a consolation semifinal, with the winner going to the third-place match later that day and the loser wrestling for fifth-place.

Maitland pinned Nick Dickerson of Shenandoah in 3:17 and won a 4-0 decision against Evan Rosonke of New Hampton/Turkey Valley in the consolation quarterfinals, the third consecutive victory for Maitland against Rosonke in as many weeks.

Maitland is guaranteed to wrestle two matches on Saturday – one shortly after the beginning of the 10 a.m. Saturday morning session and again as the session wraps up in the afternoon.

Full stories from state wrestling will be available in the Feb. 21 Eclipse.