Momentum carries four Bulldogs to state
Four MFL MarMac wrestlers are headed to the Iowa High School Athletic Association state wrestling tournament. Pictured with qualifiers Will Howes (285 pounds), Quinn McGeough (165), Gavin Kishman (138) and Tacoma Thompson (113) are coaches Elliot Wirkler, Chip McGeough, Travis Johnson, Collin Stubbs, Chet Bachman and Mike Meyer. (Photos by Audrey Posten)
After not even wrestling last year, Bulldog freshman Tacoma Thompson is headed to state at 113 pounds. He placed second at the district meet.
Clayton Ridge’s Kenny Colsch had beaten Gavin Kishman multiple times this season, but the 138-pound sophomore earned a win when it mattered most, vanquishing Colsch in a wrestleback for second place and advancing to state.
Junior heavyweight Will Howes avenged previous losses—including one to title match opponent Isaac Jones of Nashua-Plainfield—on his way to first place at the district meet.
Senior Quinn McGeough needed a combined 1:41 to pin all three of his 165-pound district opponents. Now, he’s headed to state for the third time.
By Audrey Posten | Times-Register
Four MFL MarMac wrestlers are headed to the Iowa High School Athletic Association state wrestling tournament. Quinn McGeough and Will Howes placed first in their weight classes at the Feb. 15 Class 1A district meet in Monona, and Gavin Kishman and Tacoma Thompson finished second, to advance to Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
“Call it home field advantage, call it what you want. We wrestled well,” said co-head coach Chet Bachman. “Maybe it’s the mindset we’ve been working on all year. But, obviously, when you have momentum happening, something special can always happen in an event.”
Fellow co-head coach Travis Johnson said the outcome exceeded expectations. He credited hard work and consistency.
“We lost some kids going through the season, so we dipped down, but these kids came in every single day and believed in us, that we’d put them in the best position possible. They showed up and did the work, and they went out and got it done,” Johnson shared. “That consistency, I think, is what put us over the edge. Take the stuff we are good at and keep going. We can’t wrestle to someone else’s style. We have to do what we’re good at. When we can perfect that, good things happen.”
Thompson, a 113-pound freshman, got the momentum rolling for the Bulldogs, upsetting Postville’s Darinel Ramirez in the semifinals. Ramirez had beat him twice this season, including for the Upper Iowa Conference title.
“I wanted this bad,” Thompson said. “The first time I wrestled him, I got majored by him. Second time, I did a little better. Third time, I knew I had to work hard if I wanted to get the job done.”
Thompson was pinned by Nic Brase of Nashua-Plainfield in the finals, but that didn’t dim his excitement. He didn’t wrestle last year, and had no expectations heading into this season.
“My friends got me out. Gavin Kishman—shout out to him,” Thompson said. After early success, “I was like, ‘I have a chance.’ I’ve been working hard every day.”
At 138 pounds, Kishman had perhaps the most exciting day. After winning his quarterfinal match, the sophomore was pinned by eventual champion Bryce Carroll from Cascade. But he rebounded with a fall in the consolation semis, then edged Luke Zwanziger of Nashua-Plainfield, a wrestler who’d beaten him just a couple weeks ago, 10-7 in the third-place match to force a wrestleback for second.
Kishman’s wrestleback opponent was Clayton Ridge’s Kenny Colsch, who’d beaten him multiple times this season, including a week prior.
“That kid was my first loss of the year, and I know I didn’t want him to be my last too,” Kishman said. “He’s a really good kid, but I trained too hard to not perform under pressure.”
Momentum from the emotional third-place match helped Kishman score a 14-5 major decision over Colsch. He was also driven by a wrestleback loss last year.
Kishman credited the MFL MarMac coaches and his teammates—particularly practice partner Keith Anderson and fellow qualifiers McGeough and Howes—for pushing him.
“A year ago, I lost in the same wrestleback to go to state. I worked every day to make sure that didn’t happen again, not to feel that feeling again,” he said.
The district meet offered redemption for Howes as well. The junior heavyweight was denied state last year by Postville’s Antoni Solovi, a familiar foe. After pinning Liam Flickinger from Bellevue in the quarterfinals, Howes and Solovi were set to face off again in the semifinals. Howes got the best of him this time, in a 4-3 decision.
“I had that match in the back of my mind all summer, trying to work toward my goal of wanting to get down [to state] since I was a kid,” Howes reflected. On Saturday, “I was trying to get through one person at a time and get through the day. Wrestle whoever is across from me and that helps me through, gives some good, positive vibes.”
Howes had Nashua-Plainfield’s Isaac Jones in the finals—a wrestler who recently won by technical fall over him. That loss, he admitted, “came off my mistakes.”
This time, he resolved not to force anything.
“I’ve grown my endurance...I try to wear people down,” Howes explained. “I waited until the time was right. As long as I keep getting people to the third period, I can win. I feel like it was about as good as I could.”
2025 marks the third trip to state for McGeough, a senior, who’s wrestling at 165 pounds and has just two losses all season. It took him a combined 1:41 to pin all three of his district opponents.
“Since it’s postseason, I don’t want to waste any energy or time. Crazy things happen all the time, people get caught. I just thought I want to mitigate all risk, so I tried to be on the mat as short as possible and my plan worked out good today,” McGeough said.
Like his coaches, he credited momentum for helping the Bulldogs on Saturday, as well as hard work.
“We prepared to peak during this time of the season...This is what matters. All our hard work accumulating at the end of the season,” McGeough said.
Inspired by older brother Gabe, who was a state runner-up a few seasons ago, McGeough’s sights are now set on the podium.
“This year, I really want to get a medal, but I’m looking a little past that. I really would like to be in the top three. That’s my main goal, I’d say,” McGeough stated. [Gabe] motivates me. He did it and I know I’m capable of doing it too.”
Having more teammates and fans in Des Moines will help, McGeough added.
“It makes it a more fun experience overall, and relaxing. I can focus a little less on wrestling and a little more on enjoying it,” he said.
Both Johnson and Bachman are proud of the collective effort.
“We knew we had to avenge some losses to get to the number we did. It’s really tough to beat kids multiple times or lose multiple times and come back and get it done. The mental toughness it takes is, bar none, is the hardest of any other sport,” Johnson said.
The team, as a whole, has been inspiring, according to Bachman.
“Team-wise, we haven’t had the season we would like to have had, but we kept swinging the hammer. They work their butts off and do what they’re told. They’re there every night. That makes a big difference,” he said.
The Class 1A first round and consolations will begin at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 19. The state tournament will run through Saturday, Feb. 22.
