Cam Jansen, son of Tyler and Ryanne Jansen and facing the camera, shakes the hand of his Little Hawk teammate Brock Slater, son of Alea Slater, prior to their match at Friday’s Steve Squires Little Hawk Wrestling Youth Tournament.
The Steve Squires Little Hawk Wrestling Youth Tournament drew nearly 200 wrestlers and their family and fans to Lynnville-Sully on Friday, Jan. 9. For approximately three hours Friday night, fierce yet friendly competition took place on mats in two gyms at Lynnville-Sully as preK-eighth grade wrestlers from across the state added valuable experience to their resumes. Following the completion of each bracket, wrestlers were recognized with winners receiving a Steve Squires Memorial T-shirt and podium photos taken.
Thirty-nine of the wrestlers competing on Friday night were members of the Little Hawk Wrestling Club. Of those 39 wrestlers, 27 of them placed in the top three of their respective brackets. The Hawks boasted 10 champions, eight second-place finishes, and nine third-place finishes.
Wrestlers representing the Little Hawk Wrestling Club on Friday included Easton Collum, Noah Diers, Ryder Jansen, Lane Latcham, Landon Nelson, Jase Rea, Peyton Schechinger, and Hunter Vos in the boys senior division; Daxton Comegys, Royce Jansen, Moses Kay-Ostrander, JR Laubscher, Dayton Nelson, and Logan Wilcox in the boys junior division; Theodore Burnett, Gavin Engbers, Wyatt Flores, Archer Jansen, Leland Meyer, Sawyer Laubscher, Waylon Nelson, Sam Schechinger, Noah Van Kooten, and Malakai Wells in the boys bantam division; Nathan Arnett, Ayden Brandhof, Waylon Hobbs, Lane Jansen, Ezra Laubscher, Brantley Lee, Colby Nelson, Holden Stoddard, and Beckett Van Soelen in the boys peewee division; Truman DeVries, Cam Jansen, Brock Slater, and Cole Stoddard in the super peewee division; and Merra Gosselink (girls 3-5) and Raelee Warrick (girls 6-8).
The success of this long-standing tournament organized by the Little Hawk Wrestling Club is in part due to the many volunteers who step up and ensure all aspects of the night are well run and beneficial for all involved. Organizers share appreciation for the many volunteers who pitched in Friday night including parents, grandparents, high school wrestlers and cheerleaders, and other students who helped work tables at the mats and took care of anything asked of them.
Members of the Little Hawk Wrestling Club have a fun opportunity to wrestle in front of a home crowd on Thursday, Jan. 15. Starting at 4:30 p.m. before the high school team’s competition in the high school gym, the Little Hawks will battle it out in a dual of their own against the Newton Wrestling Club. This is a first-of-it-kind elementary dual, and organizers hope Hawk fans will show up loud and proud for not only the youth wrestlers but stay in the gym for the high school meet as the high school wrestlers take on BGM, Sigourney-Keota, and Southeast Polk.
