Musich brings home fifth place state medal

    DES MOINES (Feb. 20) -- Harlan Community junior Luke Musich made a name for himself at the 2021 State Wrestling Tournament this past weekend, going from the 14th seed in his bracket to the Class 2A fifth-place medalist at 126 pounds.
 HCHS teammates Luke Freund and Jesse Schwery were just an eyelash away from joining Musich on the podium Saturday night after both lost one-point decisions in their second round consolation matches at 113 and 195 pounds, respectively.
 In the end, all three Cyclone state qualifiers won at least one match during the three-day event (Thursday-Saturday) at Wells Fargo Arena. HCHS scored 13 points, tying for 43rd out of 74 Class 2A schools that were represented, and left Des Moines with at least one state medalist for the fifth consecutive year.
 Cyclone head coach John Murtaugh felt that all three of his wrestlers performed well enough to earn medals.
 “I told the kids [Friday] after Luke Freund and Jesse got beat... ‘You guys came down to wrestle for medals and you did everything you could to get on the podium. You didn’t go down there just satisfied to be at state,’” Murtaugh said. “And they wrestled so hard. Really proud of these guys... All of our guys laid it on the line.”
Musich wins the close ones
 Musich, who finished the season with a 33-11 record, went 4-2 at state, losing twice to third-ranked Chase Fiser of Bondurant-Farrar while defeating the fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth-ranked individuals at 126.
 He clinched a medal on Friday afternoon with a 3-2 win over No. 6 Ty Koedam of Sergeant Bluff-Luton (the No. 4 seed), who had beaten Musich by one point and also in overtime during the sectional and district meets.
 “My family and everybody told me you’ve just got to beat him when it counts. You’ll probably have to wrestle him for a medal, and that’s what happened. I beat him for the medal,” Musich said.
 On Friday night, Musich guaranteed himself a spot in the top six by outlasting No. 7 Blake Engel of 2A team champion West Delaware 4-3. He lost to Fiser 4-2 in the consolation semifinals on Saturday morning, then bounced back to beat No. 9 Kellen Moore of Forest City 4-2 in sudden victory (overtime) for fifth place.
 Musich said it was very satisfying to take the medal stand as a 14th seed and exceed outside expectations.
 “It felt really good just because I was the only (HCHS wrestler) left so I felt like I had to represent the school,” he said. “It felt good to get up pretty high, especially when none of the people down there expected me to.”
 Musich added: “I kind of knew that I was better than the 14 seed because I was wrestling the sixth-ranked kid (Koedam) real close, and (Joe) Weaver from Atlantic was the eighth-ranked kid and I wrestled him real close at (the) Hawkeye Ten (meet). So I knew I could do better than that. I just had to execute at the end of the matches, and that’s what I did.”
 Musich opened the tournament with a 5-2 loss vs. Fiser on Thursday night, then won his first round consolation match by pinning fifth-ranked Jase Goodell of Humboldt in 3:40. Musich trailed Goodell 6-4 in the second period before scoring a reversal and rolling him to his back.
 That set up Friday’s rematch against Koedam and a series of tight decisions. And in his first-ever state meet appearance, Musich finished those close matches about as well as he ever has.
 “He beat four state-ranked kids to get fifth,” Murtaugh noted. “What an accomplishment. This kid turned it on at the right time and he knows how to wrestle close matches. He’s a physical 126-pounder. Even the referees told me that.
 “I can’t say enough positive things about Luke Musich. He deserves it so much. He loves to wrestle and his physicality carries him in a lot of those matches. But what I appreciated about him in the state tournament is... He filed the game plan. If you tell him, ‘Don’t do this,’ he won’t do that. You’ve got to make sure kids wrestle their match, but I said, ‘Just avoid this one thing,’ and he listened and he followed the game plan and all the credit to this kid. He got it done.”
 In his fifth-place match against Moore, Musich had to scramble in overtime as Moore was coming around him on a slide by, according to Murtaugh, and Musich reacted perfectly.
 “It was a scramble situation. You keep your head out and you force in,” Murtaugh said. “He kept forcing in and all of a sudden he gets the two, which was fantastic. I thought he deserved to win that match. The other kid was really strong.”
 Musich credited a lot of hard work and conditioning in practice recently for his ability to finish out his close matches at state. He added that if he had another three or four seconds in his consolation semifinal vs. Fiser, he could have hit a reversal and forced overtime.
 “We’ve been going real hard in practice, so I think that helped out a lot,” he said.
 “I just want to say thanks to the coaches and Luke Freund and Dalton McKinley for pushing me in the room.”
 Musich added that he is hopeful to build off his state meet success going into his senior season.
 “I feel like I’ve got a lot of confidence and I know that I can hang with some of the best in the state and maybe next year get up there even higher,” he said.
Heartbreakers at 113, 195
 While Musich was able to win most of his close matches in Des Moines, Freund and Schwery both saw their seasons end with one-point defeats Friday afternoon.
 Freund, the No. 12 seed and 10th-ranked wrestler at 113, went 1-2 in his state meet debut and finished his junior season 35-9.
 He lost 5-1 to fifth-ranked Dalton Rowe of Bondurant-Farrar in the first round but came back later Thursday night to score three takedowns and a reversal in an 8-3 win over Albia’s Brodie Conner.
 Freund looked poised to avenge a district final loss to Sheldon-South O’Brien’s Osvaldo Ocampo (the No. 6 seed) in his second round consolation match, building a 6-2 lead in the second period. Ocampo used a reversal and three-point near-fall to take the lead, however, and Freund found himself trailing 8-6 in the third. He shot in for a takedown to tie the score but had to cut Ocampo free and ended up losing 9-8.
 “I love (Luke Freund) because he just does everything you want him to do,” Murtaugh said. “There’s never any problems, he’s a wonderful guy and I’m so happy that he made it to state, first of all, (and) he came within an eyelash of getting on the podium.
 “He doesn’t have a lot of wrestling experience... but he learns. He’s like a sponge. He’s quiet, but he’s easy to coach.”
 Schwery, a senior, also went 1-2 as the 10th seed at 195 and finished 34-10 on the year as a two-time state qualifier.
 He opened the tournament with an exciting win, avenging No. 7 seed Josh Riibe of Central Lyon/George-Little Rock, who had defeated him in a district final five days earlier. The match was tied 1-1 after three periods and a scoreless minute of sudden victory OT. Schwery was then able to ride Riibe for 30 seconds in tiebreaker one before escaping from the down position to win 2-1.
 Schwery was pinned in 1:28 by 2nd-ranked Jackson Kinsella of Creston/O-M in the quarterfinals, setting up a second round consolation match against South Tama County’s Brayden Smith (the No. 8 seed) that would truly go down to the wire.
 Schwery scored a takedown in the first and started the second period with an escape to go up 3-0. Smith got a takedown in the second but Schwery was still clinging to a 4-3 lead for most of the third. It appeared he was going to hold on, but Smith shot a single leg as the clock was about to expire and was awarded the two-point takedown with :00 on the clock for a 5-4 decision.
 “It’s a judgment call,” said Murtaugh. “Jesse had a stall warning on him and I was trying to tell him just to shoot in and get a leg, but he was doing the right thing. He was circling... and the kid came through with a single. Was it takedown? Yeah, it’s a takedown because they called it a takedown. And I always tell the kids at state, ‘You’ve got to wrestle every second of the match.’
 “(It’s unfortunate). Jesse (is) definitely a state placer-quality kid, but there’s been more than one time where you have a kid that should be on the podium that doesn’t get on the podium... Jesse responded very well. He’s a positive kid, he’s going to wrestle in college, so bigger things are ahead of him for sure... He loves wrestling. He just loves to wrestle.”

2021 State Wrestling Tournament • February 18-20 • at Des Moines

CLASS 2A RESULTS
 Top Five Teams: 1. West Delaware 150, 2. Osage 96, 3. Independence 81, 4. Crestwood 79, 5. Centerville 51.5. Also: T-11. Winterset 36, 19. Sergeant Bluff-Luton 29.5, 22. Creston/O-M 28, T-25. Atlantic/CAM 26, T-25. Bishop Heelan 26, 35. Greene County 22, 36. Panorama 21, T-41. Clarinda 14, T-43. Harlan Community 13, T-47. Glenwood 10, T-63. Kuemper Catholic 1, T-67. ADM 0. (74 teams represented)
 Most Individual Champions: West Delaware 2, Independence 2.
 State Champ from SW Iowa: 120 - McKinley Robbins, Greene County, so. (34-0).
 State Runners-Up from SW Iowa: 152 - Tyler Brown, Winterset, sr. (32-5); 160 - Wyatt Appleseth, Panorama, sr. (46-1).
Harlan Community Results
113: Luke Freund, jr. (DNP, 1-2) - 35-9 final record (#12 seed).
First Round: Lost 5-1 to #5-seed Dalton Rowe, Bondurant-Farrar.
Consolation First Round: Won 8-3 over #13-seed Brodie Conner, Albia.
Consolation Second Round: Lost 9-8 to #6-seed Osvaldo Ocampo, Sheldon-SO.
126: Luke Musich, jr. (5th Place, 4-2) - 33-11 final record (#14 seed).
First Round: Lost 5-2 to #3-seed Chase Fiser, Bondurant-Farrar.
Consolation First Round: WBF 3:40 over #6-seed Jase Goodell, Humboldt.
Consolation Second Round: Won 3-2 over #4-seed Ty Koedam, SB-Luton.
Consolation Third Round: Won 4-3 over #7-seed Blake Engel, West Delaware.
Consolation Semifinal: Lost 4-2 to #3-seed Chase Fiser, Bondurant-Farrar.
5th Place Match: Won 4-2 (SV-1) over #12-seed Kellen Moore, Forest City.
195: Jesse Schwery, sr. (DNP, 1-2) - 34-10 final record (#10 seed).
First Round: Won 2-1 (TB-1) over #7-seed Josh Riibe, Central Lyon/G-LR.
Quarterfinal: LBF 1:28 to #2-seed Jackson Kinsella, Creston/O-M.
Consolation Second Round: Lost 5-4 to #8-seed Brayden Smith, South Tama County