CENTERVILLE — There's no denying it this year.
The Albia High School boys wrestling team is the best in the South Central Conference.
One year after a controversy surrounded the final results of the SCC wrestling tournament, allowing the Knoxville Panthers to walk out of Albia with the SCC tournament trophy in their possession, the Blue Demons left no doubt this season about bringing the trophy back to Monroe County. Albia racked up 203 points on Thursday at Lakeview Gymnasium, beating Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont by 30 and Knoxville by 46 with five wrestlers claiming individual conference championships clinching an SCC sweep after winning the regular-season dual title earlier this month with Senior Night wins over Davis County and Clarke.
"We were finally able to put together a fairly complete tournament," Albia head wrestling coach Dave Wenger said. "You can't underestimate the effort that our guys showed on the consolation side of the bracket. We had several kids back there that scrapped for every point for the team. You take those backside points away, and things get a whole lot tighter."
Albia held up four fingers after receiving the SCC championship trophy, signifying a fourth consecutive conference title. While Thursday's championship was undisputed, as well as the first two championships, last year's title was somewhat in doubt as Albia ended the night initially ahead on team points 190-189.5 after a pin in the heavyweight final by Paul Ballard.
Knoxville coaches, however, questioned some of the scoring in other weight classes that featured round-robin scoring. Ultimately, the Panthers took the hardware home even while the Blue Demons still remain on top in the scoring of the tournament currently found online, bringing a unique end to what was a memorable day and night on the mats ending shortly before midnight inside Albia's Junior High Gymnasium.
"It was a driving factor for us this year," Ballard said. "As a senior, I wanted to us finish things off the right way. We need to put a full season together. It's a great win, but we have to keep improving heading into districts."
Ballard closed out the night for Albia winning the SCC heavyweight title, improving to 35-0 on the season pinning Cardinal senior Isaac Cox in the second period of the tournament's final match. Unlike last year's late-night drama heading into Ballard's final, Albia had already locked up the SCC tournament title well before the heavyweight match thanks to four straight title wins by Blue Demon teammates Carter Folkerts (144), Bode Thompson (150), Kael Hutchinson (157) and Lance Helm (165) earlier in the night.
"We've had so many winter snow days that it's been hard to practice," Ballard said. "I think we did a good job as a team, but there's always room for improvement. I'm definitely proud of this team, how we supported each other and how we finished at the end."
EBF gave themselves a chance to take the title away from Albia, winning three of the first four championship matches on Thursday. Garrett Pumphrey, a state qualifier this past fall for the Rocket cross-country team, dominated Davis County sophomore Tucker Ball earning an 11-2 major decision in the 106-pound final.
Gage Spurgeon joined Pumphrey as an EBF freshman to claim an SCC wrestling title in his first season wrestling for the Rockets. Spurgeon won a thrilling 2-1 battle over two-time state medalist Emmitt Newton of Davis County in the 120-pound final, escaping a headlock with eight seconds left in the third overtime period.
Landen Davis earned a 10-1 major decision over Albia junior Conner Pickerell in the 126-pound SCC title match, bringing EBF back within three points (176-173) heading into a pivotal 144-pound championship showdown. Folkerts won the showdown with EBF senior Nathan Curry, scoring the fall with 51 seconds left in the match after opening a 14-0 lead to help the Blue Demons get back on the winning track.
"We knew coming in here that we'd have to come together as a team," Folkerts said. "We've really come together and wrestled together. I knew I had to get it done. I couldn't slack. I had to go out there and do my job to help the team win this."
Davis County finished fifth in the conference tournament with 142 points. Deken Sorensen claimed the 138-pound title, pinning Cardinal junior Kyran Spees with five seconds left in the opening period improving to 37-2 while winning his second straight SCC championship.
"It meant a lot last year to finally win a conference title. This felt like another tournament. I'm looking forward to districts to really test my skills there," Sorenson said. "I would have been pretty upset about losing. It did add a little bit more pressure having won it last year. If you're going to win a conference title as a junior, you definitely want to win one as a senior."
Cardinal, thanks to eight conference medalists and three finalists, finished sixth with 121.5 points. Centerville finished seventh with 119 points with SCC championships won by Matt Genobana at 113 pounds and Brian Synder at 190 scoring a nearfall in the final seconds of a 5-2 win over EBF senior Blake Jager.
"We talk a lot in the wrestling room about being tough in tough situations," Snyder said. "That was a tough situation, but I just wanted the win. I did what I had to do at the end. I was starting to get more confident in myself and I used that to work my turn."
