February 12, 2008 By Chris Varney
I am willing to wager that no wrestler in the state had a tougher road to the state tournament than Grinnell’s Brock Beck. The 113 pound weight class in District 6 was stacked like no other — all four wrestlers were ranked by the The Predicament, an independent wrestling website that puts out rankings throughout the season. It featured the 106 pound defending state champ Grayson Kesterson of Williamsburg who is ranked #1; Payton Drake of PCM, ranked #6; Colby Wiederholt of Van Meter/Earlham ranked #8; and then Beck who is ranked #4. The combined record of the four wrestlers coming into the district was 159-12.
In Beck’s first match, he faced Drake and fell behind early. In the third period, trailing 5-4 Beck was able to turn Drake and get a takedown to take a 6-5 lead. Beck rode him out for the final 20 seconds or so, avoided a scramble by Drake to get an escape and held on for a 1 point win. Kesterson looked a little sluggish early against Wiederholt but got things going in the 2nd period and won 7-2.
Kesterson has had Beck’s number this season — the senior bested the sophomore 5-0 in the Williamsburg Round Robin tournament and then Kesterson topped Beck in sectionals 3-0. Districts would be no different — Kesterson turned Beck on his back in the first period and got 5 near fall points jumping out to a 7-0 lead. Beck finally scored a point against the Raider wrestler with a takedown in the 2nd period but the damage was done and Kesterson would win by major decision 11-2.
It is not easy to lose in wrestling districts and then comeback and compete again in the wrestleback round but that’s what Beck had to do. His opponent was Wiederholt who eliminated Drake 5-4. After a scoreless first period, Wiederholt got an escape midway through the 2nd to take a 1-0 lead. Beck was on the offensive the entire match as Wiederholt kept backing up, defending against any shot. In the third period, Beck got an escape early to tie it up at 1. Midway through the period, Beck was able to get both hands around his chest and through him down for an apparent takedown — the referee even signalled two as the two wrestlers went out of bounds. However, the officials conferred with each other and waved it off and the match ended regulation tied 1-1. Late in the third period, Wiederholt got a stall warning which proved to be very key. In the overtime, Wiederholt kept backing off and never looked to go on the offensive. Beck kept stalking him and the ref had seen enough — he ruled stalling on Wiederholt with 13 seconds left in OT which was a point for Beck and a victory.
It is not ideal that a call by an official ends a match but he had no choice in this case. Typically, an official gives a wrestler a verbal warning to pick up the pace or he is going to call stalling. I am not sure if this verbal warning was given but Wiederholt never did anything to help his own cause. Beck was the clear aggressor and he deserved the win.
Beck faced three ranked opponents at districts and beat two of them to go to state. It will be even tougher at the Well, Beck will have to face #2 Kain Luensman of Monticello in the first round, a wrestler who beat Beck 4-0 during the regular season.
The road will be tough but Brock Beck will be a better man for it. He does not shy away from a challenge and it has been fun to watch him on his current ride.
We’ll be at the Wells Fargo Arena to follow Brock Beck, Grayson Kesterson and all the local area wrestlers at this week’s State Wrestling Tournament. We’ll have live play-by-play coverage of both Beck and Kesterson at 9am Thursday morning on 1410 KGRN and myiowainfo.com.