The Indianola wrestling team took down Bondurant-Farrar 41-25 to advance to Dual State Wednesday evening on their home mats. The Bluejays began the night by defeating Ottumwa to set up the penultimate match, and got off to a quick start leading 22-11 halfway through, and 25-17 after the 170lb matchup, with Indianola getting points from Bowen Downey at 113lbs, Cael Meacham at 132lbs, Ryder Downey at 145lbs, and Bryce Aldridge at 160lbs at that point.

With Indianola needing points to advance, Isaiah Kellow picked up a win by fall at 182lbs which started the first of four straight wins by fall to end with the final tally, with Walker Whalen at 195lbs, Cael Crawford at 220lbs, and Jaxon Boyd at 285lbs all winning.

Kellow tells KNIA Sports he knew the pressure was on for the Indians to start scoring points, but didn’t allow that to change his mindset going in.

“I was a little nervous at that point, but I knew I had to go out there because we were down by a lot, so I knew I just had to go out there and do what I usually do, which is wrestle hard. I’m just super excited, we are going to state. I’m glad I had a chance to do this with all these boys, they are just like my family. It’s a very big opportunity for us to go to state, so I’m happy.”

Head coach Clint Manny said Bondurant-Farrar is a talented team and the Indians were able to capitalize when their upperclassman leaders hit the mats, started by the sophomore Kellow.

“The term we use is get the snowball going over the hill. Our young guys pushed it up, pushed it up to put ourselves into a position for those guys to kick it over the ledge and really start that snowball down the mountain to win us the dual.”

The Indians will compete on Wednesday at Wells Fargo Arena, with the brackets to be released later today.