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Two Pella senior wrestlers head to Des Moines today for what they hope will lead to an eventual state championship Saturday in the State Wrestling Tournament.
Brent Smith qualified for state as a freshman, then narrowly missed out the last two years, but that all changed when he won the district championship at 140 pounds Saturday. Smith is 32-4 on the season and will face a wrestler from Linn Mar Marion who has a record of just 3-4 according to the IHSAA. A.J. Arendahl returns to state for the second straight year. where he will face a stacked field at 189. Arendahl, ranked 6th in Class 3A, enters state with a 30-4 record and faces 8th ranked Jared Bartel of Mason City. Pella coach Joe Burch says at the state meet focusing on each individual match is very important. Arendahl and Smith have both already etched their name in Pella Wrestling history as they each have 113 career wins which is a new school record. Class 3A opening round action starts at 6:30pm tonight.

In Class 2A Dalton Kingery and Jake Tool of PCM wrestle their opening round matches starting at 1pm today. Twin Cedars freshman Daniel Williams will wrestle in Class 3A for Oskaloosa in a sharing agreement between the two schools. Williams wrestles in the 119 pound weight class and won the Class three-A District Saturday in Knoxville. Williams has a 29-and-seven record and will wrestle Taylor Wickett of Bettendorf tonight.

Chris Ramirez and Phil Lumley of Pleasantville will wrestle their first round matches at 9am Thursday in Class 1A. For updates on our area wrestlers at state tune to KNIA/KRLS and check our website for updated results at kniakrls.com…just click sports