Fearsome foursome
Al Frost is intense and so are his Nashua-Plainfield wrestlers.
So when Kendrick Huck paced back and forth for what seemed like an hour in front of a jam-packed crowd at the district meet at Clarksville on Saturday afternoon – it was for a good reason.
The Husky 106-pound grappler had one goal in mind – Well Fargo Arena.
Huck used that focused energy to vault himself into the state tournament on a day when dreams can be fulfilled or shattered - no matter your ranking.
The wait for Huck was well worth it as he stuck Kinser Hanson of Lake Mills in a wrestleback to qualify for his first state tournament ever and joined three other Huskies — Garret Rinken, Trey Nelson and McKade Munn — who earned trips to state.
“Even after he got the pin, he wanted to wrestle again. He didn’t crack a smile. He was stone cold,” said Frost, N-P’s longtime wrestling coach.
Huck, just a sophomore, will take his 36-8 record and No. 7 ranking in Class 1A down to Polk County to tangle with a 16-man bracket that will crown a state champion.
“In wrestleback matches you never know,” said Frost. “Just looking at his face, he was as about as determined as I seen anybody look. He was locked in.”
Don’t bet against Huck climbing the steps on the state medal stand to reel in a top finish this week.
“When I was out walking, I was just kind of telling myself, you’ve earned this – you’ve put in more work than him,” said Huck. “You just gotta like hype yourself up – get yourself in the right state of mind.”
Huck didn’t get down on himself after getting pinned in just 1:40 in his first-place match against a familiar foe – top-ranked Kale Petersen of West Fork. Huck has encountered half his losses on the year to the No. 1 seeded wrestler in his state weight bracket. While Petersen beat him for a fourth time at the district meet, Huck can take solace in the fact that he accomplished one of his major goals this winter in making state.
“The biggest thing is almost like, relief,” said Huck. “Alright, you did it. Now the next step is on to bigger things.”
Huck’s determined resolve was just one meaningful triumph that helped Frost's four-ranked N-P wrestlers continue to cement a tradition of Husky wrestling power and prestige that usually ends its season on the most coveted prep wrestling stage in Iowa – downtown Des Moines.
Championships are won and lost in Polk County and No. 2 ranked Husky Garret Rinken is looking to accomplish the former. Rinken hasn’t been challenged in the postseason and ran his record to a perfect 43-0 with a 113-pound district title.
“He’s at a different level – especially here. Last year was probably tougher to get there than this year,” said Frost.
Rinken, also just a sophomore, placed third at state at 106 pounds in 2020. Gone is the state champ that beat him last year at that weight class in the semifinal round of state competition – Gable Porter of Underwood. Porter has bumped up all the way to 132 pounds this year.
That leaves top-ranked Braden Graff of West Sioux as Rinken’s main challenger at 113. Graff is also undefeated (39-0) and will be the top seed. Graff placed third at 113 pounds last year as a sophomore and also placed third at state at 113 pounds as a freshman when he wrestled for Sergeant Bluff-Luton in Class 2A.
Rinken’s margin for error will be paper thin as he attempts to march through his bracket unscathed to claim N-P’s fifth individual state title all-time. Two Plainfield wrestlers have won three state championships. Frost won a state title himself for Nashua in 1979.
“You gotta stay sharp. You can’t hardly mess up or else they’re going to take advantage of it because they’re just as good if not better than you,” said Rinken. “They want it probably just as bad, maybe even more.”
— For more on this story, see the Feb. 18 Reporter
