Fry places 7th at state

DES MOINES – In his first state appearance, Clarke junior Urijah Fry placed seventh at 165-pounds in the Class 2A state tournament.

Fry made quick work of his first opponent, Jax Shekleton of NH/TV, the 22 seed. Round two championship match against Layton Yager (Estherville Lincoln Central) ended in a 7-3 decision in Fry’s favor. With two takedowns at the beginning of the both of the first and second periods giving Fry six points, he received penalties for stalling in the third period before earning his last point by escape.

Fry’s first loss of the tournament came in the quarterfinal, which ended by fall in 3:38 to Decorah’s three-seed William Fullhart. Round four of the consolation rounds went in Fry’s favor with a fast fall in 0:23 over 10-seed Cooper Gates of West Branch. A hard-fought battle in consolation round five ended with Fry falling in 3:20 to the two seed, Jacob McGargill of Shenandoah. McGargill went on to place third.

The longest battle of the tournament for Fry came in the seventh-place match against nine-seed Christopher Meyer of Independence. With a takedown just under a minute into the first period, Fry rounded out the period with a nearfall to end with seven points. The second period began with a takedown by Fry before three penalties in the last 30 seconds of the period gave Meyer a point. Fry earned two points for a reversal in the third period while Meyer earned four - three for a takedown and one received on a penalty - with Fry ultimately taking the match by 12-5 decision.

Also representing Clarke was senior Angel Gomez-Perez at 106 pounds. Despite an early takedown by Gomez-Perez in his first match against Ace Cochrane (Glenwood), Cochrane took the win with a fall in 0:58.

His second match ended with a fall in 2:40 to Greene County’s Brennan Jacobs, who came off the mat with a quick takedown and two nearfalls in the first period and another nearfall in the second period.