Coming off the best season in school history on the mats the Holton Wildcats have been ranked number one in Class 4A all year on the mats and have taken down all challengers thus far winning all their duals and tournaments they’ve competed in and the Burlington Invitational was no different on Saturday.

Wildcats took home first place as a team in dominating fashion finishing with 303 total points, 165.5 points better than second place finishers the host school, Burlington. One other area team competed in the 20 teams at the Burlington Invite and that was the co-op of Oskaloosa and McLouth who placed 10^th as a team on the day.

Holton on the day dominated with a sixth place performer or better in every weight class of competition. Leading the charge for the Wildcats was multiple tournament individual champs at their weight classes including: Tyler Price (120lbs), Jonah Lutz (132lbs), Justin Rieschick (138lbs), Lucas Lovvorn (152lbs), Andrew Rieschick (160lbs), Kyle Mick (170lbs) and Cooper Zeller (285lbs).

Price on the day finishes 4-0 with a pinfall win (1:14), win via decision (6-4), forfeit and won his championship match by decision, 7-0. For Lutz he continued his strong season by going 4-0 with three pinfall wins and winning the championship bout at 132lbs by 9-3 decision. Justin Rieschick also went 4-0 with his wins coming twice via pinfall, and 8-3 decision and championship win via 4-1 decision. Lovvorn, Andrew Rieschick, Mick and Zeller all three also went 4-0 on the day, too. Lovvorn put up two pinfall wins, a technical fall win and won his championship bout via major decision 10-2, while Andrew Rieschick who his championship match via sudden victory over his teammate Mason Baum. Mick also won his championship bout via sudden victory 3-1, with two decision wins and a pinfall win, too on day and Zeller had a pinfall win and two 2-0 decision wins with a bye, also.

The top flight performances didn’t stop with individual championships for the Wildcats as Holton saw individual wrestlers earn a pair of second place performances, three third place performances, two fourth place performances, one fifth and one sixth place performance.

Justin Pool and Mason Baum each took home second place finishes at 126lbs and 160lbs, respectively. Pool posted a 3-1 record on the day earning a tech fall, pinfall and decision win, but fell in the title match by 7-3 decision. Baum, also posted a 3-1 record on the day for his second place performance.

Clayton Folk (182lbs), Nathan Shields (195lbs) and Bradley Hooper (220lbs) all took home third place finishes each finishing 4-1 at the Burlington Invitational. Folk won the third place match via forfeit, while Shields won via decision 8-3 and Hooper won via pinfall in 59 seconds.

A fourth place showing was earned by Dominic Buterakos at 113lbs finishing with a 3-2 record and Kosta Buterakos took fifth at 113lbs with a 4-2 record. Jameson Lutz also grabbed a fourth place finish at 106lbs going 3-2 in competition, while Spencer Buam rounded out the day for Holton with a sixth place at 145lbs with a 3-3 record in competition.

For Oskaloosa/McLouth their 10^th place team performance was led by a third place showing by Mark Nickels who went 5-1 on the day winning the third place match with a 1-0 decision. Dusty Bammes took home fifth at 138lbs as he went 3-2 and won the fifth place match with a 5-0 decision. Both Ben Harvey (160lbs) and Lance Hickman (170lbs) each finished sixth place and 3-3 records each on the day. Hannah Nove (113lbs) and Griffin Matney (145lbs) each place seventh going 3-2 in their weight classes, as Nove won the seventh place match 10-8 decision and Matney won via pinfall 1:46.

Holton dominated another competition on the mat this season taking home the Burlington Invitational crown, while Oskaloosa/McLouth put up a solid showing against top competition.