Grinnell’s Dylan Heater finishes eighth at state wrestling tourney

​     Grinnell’s Dylan Heater finished the season with a 43-5 record, a Little Hawkeye Conference title and an 8thplace finish at the state meet.

By Sean Skillern
 
     Day 1 - Dylan Heater ended Day 1 of the 2022 State Wrestling Tournament with one more mark in the “W” column. 
    After a scoreless 1st, Dylan put on a tough ride in the 2nd period keeping his opponent on the mat for two minutes. Off the whistle to start the 3rd period, Dylan gets to his feet and manages to take his opponent to his back to earn the fall in round 1. 
    Day 2 - Grinnell’s Dylan Heater started off with a tough quarterfinals loss, 0-4. This moved him to the blood round for this second match. This part of the bracket is called the blood round because it determines if a wrestler will continue to advance through the tournament or be eliminated. In this match, Dylan wrestled very tough to pull off a 3-2 win and stay alive. 
   His third match of the day determined his placement match for the medal round on Saturday. Dylan wrestled his district finals opponent and lost, 2-5. 
    Day 3 - Dylan Heater took the mat for the last time this season in a match for 7th place against Kaden Weber from Nevada. 
    Heater gave up a take down towards the end of the first period and chose down to begin the second (score: 0-2). Dylan earned his escape and finished the second period taking a few shots at his opponent (score: 1-2). Heater was on top to begin the third period and offered a tough ride, but cut his opponent to be able to take him down for the lead and the win (score: 1-3). Dylan’s final shot was stalled as time ran out. 
    Dylan finished the season with a 43-5 record, a Little Hawkeye Conference title and an 8th place finish at the state meet.