Mar. 22—CLEVELAND — It wasn’t the medal Patrick Kennedy hoped to cap his tremendous college career with, but he grew his wrestling resume on Saturday.
After falling in Friday’s NCAA Division I national tournament semifinals, Kennedy — a former Kasson-Mantorville star — won two matches on Saturday to finish in third place at 174 pounds. He finished his fifth-year season at 23-5 overall and as one of seven Hawkeyes to earn All-America honors. He caps his storied career with an 82-26 record and two All-America honors.
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“Two-time All-American is good,” Kennedy in an article at Hawkeyesports.com. “There is a lot left out there. But going back to putting your work boots on, it’s like someday it is going to be over and you have to go to work. You go to work every day.”
Kennedy, the No. 5 seed at 174 pounds, beat No. 15 Danny Wask from Navy, 11-1, in a consolation wrestleback match. He then beat No. 4 Carson Karchla of Ohio State, 9-6, in the third-place match. It was the second time in the tournament that Kennedy defeated Karchla; they also met in the national quarterfinals on Friday morning, when Kennedy won by a 2-1 tiebreaker.
Kennedy — a four-time NCAA championships qualifier — placed fourth at the national meet a year ago, when he finished the season 18-7 overall.
The 2020 K-M graduate won four state championships in high school and helped the KoMets win team state championships in 2017 and 2018. His incredible run on the mat in high school included a 108-match winning streak, during which he went 73 consecutive matches without allowing a point.
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—Another former K-M star, Bennett Berge, competed at the Division I championships for a third time. Berge, a 2022 K-M grad and redshirt junior for South Dakota State University, was seeded No. 13 at 197 pounds. He won his first-round match on Thursday morning, beating Wisconsin’s Wyatt Ingham 8-5. Berge then fell to Arizona State’s Colton Hawks 5-1 in the Round of 16, and has his tournament run in Friday morning’s wrestlebacks with a loss to Indiana’s Gabe Sollars. Berge finishes the season 17-7 and is 68-21 overall in his college career.
—Byron native Maxwell Petersen went 2-2 while wrestling at 149 pounds for North Dakota State University in his first Division I national championships. A junior for the Bison, Petersen earned an at-large bid to the tournament after placing sixth at the Big 12 Conference championships. He was seeded 23rd in the 32-wrestler bracket at 149 pounds. He fell to No. 10 Aden Valencia of Stanford in the opening round, then convincingly won a pair of wrestlebacks, beating Anderson Heap of Davidson by major decision (12-2), then pinning No. 9-seeded David Evans of Utah Valley University in 4:21. Petersen’s run came to an end with a narrow 10-6 loss to 16th-seeded Jacob Frost of Iowa State. Petersen finished his season with a 17-10 record.
