The postseason may be about five weeks away, but it’s never too early to look ahead to February 15 and the district tournaments. Class 3A has eight district tournaments with eight teams attending each. The top two wrestlers from each district will earn their spot at the state tournament. 

District 1 - Bettendorf

Class 3A District 1 will be at Bettendorf High School. The teams attending will be Bettendorf, Burlington, Clinton, Fort Madison, Muscatine, Notre Dame-Danville, Pleasant Valley, and Prairie Cedar Rapids. The clear frontrunner for a team title at this district will be the host school, Bettendorf. The Bulldogs currently have seven ranked wrestlers, four more than the next best team at the district. There will be a total of 18 ranked wrestlers at District 1 with each team having at least one ranked guy, but top-ranked 152-pounder Eli Loyd is the only top-ranked wrestler who will be in attendance.

District 2 - Dallas Center-Grimes

Class 3A District 2 will be hosted by Dallas Center-Grimes. Teams attending will be Ankeny, Boone, Carroll, Dallas Center-Grimes, Denison-Schleswig, Dowling Catholic, Urbandale, and Valley. #4 Ankeny and Valley are tied for the lead with four ranked wrestlers apiece, but top-ranked 113-pounder Trever Anderson and top-ranked 138-pounder Caleb Rathjen should be enough for Ankeny to separate themselves from the pack and bring home a team title. A total of 15 ranked wrestlers will be at District 2, but the weight to watch here will be 120, which will have Ankeny’s #6 Cael Cox, Valley’s #8 Logan Stotts, and Urbandale’s #10 Kaleb German. 

District 3 - Des Moines East

Class 3A District 3 will go down at Des Moines East High School. Teams attending will be Ames, Ankeny Centennial, Des Moines East, Indianola, Oskaloosa, Ottumwa, Pella, and Southeast Polk. #2 Southeast Polk and their 10 ranked wrestlers will be pushed by Centennial’s seven ranked guys. The other six teams combine for seven more ranked guys to make a total of 24, which is tied for the most of any district. 170-pounder Logan Neils and 195-pounder Gabe Christenson will be the #1-ranked guys in attendance. Christenson will be in the weight to watch as Centennial’s #5 Ethan Frazier and Indianola’s #3 Miles Berg will all battle for those top two spots. 

District 4 - Epworth, Western Dubuque

Class 3A District 4 will take place at Epworth, Western Dubuque. Teams attending will be Davenport Central, Davenport North, Davenport West, Dubuque Hempstead, Dubuque Senior, Linn-Mar, North Scott Eldridge, and Epworth Western Dubuque. This tournament will have one of the tighter team races as Linn-Mar and North Scott will be neck-and-neck the whole time. Linn-Mar leads the way with five ranked wrestlers, including the top-ranked 160-pounder, Tate Naaktgeboren. North Scott has a #1-ranked guy as well at 145, Deven Strief. Thirteen other ranked wrestlers will be here with five brackets having multiple ranked guys including 145, 160, 170, 182, and HWT. 

District 5 - Fort Dodge

Class 3A District 5 will be at Fort Dodge High School. Teams attending will be Fort Dodge, LeMars, Mason City, Sioux City East, Sioux City North, Sioux City West, Spencer, and Storm Lake. The host school will be the favorite to win a team crown, but they will be challenged by Mason City. #3 Fort Dodge has the most ranked wrestlers, with seven; Mason City will have four and no other team will have more than two. 120-pounder Drake Ayala and 126-pounder Cullan Schriever are #1 and #2 respectively in the P4P rankings, and are also the only top-ranked wrestlers of the 18 total ranked that will be in Fort Dodge. 126 will be the weight to watch with Schriever as well as Fort Dodge’s defending state champion, #2 Carson Taylor and Sioux City North’s #6 Nick Walters. 

District 6 - Iowa City West

Class 3A District 6 will be hosted by Iowa City West. Teams attending will be Cedar Rapids Jefferson, Cedar Rapids Kennedy, Cedar Rapids Washington, Clear Creek-Amana, Iowa City High, Iowa City Liberty, Iowa City West, and Marion. This one will have a tight team race with Iowa City West and Cedar Rapids Kennedy leading the pack. While those two teams combine for nine ranked wrestlers, the other six teams only combine for six more ranked guys. The weight to watch will be heavyweight as it will have Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s #1-ranked Josh Vis and Cedar Rapids Jefferson’s #5 Dawson Sweet.

District 7 - Johnston

Class 3A District 7 will go down at Johnston High School. Teams attending will be Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln, Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson, Des Moines Lincoln, Des Moines North-Hoover, Des Moines Roosevelt, Johnston, Lewis Central, and Norwalk. Johnston will be the favorite in the team race as they have over a third of the ranked wrestlers in the field. At 11, this district has the fewest ranked wrestlers of any district with half of the teams not having a single ranked wrestler. This is the only district without a top-ranked guy, but 138 will be the weight to watch with Johnston’s #3 James Edwards and Des Moines Lincoln’s #8 Leo Blawou.

District 8 - Marshalltown

Class 3A District 8 will take place at Marshalltown. Teams attending will be Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids Xavier, Marshalltown, Newton, Waterloo East, Waterloo West, Waukee, and Waverly-Shell Rock. The team race in this one will come down to #1 Waverly-Shell Rock and #4 Waukee. With 24 total ranked wrestlers, this is the deepest field of the district tournaments. There will be four #1-ranked guys in this field, including 106-pounder Ryder Block, 132-pounder Aiden Riggins, 182-pounder Griffin Grammell, and 220-pounder Gage Linahon. 220 will be the weight to watch as Linahon will have to fend off #3 Cael Thorson and #5 Lucas Walker for one of those two coveted qualifying spots.