Eighth grade is late to begin wrestling in the state of Iowa. A late start, however, doesn’t mean that wrestler can’t be successful. Greene County senior Cayden Gerdes is a case in point. Starting the sport in eighth grade meant taking a lot of losses in those early years. He started turning things around as a junior at 132 lbs. when he posted a 22-12 record. Illness late in the season slowed him heading into the postseason as a junior.

As a senior splitting time between 138 and 132, Gerdes has put together a record of 18 wins against just three losses, and he’s won the last 15 times he’s stepped on the mat. That streak includes an individual title at 132 at the Dec. 16 Tiger-Knight Invitational at Carroll High.

Gerdes and his teammates will be busy once the season resumes early next month. They’ll have just four weeks of the regular season until the postseason begins with a Class 2A Sectional tournament in Winterset, where the competition looks to be at a high level with the host Huskies, ADM, Woodward-Granger, perennial power Creston/Orient-Macksburg, Clarke (Osceola), and the Rams.