HOLSTEIN — For the second consecutive season, St. Edmond’s Matthew Crimmins secured his spot in the upcoming state wrestling tournament at a Class 1A district event.

This time, though, Crimmins claimed his first district title with a dominating performance at 144 pounds.

Crimmins was the lone Gael wrestler to advance, as he will head to Des Moines and the Casey’s Center as a district champion when action begins on Thursday.

Nick Utley placed fourth overall at 106 pounds for the Gaels, as did Evan Knox at 157.

“I wish we could have got more than just one guy to qualify, but overall, I am very happy with how everyone competed,” SEHS head coach Kaden McClintock said. “This was by far the best every single one of our guys has wrestled all year long, and it was great they were able to leave it all out on the mat at districts.”

Crimmins earned three falls in three matches, starting off with a pin vs. Lucas Patelski of Lawton-Brons in just 70 seconds. He followed that up with an even quicker fall, besting Gable VanOort — a 30-match winner this season — from Alta/Aurelia in 55 seconds.

In the finals, Crimmins then had his fastest pin of the day, sticking Kenny Ness from GTRA in just 46 seconds to improve to 35-6 overall. Ness also advanced to state as the runner-up with a record of 34-11.

Crimmins will now be the No. 4 seed at the 1A state meet beginning Thursday.

“We’ve just been putting in the work every day since after state last year,” Crimmins said. “I just went out and did what I knew I could do.

“I’m excited to go down and show off the progress that I’ve made.”

Utley, a freshman, received a bye before falling to Wyatt Hieber of MVAOCOU. He bounced back with consolation round wins over Brock Johnson of Ridge View via technical fall and pinned Karsen Juelsgaard from Audubon in 4:40.

In the third-place match, Utley was bested by Izaac Ricke from Lawton Bronson. The Gael rookie ended his season 16-15 overall.

Jace Stanley scored a consolation round win before being eliminated in the consolation semifinals at 113 pounds. His season concludes with a record of 13-23.

Caleb Mosier picked up a fall in 5:25 over Bentley Strasser from Audubon in the opening round at 120 before falling twice in a row. Cooper Cokeley did the same at 126 with a 6-5 decision, dropping his next two matches.

Knox reached the semifinals at 157 pounds with a quarterfinal-round pin in 5:54 over Evan Ramirez from Ridge View. He lost to Jacob Erpelding of Alta/Aurelia in the third-place match.

“I was very happy with Nick, Jace and Evan for picking up wins and giving themselves a fighting chance to make it down (to state),” McClintock said. “I know these guys and the rest of our team will put in the work in the offseason so they can be back stronger next year.”

Gaels Owen Rutherford, Sam Touney and Grant Anderson all completed their seasons at the district tournament as well.