GMG senior Conner Murty (right) shoots for a double-leg takedown against Kover Hupke (left) during the 2A district meet on Feb. 13. Murty finished as the 220-pound district champion. Allison Graham/Sun Courier

WILLIAMSBURG–GMG senior Conner Murty punched his ticket to this week’s Iowa High School Wrestling Tournament after both of his district opponents by fall at last Saturday’s meet in Williamsburg.

Murty scored pins against Cooper Smock of Oelwein and Korver Hupke of Independence to advance to the state tournament in the 220-pound bracket.

He’ll be joined in Des Moines by two teammates from the East Marshall/GMG wrestling team including Dominik Ridout (126) and Samuel Bandstra (170).

Murty (30-1) will start of the tournament Thursday with an opening round bout against Jake Smith (27-4) of Clarksville.

From there on, the competition will be steep for the fourth-ranked Murty as he could see either fifth-ranked Treyton Burnikel (22-2) of Crestwood or seventh-ranked Jordan Anderson (28-2) of Emmetsburg in the quarterfinals.

Through the 2020-21 regular season Murty has not faced Clarksville’s Smith or either one of his potential quarterfinal opponents.

Should he advance to the semis, Murty projects to see a rematch against top-seeded Kobe Simon (33-3) of West Liberty. Simon handed Murty his only loss of the season, a 7-4 decision at the Jerry Eckenrod Invitational in January.

The senior grappler is looking for his first state medal after qualfying for the tournament last year following a successful regular season.

Class 2A state wrestling began Thursday at 6 p.m. and will conclude Saturday evening with the championship round matches.