Hundreds of high school wrestlers and fans invaded the Cedar Valley this weekend for the 5th-annual "Battle of Waterloo" tournament. The 32-team, two-day event was held at Young Arena in Waterloo on Friday and Saturday (December 19-20, 2014).

“The Battle of Waterloo brings athletes and fans from around Iowa to our hotels, restaurants, shops and other businesses at a time of year that typically does not feature large events like this,” said Aaron Buzza, Executive Director of the Waterloo Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Local tourism officials estimate the event adds approximately $500,000 to the Cedar Valley's economy.

Participating teams were seeded and placed in one of four standard eight-team brackets for the first day of competition. Three matches determine each team’s place in Saturday’s round-robin championship brackets.

Two brackets were completed during the morning session on Friday, with matches at 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The other two brackets were completed during an afternoon session, with matches at 4 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.

On Saturday, each of Friday's four champions competed in a round-robin Division I group to determine 1-4 tournament positions. The four runner-up teams from Friday's qualification tournament competed in Division 2 for 5-8 positions and so on. Groups 5-8 competed Saturday morning, while Groups 1-4 wrestled Saturday afternoon and evening.

Teams from the Cedar Valley and Northeast Iowa participating in the event included: Cedar Falls, Charles City, Crestwood (Cresco), Denver-Tripoli, Don Bosco, Independence, Nashua-Plainfield, New Hampton, Union (La Porte City), Waverly-Shell Rock, West Delaware and tournament hosts Waterloo Columbus Catholic, Waterloo East and Waterloo West.

Other wrestling squads in the 32-team field were: Adel-Desoto-Minburn (ADM), Alburnett, Davenport Assumption, Cedar Rapids Prairie, Clarion-Goldfield, Clear Lake, Indianola, Iowa City High, Iowa City West, Linn-Mar (Marion), Lisbon, Mason City, North Scott (Eldridge), Osage, Pleasant Valley, West Des Moines Valley, Western Dubuque (Epworth) and Woodbury Central (Moville).

The National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo hosted the event, along with Waterloo's three largest high schools -- Columbus, East and West.

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