Wrestling is finished
Feb. 23, 2008 @ 9:23 p.m. by Joannaby joanna
The mats are gone, all but a very small number of fans remain and the Shawnee Mission East team is playing hackey sack in the middle of Koch Arena.
Wrestling at 6A is over, but was it exciting. Derby took a 13-point lead heading into the finals — after trailing by 49.5 on Friday — then Goddard won five straight titles. Tyler Caldwell, Ryan Houlden, Brent Fisher, Brandon Bonewell and Boaz Beard all won. It was the third titles for Caldwell and Beard.
That gave Goddard the lead for good, even though Derby’s Blake Long won at 189, the Panthers’ lone champ.
The team title wasn’t the only excitment. Heights won three titles — Daniel DeShazer, Kendric Maple and Chase Nelson. And Northwest ended the night with wins by Kyle Caylor and Brock Heithaus at 215 and 285.
Frankly, the Wichita area dominated, winning 11 of the 14 titles.
The only other winners were from Junction City, Dodge City and Blue Valley North.
The atmosphere was nice, helped by large crowds from Derby and Goddard.
There were only a few boring matches. Hey, when the heavyweight match is between two athletic guys, you know you’ve had a good day. It wasn’t a situation of two guys just standing around.
That’s all from Koch Arena. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
In 5A, Bishop Carroll won the title, as expected. In 4A, Clay Center beat Andale.
Carroll had champs in Jordan and John Keller — I know their house is a lot happier than the last two years when only one won each time. Ark City’s Trison Graham got his fourth title, and Valley Center’s Cade Blair got a victory. Mitch Arnold and Tyler Rosenhamer also won for Carroll, but Kyle Detmer lost. That surprises me because this season, through regionals, he had pinned all his opponents.
Ark City’s Scott Elliott won his third title — he won two at Augusta. And Romero Cotton did as expected, winning his fourth.
In 4A, Andover Central had winners Jake Gentzler and Chris Watson.
Andale’s Sam Thoma and Trent Cox won, too. It was Cox’s second title.
In 3-2-1A, Smith Center won, while Phillipsburg and Beloit finished second and third. Ryan Patterson from Garden Plain won.
February 25th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Joanna,
I think you have done a great job with the comments…even though you say you are not as familiar with the sport of wrestling. As a great fan of this sport myself I have a big question as do many, many others. Why is there not a Division 1 wrestling program in the state of Kansas? Are you aware that roughly 9 HS seniors this year have signed national letters and will receive D1 scholarships to “Out of State” D1 colleges that wrestle? (13 of our HS wrestlers in the state “all grades” are ranked nationally). It is a shame that this great state produces such amazing talent in this sport and there is not a place for them to continue their sport and education in this state; and a place for us fans to cheer! There is a web site that wrestlers and parents frequent and much discussion has been spent considering this void. That site is http://www.usawks.com As a member of the media I thought it appropriate to inform you of this and recruit you as it were to help. The power of the media is needed in our quest to get good answers from our leaders at the 3 D1 schools and our legislators. Can you help? Will you help? You can view this wrestling site yourself and see the comments on D1 wrestling in the state of Kansas. Did you know a couple years ago there were more D1 wrestlers in the National tournament from Kansas than from Oklahoma? We are a powerful wrestling state with more wrestlers in the kids program than any other state in the US with the only exception being the state of California. It would be a wonderful thing to have a member of the media proposing the question in the most widely read paper in the state “Why no D1 Wrestling in Kansas?” Followed by the facts as can easily be presented by many. Thank you for your coverage to date of this sport and thank you for any future articles. Please contact me directly through my email if you need any questions answered and I will also be happy to offer my personal cell # then if needed also. Phil McComb
February 25th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I do not find it suprising at all that detmer lost. I am actually dissappointed about all the hype on detmer. sure he is a great wrestle but never under estimate your opponents. After watching pete tapia wrestle there was no doubt in my mind who was the better athlete he was awesome