Hillsboro wrestlers finish 2nd at MCAA

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY BRIAN HUXMAN
The Hillsboro High School wrestling team faced a tough task at the MCAA league meet Saturday in Hesston.

Against the odds, the Trojans managed to earn two individual championships and finished second in the team standings after leading after the first two rounds of the tournament.

Hillsboro made its move late in the tourney, scoring on wins from Ronnie Davis and Chuck Bina in the meet to earn second place.

Lyons won the meet with 175 points, followed by Hillsboro with 150, Nickerson 120, Hesston 119, Halstead 111 and Haven 94.

?The kids did a nice job of sticking with it today,? coach Corey Burton said. ?We thought we could be in the race for the team championship at the end, and that is right where we were, so we felt good about that.?

The Trojans were led by first-place finishes from Davis at 215-pounds and Ryan Jilka at 152-pounds.

Davis was 4-0 on the day, with all four wins coming by pinfall. But perhaps his most impressive match came against Justin Mathias of Nickerson. Davis led the match 2-0 throughout, but pinned the big sophomore just 29 seconds into the third period.

Jilka took a different rout to victory. Jilka used his quickness to earn decisions over Carson Birch from Hesston and Logan Stover of Haven.

In perhaps the best match of the tournament, Hillsboro junior Chuck Bina took on Chris Norez of Lyons. With the match tied at four, Bina was in position to earn a win. But Norez earned a take-down late in the overtime to win, 6-4.

The Trojans also got strong performances from Bri Ratzlaff at 103 pounds, Jared Hefley at 130, Billy Winegarner at 140 and Wade Sorensen at 189.

Ratzlaff started the day by pinning Andrew Dumler of Lyons in just 45 seconds.

Hefley finished second in his class after earning wins by technical fall and pinfall in his first two matches.

Winegarner finished second by going 2-1. Sorensen was 2-2, good enough for third place.

Hillsboro will now take part in the regional wrestling meet Saturday.

?Only the top four wrestlers make it to state, so we?ll have to wrestle well to keep our season going,? Burton said.

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