ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DON RATZLAFF
Paced by two weight-class champions and six top-four finishers in all, the Hillsboro High School wrestling team finished third Saturday at the tough 10-school Charles McMillen Tournament in Herington.
HHS finished with 92 team points behind traditional Class 4A powers Abilene with 213 and Chapman with 128.5. Wamego, another 4A school, finished a close fourth with 89 points.
Hillsboro’s Carson Greenhaw and Ronnie Davis each went 3-0 for the day and won their respective weight classes with decision wins over Chapman wrestlers.
Greenhaw defeated Zac Sheets 10-8 to win the 145-pound weight class.
Davis remained undefeated for the season with a narrow 5-4 decision over Brendon Wuthnow in the 215-pound class. It was the first match this season that Davis won by decision rather than by fall.
“He needed that,” head coach Corey Burton said. “It will help him with his conditioning.”
Meanwhile, Ryan Jilka finished second at 171 pounds when he was pinned by Brandon VanDonge of Onaga in the championship match.
Two Trojans, Bri Ratzlaff at 103 pounds and John Sims at 125 pounds, finished in third place by pinning their respective opponents in consolation matches.
After losing to Alex Miller of Onaga in a 12-2 major decision in the semifinal round, Ratzlaff came back to pin Ben Gilliland of Chapman in the consolation match for third.
Sims was pinned by Jason Zey of Abilene in the semifinals, then came back to pin Brazzel of Wamego and then Daniel Andres of Chapman for third place.
James Bina of Hillsboro placed fourth at 140 pounds. He lost 9-7 in overtime to Greg Kriesch of Chapman in the semifinals, then beat Davies of Wabaunsee 8-5 and Dustin Utley of Onaga 4-3 before losing for a second time to Kriesch, 5-2.
Also competing for Hillsboro were Jared Hefley (1-2) at 135, Chuck Bina (1-2) at 160 and Wade Sorensen (1-2) at 189.
“The kids did a super job,” Burton said. “We battled back and forth with Wamego in the finals when we were wrestling for third and fourth. It came down to Ronnie to secure that third place position and he was able to do that. The kids really stepped up there at the end.”
Marion finished ninth as a team with 34 points. Chris Byers won the 275-pound class and Daniel King placed fourth at 112 to pace the Warriors.
Marion duals-The Trojans lost their first dual match of the year, falling to Minneapolis in a dramatic finish, 39-37, at Marion on Thursday.
Earlier in the evening, the Trojans had rolled to their seventh straight dual win of the season with a 68-9 thumping of Haven.
Against Minneapolis, ranked among the top 10 teams in Class 3A, the point battle went back and forth as the teams passed through the 14 weight classes.
Hillsboro took an early 6-0 lead when Bri Ratzlaff won the opening match at 103 pounds by pinning Trevor Abell 1:03 into the first period.
The Lions came back to take the biggest lead of the evening, 24-12, after Shawn Drennen pinned Hillsboro’s Jared Hefley at 135.
But the Trojans regained the lead at 31-30 when Ryan Jilka defeated Seth Atwell on points, 8-6, at 171.
After Minneapolis’ Jeff Mortimer pinned Wade Sorensen in the third period of their match to pull his team ahead 36-31, Hillsboro ace Ronnie Davis won by forfeit to give the Trojans a tenuous 37-36 advantage heading into the 14th and final weight class.
Hillsboro’s Cody Pankratz battled Feras Afani Ruzik of Minneapolis through three tough periods, but lost on points, 7-0, to give the Lions three team points and the victory.
“It was fun,” coach Corey Burton said of the close match. “We knew it was going to be a tough dual and we came up just a little bit short. We really wrestled well overall. I was happy.
“They’re a really, really strong tournament team and they’re a good tournament team,” he added.
Against Haven, six Trojans won their matches by fall: Ryan Janzen at 119, Danny Yoder at 130, Hefley at 135, Billy Winegarner at 152, Sorensen at 189 and Davis at 215.
John Sims, Chuck Bina and Ryan Jilka won their matches on points at 125, 145, 152 and 171, respectively. Ratzlaff, Carson Greenhaw, James Bina and Pankratz won by forfeit.
Burton was pleased with the way his team wrestled coming off the Christmas break.
“I think we held our shape as well as we ever have here,” he said.
“The kids came back and seemed to be in good shape still.”
Coming-The Trojans will prepare for two more big tournaments this weekend.
The varsity will compete in a 20-team tournament in Halstead on Friday and Saturday. Friday matches will start at 4 p.m. and action will resume at 9 a.m. Saturday.
Meanwhile, HHS will also participate in a junior varsity tournament on Friday in Abilene. The matches will begin at 4:30 p.m.