ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DON RATZLAFF
Facing some tough schools from larger classes, the Hillsboro wrestling team placed four of its five athletes among the top four finishers in their respective weight classes at Saturday’s Eureka Jr./Sr. High School Wrestling Tournament.
As a team, the Trojans placed ninth out of 15 schools.
“We faced some really good competition there,” coach Corey Burton said. “Mulvane ran away with that tournament, but they’re ranked No. 5 or 6 in Class 5A right now. They were pretty stacked all the way through. There were a number of other good teams there, too.”
James Bina was Hillsboro’s top finisher, placing second in the 152-pound class with a 2-1 record. Bri Ratzlaff (103) and Carson Greenhaw (145) placed third at their weights and Ryan Janzen (119) placed fourth.
Danny Yoder (125) went 2-2 but did not place.
“He was in probably the toughest bracket he’s been in all year,” Burton said.
Ronnie Davis, the team’s top performer so far this season, missed the tournament because of illness.
“If Ronnie had been there wrestling, we would have finished in the top five,” Burton said. “I told the kids going in that we weren’t worried about the team score. We knew we were missing people. We were just going to try to focus everything individually.”
The Trojan junior varsity had a tournament on the same day in Stafford, which also weighed on Burton’s lineup.
“I knew the competition was going to be really tough (in Eureka), and so I wanted to bring my kids that normally place in tournaments to this one and let some of my kids who don’t normally place get a chance to compete at the junior varsity tournament.”
Lincoln-The Trojans experienced the extremes in dual victories Thursday at Lincoln, blowing away an undermanned Lyons team, 78-5, then squeaking by the home team, 39-38.
Lyons forfeited 11 weight classes to account for 66 of the Trojans’ team points.
In the three matches that were wrestled, Matt Myers of Lyons defeated Ryan Kaiser at 135 pounds by a 17-1 score. But James Bina (152) pinned Erin Norez in 59 seconds, and Billy Winegarner (160) won his first match of the season by pinning Justin Showalters at the 2:47 mark of the second period.
The dual against Lincoln proved to be a lot closer.
Ryan Janzen (119), Wade Kimbrel (130), Carson Greenhaw (145), Bina (152), Wade Sorensen (189) and Ron Davis (215) each recorded a pin against his opponent. Danny Yoder (125) won by decision.
But five Trojans were pinned by Lincoln wrestlers and two others lost by decision. The Trojans didn’t clinch the team victory until Davis pinned his opponent to put HHS ahead 39-32 with only one match remaining.
Coming-The Trojans will return to Eureka on Thursday for dual matches against Eureka and Council Grove. Their next comeptition will be Feb. 2 at a tournament in Southeast of Saline.
