Wrestlers some gain ground on state’s best

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DON RATZLAFF
The Hillsboro Trojans gained some competitive ground at the state level, but fell short of their goal of bringing home medals from the Class 3-2-1A State Wrestling Tournament in Hays Friday and Saturday.

The Trojans won seven matches, including four in the first round, and finished 19th as a team with 20.5 points-their best showing yet.

Unfortunately, none of the eight Trojans who qualified for the competition could put together enough wins to make it to a medal match.

“We didn’t meet our ultimate goal to get medals, but we went down there and really competed hard,” coach Corey Burton said. “We were in every match. We weren’t getting blown out. That’s a step forward for us.”

The tournament started well for Hillsboro with four first-round wins: Bri Ratzlaff, wrestling at 103 pounds, pinned Jason Callum of Phillipsburg at 0:49; Ryan Janzen at 119 pinned Heath Burt of Plainville at 1:59; Carson Greenhaw at 145 scored a technical fall over Brian Keeley of Leavenworth Immaculata, 16-0, at 4:45; and Ronnie Davis, at 215, pinned Brett Henke of Osborne at 3:02.

But a dose of reality hit all four wrestlers later on Friday, beginning with the quarterfinals.

Ratzlaff lost his quarterfinals match to A.J. Hickman of Lincoln, 2-13, then lost in consolation competition to David Williams of Russell, 2-0.

Tyrel Spillman of Hoxie, the eventual champion, sent Janzen to the consolation brackets with a pin at 1:35 of their quarterfinal match. Janzen then lost to David Rose of St. Francis in a close battle, 14-16.

In another close match, Greenhaw lost in the quarterfinals to Ryan Zweygardt of St. Francis, 2-3, then fell to Cody Younkin of Oakley, 5-9, in the his first consolation match.

Davis, perhaps Hillsboro’s best hope for a medal, saw that dream darken when he lost to Bobby Hegemann of Royal Valley, 2-5, in the quarterfinals.

His chances brightened again with a 7-2 win over Pat Baumgartner of Sabetha in Davis’s first consolation match. But the dream ended when the Trojan senior was pinned by Phillip Lyons of Effingham at 3:29.

Meanwhile, the other four Trojans who qualified for state lost their first-round matches and faced a very difficult road to a medal through the consolation brackets.

In the first round, Danny Yoder, competing at 125, was pinned by Clint White of Sabetha at 0:44; James Bina lost to Jacob Rausch of Sublette, 6-5, at 152; Billy Winegarner, at 160, was pinned by Jake Schenk of Smith Center, the eventual runner-up, at 3:31; and Wade Sorensen, at 189, was pinned by Jeff Mortimer of Minneapolis, the eventual champion, at 3:03.

Winegarner and Sorensen completed their competition with loses in the first round of consolation, but Yoder and Bina stayed alive with first-round wins.

Yoder beat Colby Monnington of Herington, 10-4, but then lost to Clayton Bosserman of Oakley, 2-6 in the next round to end his season.

Bina came back strong by pinning Tyler Sanders of Russell at 4:09, but then lost to Bobby Dennis of Oakley, 3-8, in what turned out to be his last match of the tournament and season. Dennis went on to place third.

“We wrestled some really tough matches-tougher than we ever have as far as being righ there in the match,” Burton said. “We lost some really close matches and couldn’t seem to get one to go our way, it seemed like.

“It’s a super-super-tough tournament,” he added. “Once you get past that first round, you’re down to the top 10. They’re just all quality kids and they’re going to be real tough, real close matches.

“Even two of the guys who lost (in the first round) were right there in their matches, and could have very easily won them. They all wrestled really well.”

Marion

Marion wrestlers, meanwhile, had an even tougher time in Hays. All six Warriors who qualified for state-a school record-lost their first two matches to end their season.

Chelsea Arnhold, only the third girl to qualify for a state wrestling tournament, was pinned in her first match by Levi Younkin of Oakley at 1:45. She then lost Jake Dozier of Belleville, 0-8, in the first round of consolation.

Chris Freeby, wrestling at 140, was pinned by Tyler Burns of Cimarron at 2:53, then was pinned by Tanner Weatherbee of Thomas More at 2:46 in consolation play.

Evan Sharp, wrestling at 145, opened with a loss to Kyle Gorton of Central Heights, 3-7, then lost 2-4 to Logan Glaze of Decatur Community in his first consolation match.

Jake Adkins was pinned by Jake Gardner of Lincoln, the eventual champion, at 3:23 at 160. He was then pinned by Nick Cahoj of Atwood at 2:07 in consolation competition.

At 171, Steven Boone was pinned by Sean O’Brien of Oakley, the evnetual runner-up, at 3:06 in their opening round, then was pinned by Joe Brewster of Silver Lake at 4:30 in the first round of consolation.

Thad Looper, at 189, was pinned by Jesse Dinkel of Russell in the opening round, then suffered the same fate against Justin Cooper of Hoxie at 2:57 of their consolation match.

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