Hillsboro Middle School ends successful wrestling season

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN
The middle school wrestling season is barely three weeks long, but the one recently completed at Hillsboro Middle School may have been the most successful one ever, according to coach Scott O’Hare.

“We had just an outstanding season, both in the improvement of the kids from day to day as well as in the win-loss record overall-especially the eighth-graders,” he said.

This year the eighth-graders posted a cumulative record of 110-70 while the seventh-graders compiled a 36-56 mark.

“I had a number of eighth-graders who had some experience previous to middle school, but quite a few of them had just started last year for the first time,” O’Hare said. “They really struggled as seventh-graders, but they’ve really come around this year and I saw a lot of good things from them.

“We had 25 kids on the team, which is a real good number for us in middle school. It’s close to what we had last year.”

Of particular note was the performance of eighth-grader Nicholas Mueller, who went 12-0 this season to complete his middle school career at 25-0.

“This was the first middle school kid we’ve ever had who went undefeated through both seasons,” O’Hare said. “He’s actually wrestled in our kids club since I’ve been here, so he’s been around the sport for quite a while and it’s paying off for him.

“He’s one of many kids I look forward to getting into the high school program this next year.”

O’Hare said the performance of his middle school wrestlers makes the future of his high school program even brighter.

“I think we have a lot to look forward to in the next several years because I’ve got almost everybody coming back on my high school team,” he said.

“I’m only graduating one senior and am anticipating getting a number of these eighth-graders out next year that I think can step up and really help us out as far as competition in the practice room and just helping everyone improve. A few of them I can foresee filling some varsity spots in the next year or two.”

Following are the individual records from this year’s middle school wrestlers.

Seventh grade: Daniel Dick 3-3; Jared King 12-1; Jerrod Rogers 5-8; Matt Richert 2-10; Jose Chavez 1-9; Cameron Stultz 9-2; Evan Just 1-8; Miguel Chavez 1-8; Neal Kaiser 2-7.

Eighth-grade: Brandon McMillan 4-5; Gabe Anderson 6-4; Toby Jones 8-3; Nicholas Mueller 12-0; Andy Klassen 5-4; Lonnie Benda 5-6; Isaac Leihy 10-2; Tyler Jones 7-4; Nolan Dirks 6-4; Tyler Jensen 3-8; Jake Kenney 1-8; Brad Klenda 11-2; Brandon Brown 9-4; Chris Likins 10-3; John Hein 7-4; Tyler Lofton 6-9.

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