Four Marion wrestlers finished in the top 10 of their respective weight classes as Marion scored the 13th highest team point total Friday and Saturday at the 3-2-1A State Wrestling meet at the Busch-Gross Coliseum on the campus of Fort Hays State University in Hays.
Seniors Cody (140 pounds) and Dillon Wildin (145) led Marion with fourth-place finishes. Sophomore Colten Johnson placed fifth at 160 pounds and senior Tylor Neil finished sixth at 152 pounds.
Dillon Wildin finished the season with a 40-3 record. Two of his three losses came in the state meet.
Opening the meet defeating Ryan Canaan from Ellsworth with a technical fall 16-1, Dillon Wildin followed with a loss to Kevin Walters from Atwood-Rawlins County in a 9-6 decision.
The Marion regional outstanding wrestler took two of his last three, beating Brock Wagner from Effington 5-0, and Sheldon Graves from Rossville 2-1.
Wrestling in the 145 pound third place match, Dillon Wildin was pinned by Nick Hockett from Cherryvale.
?Dillon wrestled well this weekend,? said Marion wrestling coach Chad Adkins.
?He had several tough matches and was able to get some tough wins. He ended his career at Marion High School with two medals at the state tournament.?
Finishing the season at 32-5, Cody Wildin went 3-2 at the state meet.
He won his first two matches of the day, beating Nathan Deeds from Goodland-Effingham in the first round 7-3 and Michael Forbes from Atchison County 6-0.
Cody Wildin suffered his first loss of the state meet in his third match by pin to Levi Schneider of Ellsworth.
The 140 pound Marion regional runner-up followed the loss with a 13-2 victory over Bradon Melcher of Herington to move into the 140 pound third place match.
In the match, Cody Wildin fell to Tyler McMichael of Central-Burden in a 7-3 decision. It was the fourth time this season he had faced McMichael.
?Tyler (McMichael) continued to have our number,? Adkins said.
Cody and Dillon Wildin finish their high school wrestling careers with four state medals?two apiece?and will wrestle next season at Pratt Community College.
Tylor Neil finshed his senior season 35-11 going 3-3 at state with a sixth place medal in the 152 pound weight class.
Neil started the state meet pinning Dylan Bainter from Hoxie. After falling to Minneapolis? Adam Klein 6-2, Neil won two straight beating Collin Wittig from Leoti-Wichita County 8-5 and Thomas Rachow from Phillipsburg 5-2.
Neil ended the weekend with two losses to Kyle White from Horton and Zach Eaton from Smith Center.
The sixth place medal was the first for the senior.
?Tylor came into the state tournament unranked and beat two ranked wrestlers to get his medal,? Adkins said. ?We will miss Tylor next year.?
Colten Johnson earned his first state medal placing fifth in the 160 pound weight class.
Despite losing his first match to Hoisington?s Eric Hellerud 12-6, Johnson finshed the meet winning four of five.
Johnson followed the first round loss with three straight victories, beating Quincy Hodges from Linn 12-5, Levi Koehn from Holcomb 4-0 and Dillon Kinderknecht from Ellis 6-2.
Johnson was pinned by Rossville?s Colton Gentry and moved into the 160 pound fifth-place match. Johnson defeated Council Grove?s Matt Menear with a 7-2 decision for the fifth place medal.
?Colten is a sophomore and he didn?t wrestle like one,? Adkins said.
?Colton lost his first match and fought back to place in his first trip to Hays. That is very difficult to do, you have to wrestle a lot of matches back to back on Saturday. I am very proud of the heart Colten showed. He is a very important piece of our program?s future.?
Randy Regnier (119 pounds), Brody Carroll (130 pounds) and Andy Shipman (135 pounds) also wrestled in the state meet. Regnier was the only one of the three to leave Hays with a win, finshing 1-2. Carroll and Shipman finished 0-2.
Regnier finshed the season 24-7, Carroll finished 31-12 and Shipman ended with a 19-12 record.
?This was our best year to date when looking at results,? Adkins said. ?I believe we can be better next year.?
