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Wild West: No clear-cut favorite for 3-2-1A state wrestling

2/23/2012

Salina Journal

HAYS -- Goodland coach Joe Sramek has seen the Class 3-2-1A state wrestling tournament go down to the wire more than once in recent years.

He wants no part of handicapping the team 2012 team race.

"There are about eight or nine teams that honestly have a chance to win it," said Sramek, whose Cowboys are No. 1 in the most recent state rankings heading into the two-day meet, which gets under way at 10 this morning at Gross Memorial Coliseum. "I think we're in the mix to be in the upper end if we wrestle well, but it's been a few years since it's been this wide open."

The tournament concludes Friday -- a scheduling conflict with Fort Hays State forced it to be moved up a day -- with the championship starting 45 minutes after conclusion of the 3 p.m. consolation finals. The championship semifinals wrap up today's program.

True, in 2007 the top three teams were separated by 1 1/2 points with Beloit and Smith Center tying for the championship. And the following year Smith Center edged Phillipsburg by a point and Beloit was just six back.

But picking a clear favorite in this year's field would be a tall order. No team qualified more than nine wrestlers and the top number at Lakin -- widely considered the strongest of the four regionals -- was six.

Of the two teams with nine qualifiers -- Eureka regional champion Douglass and Russell winner Hoisington -- only Hoisington appears in the final Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association poll at No. 10. No. 5-ranked Oberlin edged No. 1 Goodland by a point and No. 2 Scott City by four at Lakin, though unranked Hoxie was just 13 behind in fourth place.

"With Scott City, Oberlin, Goodland and us, I hope that we're in the mix," said Hoxie coach Mike Porsch, who was an assistant on the last Indians' team to win a state title in 2003. "You can throw Hoisington in, too, with the number of qualifiers they have.

"It looks like it might be a good team race."

Goodland last won a team title in 2000, in Class 4A. But the Cowboys' five-man contingent includes three regional champions and a runner-up.

Riley Ohara is ranked No. 1 at 220 pounds with a 34-1 record and fellow senior Laine Herl is second at 195 with a 38-1 mark. Neither has lost to a 3-2-1A wrestler.

Sophomore Tyler Gastineau (32-9) is No. 3 at 182.

Scott City qualified six wrestlers with two regional winners. Seniors Clay Mulligan at 132 pounds and Luke Hayes at 285 both are returning state champions and Hayes is 32-0.

Hoxie has six qualifiers and two regional champs as well in No. 1-ranked junior Calvin Ochs (26-3) at 138 pounds and No. 2 Dalton Snyder (24-4), a senior, at 152. All six Indians have state experience.

"A lot of it is who can get mentally right, whether it's getting up for a match or settling down and wrestling," Porsch said.

Oberlin is led by junior regional champ Kade Brown (33-2) at 145 pounds and had four second-place finishes at Lakin. Brown is ranked second in his division.

Hoisington's lone regional champ was sophomore Brandon Ball, who is ranked No. 5 at 120 pounds.

Individually, Thomas More Prep-Marian senior Dylan Schumacher will bid to become a rare four-time state champion. The 132-pound bracket features a pair of returning champs in Scott City's Mulligan (112 last year) and Fredonia sophomore Brogan Humphrey (125).