By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

11Josh McDowell didn't reach state as a freshman or sophomore before he eventually finished fifth at last year's state tourney. This season, McDowell weighs 180 pounds, 15 pounds less than his 195-pound weight class. Still, McDowell, paced by a constant motor, has posted a 32-3 record and won a regional title at last weekend in Russell.

"Kind of like the Energizer bunny," Hutchinson said.

The trio, relatively unheralded compared to many past Smith Center greats, still enjoyed a terrific season this winter. Pickel, Frazier and McDowell, the Redmen's lone seniors, led a team turnaround, and each advanced to the Class 3-2-1A State Championships.

"I am very happy with those guys," Hutchinson said. "They have been great for our team."

Smith Center, the lone top area team that didn't go to the Lakin regional, headed to Russell last week. The Redmen finished second with 159 points, 7.5 points behind Hoisington. Smith Center qualified seven wrestlers, the most among area teams. Hutchinson was happy to avoid Lakin, a regional he called tougher "by far" than Russell. In Hutchinson's eyes, though, it didn't matter where his team competed. Smith Center put each of its 12 wrestlers at least a match away from a state berth.

"It's weights," Hutchinson said. "It's where your toughest guys are is what matters. The way we performed, I don't think it much mattered where we went. Our guys were set. It was set in our mind that you were going to have to battle pretty hard to beat me."

Four of the qualifiers are going to state for the first time, including Pickel (28-12), Frazier (30-11), junior 138-pounder Zach Fischer (21-19) and freshman 106-pounder Brody Frieling (24-11).

"I kind of just wanted to show everyone that I could do it," Frazier said of reaching state. "I knew I could. I just had to wrestle like I knew I could. To be honest, it made me want to tear up a little bit, because I was so excited. First thing that I knew I wanted to do was I wanted to go hug Brock. He told me I was deserving of it. I was excited."

Junior 182-pounder Kyler Atwood (31-8) is back for a second time, along with sophomore 113-pounder Clint Rogers and McDowell. Rogers (31-8) took fourth at 103 pounds as a freshman. Smith Center, which won three state titles from 2008-10 and finished sixth a year ago, is a dark horse candidate for a top-three finish and team trophy.

"We are going to bring home a trophy," Frazier said. "We don't expect anything less."

* * *

Smith Center started the winter slowly. Pickel opened 2-3, while Fischer started 4-12. Pickel turned his season around at a dual tournament at Manhattan on Dec. 10.

"Had some real stiff competition there, told myself, if I want to do good this year, then I have got to get it together and then I really got it together," Pickel said. "Before the season, I told myself, I am going to have a good season this year."

The team kept improving, but had mixed results. Against one of the season's top fields in the Jan. 20-21 Beloit tournament, Smith Center had a strong first day, but didn't wrestle well on the second day.

"When we started the season, we weren't very darn good," Hutchinson said. "Really didn't even deserve to be on the mat and I threw them into the fire pretty early, and we had a long ways to go if we were going to get to where we wanted to be, and towards the end of the season, we just started getting better and better and better."

Frazier said Smith Center wrestled "terrible" for the first half of the season. Hutchinson talked with the seniors about leading the team through hard practices and tough times. The trio, all good friends, were up to the challenge.

"We are the leaders and we couldn't complain about it and we just had to fight through it and have the other kids look up to us and say, 'If they are doing it, then we can do it, too,' " Frazier said. "We are wrestling for something greater than ourselves. We are wrestling as a team instead of just going out there and saying, 'I am just going to give up because I am tired.' It's a lot harder to give up when everyone else is cheering for you."

On Jan. 28, Smith Center hosted the 14-team Western Kansas Tournament of Champions, which featured the Mid-Continent League and Northwest Kansas League. The Redmen took third, a point behind runner-up Oberlin and 9.5 points behind champion Phillipsburg. Nine wrestlers placed, including top-two finishes for Rogers, Pickel, Frazier, Atwood and McDowell.

"We just told them that either we are going to be here and use our time wisely or we might as well not be here if we are going to sit and waste our time, and then everybody started bonding together," Pickel said.

Rogers, the brother of former four-time state champion Colt Rogers, is 61-16 in his career. He has wrestled with some of the state's best, including Salina South's Javier Vieyra, ranked second in Class 5A at 113 pounds.

An underdog against Vieyra, Rogers controlled the match for the first four and a half minutes before he lost by fall. Hutchinson said if Rogers replicates the Vieyra match for a full six minutes, the sophomore will be "hard to beat."

"Clint is a battler," Hutchinson said. "He is an extremely hard worker. I think Clint's main weakness is that he gets too nervous before matches. When he doesn't do that, he could beat anybody in the state at 113. When he does get nervous, he tends to tense up and not wrestle the way he needs to wrestle."

* * *

Pickel had competed on varsity at 112 pounds his freshman season and 135 pounds as a junior. He was junior varsity as a sophomore. This season, Pickel stepped up his work ethic.

"I trained a lot harder this year than I ever have and I have wrestled some pretty good kids throughout the season and all last season that got me ready," he said.

Pickel competed most of the season at 145, but that weight class was stacked at regionals. Pickel moved up to 152 and won his first two matches by fall. In the championship semifinals, Pickel needed a win to assure a state berth and earned an 8-5 decision. Pickel was in tears after the victory and Hutchinson labeled the senior "so emotionally drained" for the finals match. Pickel lost to Lyons' Kregg Clarke 12-3 in the championship. Pickel later told Hutchinson he could have competed better in the final if he hadn't been spent.

"That was my free pass to state there," he said of the semis. "That had been something we had been working for all year."

Frazier went through a longer route than Pickel. He had to bide his time behind Trevor Rempe, a state champion, and Zach Eaton, a two-time state placer. Frazier never thought about leaving the program. At the end of last winter, Hutchinson moved Frazier all the way up to 215. Frazier, 7-9 last season, nearly reached state despite being very undersized.

"I just love being with the guys," Frazier said. "I knew the people who were always ahead of me on varsity were state champion-caliber and I knew that if I stuck with it, then I could be one, too,"

Like the rest of the team, Frazier struggled in the early season.

"Lost some matches he probably shouldn't have lost early, if he had those matches back, I don't think he would lose them," Hutchinson said. "He has battled and gotten better and better and better every match."

At Russell, Frazier lost his second match. Frazier saw Pickel and McDowell had reached finals and were guaranteed to head to state. Frazier didn't want to be the only senior without a state berth. Then, he won four straight, including the first three by fall, to claim third place.

"I am beating these kids whether they like it or not," Frazier said.

McDowell, the lone Redmen to win a regional crown, capped Smith Center's strong team performance with a 3-0 record at Russell; the first two by fall.

McDowell has never had a stalling call in four years of high school wrestling and continues to battle and compete. In the final, he fell down early to Hoisington's Cayton Janousek, but rebounded to win 11-4.

"He could be losing a match and just keeps wearing on a guy, wearing on a guy, wearing on a guy, and then all of a sudden, we are ahead by four or five points," Hutchinson said. "...Not a very vocal kid, but a great leader."