Hays High wrestling rolls by undermanned TMP
By RANDY GONZALES
The competition now only gets tougher.
The Hays High School wrestling team defeated an undermanned Thomas More Prep-Marian 70-6 in dual action Thursday night at Al Billinger Fieldhouse.
In another dual, Phillipsburg won 45-31 over Spring Hill.
All four teams will be competing today and Saturday at the Bob Kuhn Prairie Senior Classic at the HHS gym. Action starts at 3 p.m., with a 9:30 a.m. start Saturday and finals at 5 p.m.
"You always want to go into a tournament like this on a high note, with some positives," Hays High coach John Hafliger said. "We did have that.
"I think our kids are ready to go," he added. "It's going to be an extremely, extremely competitive, tough tournament."
TMP won its first match of the night, with freshman 106-pounder Liam Stults pinning HHS freshman Jacob Thorell a second before the buzzer sounded to end the first period.
"He's wrestling well as a freshman," said TMP assistant coach Josh Peterson, who was filling in for head coach Mike Howell, who was out of town.
"Looking for big things out of him this year -- and next year."
HHS got 30 points from five open weights for TMP, including senior Dylan Schumacher at 126 pounds. Schumacher, a three-time state champion in Class 3-2-1A, was held out with an undisclosed injury.
Schumacher, who will wrestle this weekend, finished second at HHS' tourney the last two years, Peterson said Schumacher would have stood a better chance of taking first this weekend, "if he wasn't hurt."
Hays High, ranked fifth in Class 5A, improved to 19-2 in duals.
"It was a tough opponent, and a couple of our good guys are banged up, so we had to sit them, so they couldn't wrestle," Peterson said.
The Indians got four pins: junior Cade Albert over sophomore Skyler Urban at 132; freshman Ethan Deterding over sophomore Jared Gabel at 152; junior Chandler Rule over freshman Parker Cox at 195; second-ranked senior Cash Drylie over sophomore Nick Schumacher at 220.
Other wins for HHS were a major decision by sophomore Caleb Hecker over sophomore Grant Romme at 113; an 11-2 major decision by junior Jake Sedbrook over junior Garrett Stoecklein at 138; a technical fall (18-3) by junior Leroy Franco over junior Austin J. Werth at 145; and a 9-6 decision by senior Brandon Weigel over senior Scott Heimann at 182 pounds.
"(Heimann's) a kid that's got a lot of wins," Hafliger said. "That was a big match for (Weigel), to go out there and win that match."
Weigel's win also helps this weekend.
"We're looking at how seedings are going to go," Hafliger said. "That win tonight, for Brandon it's huge."
Peterson liked the way his wrestlers competed on the mat, even in defeat.
"We fought hard, fought not to give up pins, give up bonus points for majors and techs," Peterson said. "As a whole, we wrestled well."
Peterson said Stults, Stoecklein, Werth, Gabel, Heimann, Nick Schumacher and Dylan Schumacher are expected to wrestle at HHS' tourney.
"I'm just expecting the guys to wrestle hard," Peterson said.
"Hopefully, we can get a couple placers in, but the main thing is as long as they wrestle hard."
Regardless of what happens this weekend, the Monarchs are looking ahead.
"Our goal isn't this tournament; it's to be prepared for regionals and state," Peterson said. "That's when we want to be wrestling our best."
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Phillipsburg, ranked eighth in Class 3-2-1A, used Thursday's dual to get ready for Hays High's tournament.
"It's kind of a good warmup, I guess, going into the weekend," Phillipsburg coach Joe Buresh said. "Makes for a long three days, but gives kids another match with a team we don't normally see, a team from back east.
"That's good competition for us," he added. "We enjoy coming down and wrestling Spring Hill every year."
Spring Hill coach Tucker Woofter, a 1997 Hays High graduate who wrestled for the Indians before taking the mat for Fort Hays State University, likes coming back to Hays every year. The coaches he wrestled for gave Woofter the desire to stay connected with the sport after finishing up at FHSU.
"I had a great experience," Woofter said. "I got to be coached by guys like Coach Hafliger, Bob Kuhn, (Bob) Threlkel -- I just had a phenomenal experience."
Junior Kyle Witmer, ranked fifth, started out with a pin at 106 pounds for the Panthers. Phillipsburg got four more pins: sophomore Mason Bannister at 126; senior Ross Coomes at 145; junior Dylan Kinter at 152; second-ranked senior Matt Schneider at 160. Third-ranked sophomore Michael Dusin took a 9-4 decision at 138.
"I thought overall we wrestled OK," Buresh said. "We got to take that next step, especially coming up tomorrow with the good competition we'll see.
"We love the Bob Kuhn tournament," he added. "We get to see teams from many different classes, all the way from 3A to 6A teams. It's great competition for us. We always know we're going to run into tough kids down here."