Trojan grapplers 4th; Warriors split squad
Staff writers
Marion and Hillsboro wrestling team opened the tournament portion of the new year Saturday in the 50th annual Charles McMillin Invitational at Herington.
The Trojans finished fourth out of 18 schools with 109 points and seven medalists.
“Almost all of our wrestlers got some significant competition experience, with most getting at least three matches and some getting as many as six matches between the dual on Thursday and the tournament on Saturday,” Trojan coach Scott O’Hare said. “Overall, we were pleased with how they competed.”
Freshman Sutton Redger had the most sucess against vicious competition, finishing with a silver medal.
Redger’s lone loss came by a pinfall in the second period of the championship match of the 165-pound class against Clay Center’s top-ranked Brett Loader.
The trio of Aidan Simmons, Aaron Hein, and Lane Rogers secured bronze medals, David Schafer was fourth, Anthony Fickes took fifth, and Isaiah Patton rounded out the medalists at sixth.
The sixth-ranked team in Class 4A was the overall champion with six winners.
Warriors teams were split in the Herington tournament.Five wrestlers competed in junior varsity and three wrestlers competed in varsity.
“Overall I thought we did well as a whole team,” coach Tyler McMichael said. “Almost everyone secured a win, and everyone came home with a medal.”
Kellen Waner finished 4-0 in his JV weight class, taking home first place. Eldon Smith, Caleb Darrow, and Cooper Brewer snagged third place in JV for their weight classes. Landon Bryant finished fourth in JV.
For varsity, both Brian Nguyen and Trevor Schafers finished third in their weight classes, and Colby Lollar took second in his with an overall record of 4-1 on the day.
“Our biggest issue that is coming up in most of our matches is our conditioning,” McMichael said. “Once we got tired in a match, we made some mistakes that caused us to lose some matches.”
“The positive note there is that we can easily work on our condition and build it up to where it needs to be before our end of the season run.”
The Warriors’ next matches will be Friday and Saturday at Halstead.