HAYS – The Norton Blue Jays are once again the class of the 3-2-1A State Wrestling Championships as they earned their fifth straight state title Saturday at Gross Memorial Coliseum in Hays.
Five of Norton’s eight state qualifiers placed at the weekend tournament with three of them earning gold. The Blue Jays and Hoisington each qualified eight wrestlers, two behind Marysville’s 10.
Ryan Johnson earned his third straight medal for the Blue Jays winning the championship at 120 pounds. Senior Jacob Green avenged his only loss of the season with a first period fall over Oakley’s Chris Cox to win the championship at 220 pounds and Collyn Aucker beat Hoxie’s Taye Washington to win the championship at 285 pounds.
Hoisington finished second as a team for the second time in three years. The Ball brothers, Jonathan at 145 pounds and Christopher at 152 pounds each earned the state championship in their respective weight class. It’s the second straight individual championship for Christopher who is a junior.
Marysville, Smith Center and Eureka rounded out the top five in the team race.
TMP’s Rhoades finishes 2nd
A year after finishing sixth at the state tournament TMP-Marian’s Tucker Rhoades brought home a second place finish at this year’s state tournament. Rhoades finished 3-0 on day one of the tournament capping it off with a 2-1 overtime win over Darion Bailey of Eureka.
In the finals on Saturday Rhoades met up with Hunter Ostertag of Atchison County and fell 5-2 to finish second. Rhoades ended the season 26-3.
TMP’s Creighton Newell qualified for state for the first time, as a sophomore, but finished 0-2 at 120 pounds.
Ellis places two at state
The Ellis Railroaders had two state qualifiers this season and both Dalton Hensley and Bryce Younger brought home medals.
After losing in the championship quarterfinals on Friday Hensley won three straight matches on the back-side and finished third.
Hensley placed at the state tournament for a second year in-a-row and the third time in his career. He previously finished fifth twice.
After finishing second the past two years Ellis’ Bryce Younger placed fifth. Younger also lost in the quarterfinals on Friday but finished 3-1 on the consolation side of the bracket to finish fifth.
Trego’s John Kuhn placed third at 113 pounds.
Indians fall short at 4A
The Hays High Indians qualified two wrestlers for the 4A state tournament in Salina but both failed to medal.
At 152 pounds senior Conrad Vajnar went 0-2 on the first day and finished the season 27-15. After losing his first match at 220 pounds Trey Van Pelt did pick up a 9-3 win over Qualin Powell of Chanute in the consolation first round but Van Pelt lost in the next round, 3-2 to Cameron Hunt of El Dorado.
Van Pelt went 1-2 at state and finished his junior year 26-18.