For the past two seasons, Gross Memorial Coliseum has been Norton Community's home away from home. But this season there will be a new champ in Class 321 A wrestling.
Scott Community looks to have the inside track, leading the points by 18 and a half points and landing three wrestlers in the championships. Hoisington is second, but the Cardinals have just one wrestler in the finals. Marysville and Goodland are third and forth, both schools have two wrestlers in the finals. Hoxie rounds out the top five, the Indians have on in the finals.
Because no school has just a dominate number of wrestlers in the finals, Friday morning's consulation rounds could be a huge swinging point in the standings.
"You see that ever now and then when the state championship is decided through the back side of the bracket," said Goodland had coach Joe Sramek "I knew there would be about eight teams that had a legitimate chance to make a run at those three trophies and its kinda shaping up that way."
At 106, Ty Nieke of Ellsworth will face Trey Franca of Chase County in the finals. Nieke won his semi final in a 11-9 decision over Brady Lowell of Republic County. Franca advanced with a 6-0 decision over Jos Goepfert of Marysville.
At 113, Joey Defore of Dexter will face James Juergans of Scott City in the finals. Dexter beat Keegan Amos of Holcomb 7-6 in one semi, Juergans with a win by tech fall over Marshall Schottler of Lyons in the other.
Brandon Ball of Hoisington and Jake Elbrader of Burlington will wrestle for the title at 120. Ball beat John Risewick of Norton 4-0 to advance, Elbrader beat Alex Kough of Scott City 8-4.
In the 126 weight class, Dylan Schumacher of Thomas More Prep will wrestle for his forth state title. He will face Hunter Speer of Horton. Schumacher beat Justin Wagner of Atchison County 5-0 in the semis, while Speer won 10-5 over Alec Hager of Norton.
At 132, Brogan Humphrey of Fredondia will met Clay Mulligan of Scott City. in his semi, Mulligan beat Riley Soward of Halstead, while Humphrey beat Caleb Studley of Phillipsburg.
James Landoll of Maryville and Calvin Ochs will meet in the 138 finals. Ochs scored the fist fall of the semis, in the second period over Mason Hurla of St. Marys, while Landoll beat Brody Carroll of Marion 5-4.
At 145, Tagen Lambotte of Rossville and Eddie Creek of Marysville will meet. Creak won 2-1 over Taylor Schuetz of Atchison County in one semi, Lambotte beat Chance Demel of Hoisington in the other.
Ky Biddle of Burden Central remains undefeated on the season, advancing to the the finals at 152 to face twice beaten Jared Johnson of Pleasant Ridge. Johnson won 5-3 in his semi over Dalton Snyder of Hoxie, while Biddle got an 11-1 major decision over Mark Smith of Rossville.
In the 160 weight class, it will be Eric Albers of Oakley and Nick Wuthnow of Sacred Heart in the finals. Albers picked up a 10-3 semifinals win over Colten Johnson of Marion, Wuthnow wons4-2 over Hunter Stafford of Caney Valley.
Jesse LaMay of Wellsville will face Riley Hunsicker of Ellis in the finals at 170. Hunsicker won 4-2 over Nathan Thyfault of Plainville and Lamay won by fall over Jason Berkgren of Oakley in the semis.
At 182, Tyler Lowe of Eureka and Brock Long of Southeast of Saline will meet in the finals. Lone beat Brandon Salmons of Hoxie 8-1 in the semis, Lowe got the first period fall over Eric Hellerud of Hoisington on the other.
Laine Herl of Goodland still had just one blemish on his record heading into Friday's finals at 195 as does Colt Castlebury of Douglass. The two will meet after Herl beat Josh McDowell of Smith Center in an 11-2 major decision and Castlebery got the win by fall in the first period over Jeff Shaw of Decatur Community in the semis.
At 220, Austin Vech of Doniphin West and Riley Oharah of Goodland will meet in the finals. Oharah beat Tanner Taylor of Burlington 5-1 and Vech beat Ryker Greenbaum of Douglass 7-4 in the semis.
And at 285, Trevin Edlerman of Sabatha will take on unbeaten Luke Hayes of Scott City. Hays won 5-2 over Jabob English of Beloit and Elderman 5-1 over Clay Wilcox of Chaparral.
Day two begins with the cross bracketing round at 9am, then the consolation quarterfinals and semis. The fifth place matches will start at 2pm, the third place matches at 3pm with the finals to follow.
