The Braves had a great weekend at Sub-State wrestling. The sub-state tournaments are a part of the traditional state tournament. Typically wrestlers move on to the state tournament after placing in the top four at regionals. Due to Covid, KSHSAA divided the state tournament into two weekends with sub-state being the first half of the tournament or state series.
Our girls began Sub-State competition in Ellis on Friday night. Hayvin Thornhill, Abby Allen, and Casey McDiffett were all eliminated and will not move on to the final eight. Jolie Ziegler won the sub-state title at 170 pounds and will move on to the final eight in Salina next Friday.
Jolie started the tournament with quick first period pins in the quarterfinals and the semifinals. Jolie faced off against Ava Mull of Larned in the championship match. Mull was undefeated at 25-0 heading into the match. The match was tied 1-1 at the end of regulation and Jolie ended up winning the match 1-1 after riding Mull out in both the third and fourth overtimes. Jolie wrestled a very smart match and found a way to win in a very difficult situation in overtime.
Our boys also had a great day of wrestling in Marion on Saturday. Wyatt Johnson competed at 126 pounds and started the day off with a quick first period pin of the Marion wrestler who was the regional runner-up out of his regional. Wyatt lost his semifinal match to the defending state runner-up but really wrestled well. In the consolation semifinals Wyatt was leading 7-2 when he gave up a pin. As disappointing as the loss was we were really proud of Wyatt. He made one mistake that cost him the match but he made the mistake while being aggressive and trying to score points. Wyatt finished his season with a hard fought win in the 5th/6th place match.
Tom VanValkenburg wrestled amazingly on Saturday. Tom picked up a quick pin in the quarterfinals before matching up with the Eureka wrestler in the semifinals. The Eureka wrestler was ranked third in the state, and Tom turned in another dominant performance, beating him 7-2. Tom faced off against the number one ranked wrestler in the state in the finals. Tom wrestled a strategically smart match as well as being physically dominant defeating the Remington wrestler 9-4 to win the regional championship.
Photos and Story by Coach Doornbos
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