WICHITA — A little bit of sweat was all that prevented Emporia High’s Justin Rose from making it to the 112-pound championship round of the Class 5A State wrestling tournament at the Kansas Coliseum on Friday.
Rose had battled back from a 4-0 deficit against Mill Valley’s Tyler Williamson and had taken a 7-5 lead in the third period with a takedown and a near fall. With just seconds remaining in the third period, however, Williamson got free of Rose and scored on a reverse to tie the score at 7, which sent the match into a sudden-death overtime.
“I thought I still had control of him and I didn’t think he was going to get the two points,” Rose said. “Obviously, he got two (points), and it went downhill from there.”
From a standing position, both wrestlers were locked head-to-head when Rose slipped and fell backwards just seconds into the overtime period, which allowed Willliamson to score on the takedown to win the match by a 9-7 decision.
“I tied him up and I was going to throw him like I had been doing the whole match, and we were both working hard so we were sweaty, and I slipped and fell down,” Rose said. “I tossed him three or four times during the match and ended up slipping when it counted the most.”
Rose’s setback was one of many frustrating matches on the day for the EHS wrestling team on Day 1 of the State tournament, as the Spartans failed to advance any of their 11 wrestlers to the championship round of their respective weight classes. After three rounds, Emporia sat in eight place with 53 points, while Bishop Carroll was in first with 108 points.
Along with Rose’s loss to Williamson, three other Spartans — Bryce Shaver (160 pounds), James Sparks (215 pounds) and Josh Rodriguez (285 pounds) — lost in the championship semifinals.
“There were just some tough matches with some tough kids,” EHS coach Greg Buckbee said. “We weren’t finishing our moves. We’re wrestling good, but we’re not finishing once we start something. That’s our biggest problem right now.”
Shaver lost to Shawnee Heights’ Jared Brown by a 16-10 decision, the second time in three weeks that Shaver had faced Brown after losing to him in the championship round of the Centennial League tournament.
Shaver led briefly at 1-0 after Brown used an illegal hold, but after that, it was all Brown. Brown scored on a takedown, a reverse and a near fall in the first period alone to go up, 7-3, and by the end of the second period, he held a commanding 14-4 lead.
Sparks, who got to the semifinals by dominating Hutchinson’s Josh Cohen (fall, 5:55) and Mill Valley’s Matt Nelson (major decision, 16-4), could never get anything going against Liberal’s Joe Bach, who entered the tournament with a 34-0 record.
After a scoreless first period, Bach scored in a hurry in the second period with a takedown and two near falls, and just 17 seconds into the third period, Bach reversed Sparks and came away with the pin.
“I didn’t really get to do much,” Sparks said. “I got on my back a couple of times, and that shouldn’t have happened.”
Rodriguez was the Spartans final hope for a championship-round qualifier, but he had to go up against the State’s top wrestler at 285 pounds, Shawnee Heights’ Chris Holly.
This season, Holly and Rodriguez had wrestled three times, with Holly taking two of those matches. However, Rodriguez had defeated Holly at the Centennial League tournament by a 6-5 decision to win the most recent matchup between the two.
Like they had all season, Holly and Rodriguez battled until the very end, with Holly scoring a takedown with 1 1/2 minutes left in the third period to make the difference in a 3-2 decision.
“It usually comes down to who gets the takedown,” Rodriguez said, “and he (Holly) got it today.”
Despite the four semifinal losses, Emporia still had 10 of its 11 State qualifiers in the hunt for State placings. Taylor Lee at 145 pounds was the lone Spartan to end his season on Friday, falling to Mark Millstead of St. Thomas Aquinas and Barrett Brantingham of Shawnee Heights.
Along with Rose, Shaver, Sparks and Rodriguez, EHS wrestlers Jared Dakin (103), Sal Tovar (119), Tavo Dikin (125), Zeb Peak (135), Logan Gaskill (140) and Mark Kolmer (189) were still alive in the consolation brackets heading into today, where a third-place finish is still possible for each one.
“We’ve still got 10 going (today),” Buckbee said, “and we’ve got a good chance of placing a lot of kids. We just have to start finishing what we start, and we’ll be a lot better.”
Though they were disappointed in not getting any wrestlers into the title rounds, the Spartans realized a strong finish was still possible.
“I made it this far,” Rose said, “There’s no reason to give up now.”
The tournament resumes at 10 a.m. today.