The last time the Emporia High wrestlers were on the mats, they were busy taking third at their home Winter Classic meet on Dec. 16.
It was an impressive showing for the Spartans considering the level of competition at the tournament, which included highly-ranked squads like Goddard, Eudora, Maize, Seaman and Lansing, among others.
But as the Spartans travel to Derby today and Saturday for the Derby Tournament, that competition gets ratcheted up to a whole new level, with teams from Goddard, Derby, Wichita South, Blue Valley Northwest and Bishop Carroll — all top-5 finishing squads from State a year ago — in attendance.
“This Derby Tournament is going to be by far the toughest competition for us so far this year,” coach Greg Buckbee said. “Sometimes, in the past, this Derby tournament or the week right after Christmas has not been our best showing, and we’ve talked about that. They (the wrestlers) need to know that it’s time to step it up.”
The EHS wrestlers have been busy honing their skills ever since the Winter Classic, putting in plenty of practice time during the winter break with the intent on creating steady and consistent improvement.
With the Derby Tournament upon them, the Spartan wrestlers noticed that the tempo of the practices became more intense.
“The practices have stepped up a lot more,” said senior Bryce Shaver, who will wrestle at 160 pounds. “We want to get better. You can never be satisfied, and you just have to want to get better and better every day.”
So far this season, the strength of Emporia’s squad has come in the lower weight classes. At the Winter Classic, Emporia’s first four wrestlers — Jared Dakin (103 pounds), Justin Rose (112 pounds), Sal Tovar (119 pounds) and Tavo Dikin (125 pounds) — each finished in the top 4 of their respective weight classes, with Rose and Tovar taking home titles.
The goal, Buckbee said, was for the entire team to gradually increase its performance throughout each week of the season. Heading into this weekend, Buckbee said he saw a lot of things he liked from the Spartans in their practices.
“The varsity team has been working extremely hard,” he said. “I can’t just pick one out that has looked better than the others. They’ve all made strides in trying to improve and get better.
“We’re steadily improving, and that’s what you want throughout the season. Wrestling is such a grueling sport.”
If anything else, the Spartans want to come away from the Derby Tournament knowing they showed the type of improvement their coach has seen in practices. But, Shaver said, they also want to beat a few of the State’s top teams in the process.
“We just need to work hard and go in and hold nothing back,” Shaver said. “We just have to go in and give it all we’ve got. We can place high with some of those better teams. We know its going to be tough, but we’re a good team too.”