Emporia High senior Bryce Shaver and freshman Mark Kolmer rolled up five wins each Saturday in the Emporia Winter Duals wrestling meet to lead the way for the Spartans.
EHS as a team, however, finished just 2-3 on the day with team victories over Wichita Heights and Derby and losses to Junction City, Chanute and Norton. Though the Spartans finished strong by closing out the day with two victories, EHS coach Greg Buckbee said he wanted his team to wrestle more like it did against Wichita Heights and Derby all the time.
“We are a very young team, and I’ve got to remember that at times,” Buckbee said. “But we shouldn’t be a young team anymore. We should be a seasoned squad with the schedule we’ve had. We should be wrestling like we did against Derby all of the time, and we’re running out of time to work through that.
“We could be one of the best teams in the state if we put together a whole day.”
Shaver, at 160 pounds, was particularly dominant, as he posted major decision wins over Junction City’s Cord Gross, 11-3; Chanute’s Justin Hansen, 12-4; and Derby’s Alex Feldkamp, 10-2. He pinned Wichita Heights’ Kody Haskins and won a decision over Matt Stanley.
Kolmer was just as dominant, posting three victories by technical fall — a 16-1 decision over Norton’s Coady McMullen, a 15-0 win over Wichita Heights’ Brian Leyva and a 15-0 victory over Derby’s Cole Carpender. Kolmer, the sixth-ranked wrestler in Class 5A at 189 pounds, also pinned Chanute’s Damen Hartwig and picked up a 7-1 decision over Junction City’s Spencer Popple to finish the day unbeaten.
“Mark and Bryce both are wrestling real well, and they’re both getting better all the time,” Buckbee said. “Bryce had a late start to his season, and it takes time to get into groove, but he looked really good. And Mark, again, he’s just had a great year so far as a freshman coming in. He’s had a great year even though he’s had one of the toughest schedules of the year wrestling against some of the top ranked kids in the state.”
Two other Spartans finished the day with 4-1 records, as Sal Tovar got wins over Junction City’s Adam Charland, Chanute’s Zach Jesseph, Norton’s Zane Perez and Derby’s Brandon Marlett at 119 pounds while 285-pounder Josh Rodriguez claimed victories over Junction City’s Jason Elzinga, Chanute’s Chris Gericke, Wichita Heights’ Matt King and Derby’s Kyle Westmoreland.
Against Wichita Heights and Derby, the Spartans finally put it all together after frustrating matches earlier in the day against Junction City, Chanute and Norton. Emporia High wrestlers won 10 of 14 bouts against Wichita Heights to take a dominating 51-16 victory, while against Derby, the Spartans won nine of the 14 matches to take a 37-24 win.
“We finished pretty strong on Saturday,” Buckbee said. “We finished real strong against Derby, which is a pretty good team. The Derby coach was wondering how we lost the other duels that day after we wrestled so well against them.”
Next up for the EHS wrestling team is a trip to Garden City on Friday and Saturday for the Garden City Invitational.