Emporia High won the Valley Center Dual tournament on Saturday, beating out some of the top teams in the state.
The Spartans beat Derby, the second-ranked team in 6A, 40-21 to claim the dual title.
The Spartans went 3-1 in their pool, losing their opening round dual against Clay Center, the top-ranked team in 4A, 29-26.
Emporia won its final three dual matches in its pool, defeating Andover Central, 48-22; Valley Center, 33-29; and Great Bend, 70-12.
Clay Center lost to Valley Center, which created a 3-way tie for first in the pool for the first time ever at the tournament. The tiebreaker went to the Spartans, who had scored the most points in the pool.
Mark Kolmer and Justin Rose were the top wrestlers for the Spartans, winning all of their matches. Chase Sanchez, Sal Tovar, Tavo Dikin and Zeb Peak all went 4-1. Lorenzo Serna won three of his five matches and Jordan Barr, Jared Dakin and Bryce Dakin all won two matches apiece.
flexj66801 (anonymous) says...
Dear Gazette,
I feel ashamed that the EHS wrestling team is represented in this manner in our home town paper. The team (read WHOLE team) deserves much better coverage. I'll elaborate;
I'm surprised there is no mention of the Junior Varsity tournament that took place all day Saturday right here in our home town. I would have thought it would have been worth a mention the Jv team also won their meet. I was in attendance & I know I saw a photographer from the Gazette taking pictures. Am I safe to assume that the Jv team were deemed unimportant therefore not reported on? Even the coverage for the Varsity team is vague & lacking. Wrestling has always been a staple sport for this town & area. These dedicated young men (including families) eat sleep & breath wrestling rivaling any other sport. They deserve better coverage on their events. Please give them the respect & recognition they deserve.
Proud parent of a EHS wrestler
P.s For anyone wanting more information please go to the ehs wrestling website........
http://www.usd253.org/~ehswrest/wrest...
December 9, 2008 at 7:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
EmporiaMom3 (anonymous) says...
Proud parent,
Good luck with this request. As a proud parent of a past EHS wrestler, I learned two things. One, JV wrestlers rarely get mentioned at all and two, unless your kid is a "stand-out" varsity wrestler, he probably won't get mentioned much either. Sorry.
I did notice this was not one of the better articles though. I had to read clear to the bottom just to find the word wrestlers to make sure that is what the article was even about. I would think the Gazette could do a little better than this.
Good luck to ALL of the EHS wrestlers 2008-2009!
December 9, 2008 at 9:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
beth (anonymous) says...
Here are the stories that the Gazette ran in the Sports section on Monday: Locally - ESU men's and women's basketball home game wins; EHS girls basketball home win; EHS wrestling road win; Area HS basketball round up of Lebo, Hartford and Madison; and nationally - Chiefs lose at Denver; K-State basketball loses at Oregon and a story on the National Championship game in football.
Not to take anything away from those kids, but do you really think that a JV meet should be reported on in the same manner as the stories mentioned above? There is a reason it is called JUNIOR varsity. Like it or not our society rewards the "stand-outs". Do you see stories on the JV basketball teams? The JV football team? In any paper, not just the Gazette. Try and find a story on high school wrestling in the Kansas City Star or Wichita Eagle or even the Pittsburg Morning Sun or even the Ark City Traveller. I think the Gazette sports staff does a fine job of trying to cover all the sports there are to offer in the Emporia area. Do they get to everything? No, but in an era of newspapers downsizing and only covering the national news, I think the Gazette should be commended for trying to maintain a strong local sports section. I wish they could do some more, but I know their resources are stretched pretty thin as it is.
December 10, 2008 at 9:46 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
flexj66801 (anonymous) says...
Ever wonder why most people are getting their news from the internet instead of buying a news paper & now the papers are struggling?
I'm curious why a Gazette photographer was taking pictures at the tournament Saturday if it wasn't going to be reported on or even mention that it happened, Sounds like wasting his time to me. If Gazette staff are already there how is that "stretching their resources pretty thin"?? But who cares... Its JUST a large sporting event that happened in our great little town. The JV team was mentioned in the Dec. 5th wrestling article for a much smaller event so why not the larger event? I'm well aware of the prestige of stand out athletes, I have a niece who was mentioned in 95% of all EHS gymnastics articles a couple of years ago. I didn't think it was right then not to mention the entire team, And I don't think it is right now.
As far as local papers doing national news, call me crazy but I thought it was a local paper for a reason, for LOCAL news! If I want news from other areas I read THAT areas news paper or pick up a USA today for a broader perspective. I don't rely on finding articles about Emporia in a nationwide publication, That would be why we have a local paper... Or have I just gone mad?!?!
December 10, 2008 at 1:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
averagejoe (anonymous) says...
Why stop at junior varsity, Gazette? How about Spartan league basketball players? They work hard, too!
And while you're at it, I want the JV and varsity wrestlers covered at all the area's schools. But don't forget about ESU. I want those men and womens basketball games covered as well. I like EHS boys and girls basketball, and, oh, I really like the Lyon County League, don't forget them. Oh, and be sure to mix some All area teams in there as well. You should haveplenty of free time to do that.
If you cover all these events, I might pay you $0 and spend 10 minutes on your Web site without paying for a subscription. Thanks again for makeing me a happy (and non-paying) customer.
December 10, 2008 at 3:03 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
batbatly (anonymous) says...
Honestly, do we have to go over this every year? Here's the cold hard truth flex...no one, and I mean NO ONE, gives a crap about the JV wrestling team. You honestly think the gazette is going to dedicate any manpower to covering JV events? Not a chance, because once they cover one, then every whiny JV parent out there will be calling the sports staff up crying "whaaa, whaaa, why didn't you cover the JV girls basketball game" or "boo hoo, why didn't you cover the JV bowling meet?" JV sports are only there so the kids can learn and develop. Varsity sports are about winning and losing, and those are the ones the people care about. JV sports aren't going to sell any newspapers, especially not from people like you, flex, who probably don't pay for a subscription and just get it free online. So stop your weeping and wailing, because it's never going to happen, because (a) Varsity sports are the only one's that people care about, and (b) there's no time to cover JV events. Sorry, but that's the cold hard truth.
December 10, 2008 at 5:06 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
admireed (anonymous) says...
batbat...well said. Too bad it has to be repeated every year
December 10, 2008 at 9:17 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
glarson (anonymous) says...
And, here's my 25 cents (that's 2 cents adjusted for inflation).
As mentioned, The Gazette staff has neither the time nor resources to attend and cover JV sports. You'll notice we can't even get to all the area schools that play in the leagues in this area (both Lyon County and Flint Hills leagues).
But... The Gazette does have space. You may have noticed short briefs about the Emporia Middle School basketball team. You may not care to read them — although many of these athletes will be the names you'll see on high school varsity in three or four years.
Still, we publish them because a coach cares enough to send us the material so we can write a brief. We'll be happy to do that for any team that wants to get us the material. If one of the wrestling coaches wants to call, e-mail or fax JV results, they'll run in The Gazette. Same with basketball and bowling.
Those of you who know me know that I have a son that plays JV sports in high school and two playing junior high ball. As a parent, I understand wanting to see their names in print.
And we play in North Lyon County district (Northern Heights and Americus), so I'd love to see not only their names but their schools covered more. That's my personal position. I give our sports staff their professional position as to what to cover based on time and resources.
If you ask our former sports department, Michael Ashford and Jesse Newell, you'll hear that, at times, I made strong suggestions about covering a Heights game over something else because the Heights matchup would be a stronger game. I didn't always win the debate.
We do what we can; we work to develop strong relationships with coaches, and we listen to suggestions. We're also looking for stringers who can cover events that conflict with ones we're already commited to attending.
Anyone interested can contact me at larson@emporiagazette.com or C.J. Moore and Joey Berlin at sports@emporiagazette.com.
Gwen Larson
Managing Editor
December 11, 2008 at 7:44 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
koach52 (anonymous) says...
As an area person directly involved with the schools, and having been involved for many years. I feel very fortunate that the area athletes get the media attention that they do. The radio station and the paper both do a great job of covering our area kids, and always under the fine eye of a mother who knows that they had 6 rebounds and not five as reported by the gazette. In most cases the responsibility is with area coaches to provide the information to the staff at the gazette and to the media. When you don't see little Billy's name it is usually because they were not given the information by the coach. Thanks again Gazette for a very difficult job ...well done.
December 11, 2008 at 1:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )