Emporia High’s senior wrestlers went out winners — naturally — in their final home tournament.
The Spartan seniors went a collective 9-1 in duals against Shawnee Mission South and Shawnee Mission West on Tuesday night, and Emporia easily won both matchups, soundly crushing South 59-18 and coming back from an early deficit to beat West 51-27. A senior class that’s accomplished plenty — and still has winning a state championship on its to-do list — wasn’t overly emotional about grappling in the EHS gym for the last time. But giving the home fans a winning outcome was a must, and the Spartans did it easily.
“It went by fast,” Sal Tovar said, “and I wanted to make it good, make a good impression. That’s what I was trying to do, just crush at my last home meet.”
Tovar did that, earning pins in each of his two matches, and so did his teammates. With two senior captains, Justin Rose and Tavo Dikin, dressed in street clothes Tuesday with injury and illness, respectively, the rest of the seniors and the younger Spartans alike picked up the slack.
Drama was almost nonexistent in the matchup against South, as seniors Jared Dakin, Tovar and Taylor Lee, along with Miguel Ayala, Chase Sanchez and Mark Kolmer, all earned pins for EHS. Every match against South was decided by fall, technical fall or default except two, and one of those decisions was a major one — Tyler Trahoon’s 14-6 victory over J.W. Pabst at 130 pounds. That left Jordan Barr’s match with Ricky Ashley at 215 pounds as the only nailbiter of Round One — although for Barr, it would be the first of two tough matches.
Barr got hold of Ashley’s left leg and scored a reversal, propelling the two outside the ring at the 1:20 mark of the first period. But Ashley managed an escape in both the second and third periods, sending the match to overtime. Neither scored until the second OT, when a Barr escape gave him a 3-2 lead. He hung on in the third OT to win the match.
“I think I was in better condition than he was,” Barr said, “and so he got pretty gassed, and so he just kinda gave up.”
Ayala, a freshman at 140 pounds seeing his first varsity action, moved up from the JV squad to have about as impressive a debut as he could, taking a mere 13 seconds to pin South’s Aaron Haffey.
“It made me feel like I’m better than what I (was) last week,” Ayala said of stepping onto the varsity mat. “So it was actually awesome.”
Shawnee Mission West looked as though it might give Emporia a battle early on in their matchup, as the Vikings earned four falls and a default in the first six bouts to take a 24-6 lead on the Spartans. But from then on, EHS was virtually unstoppable. Four straight falls — including first-period pins by Tovar and another senior, Zeb Peak — gave the Spartans a 30-24 lead. Also included in that run were a Sanchez pin and another fall for Ayala, who ended a furious and fascinating exchange of points with Brendan Whittenburg with a pin at the 3:30 mark. Ayala was up 19-16 at the time of the fall.
Logan Gaskill won his 160-pound match against Tyler Allen by injury default after two periods, Lee won by default at 171, and Kolmer shut out Jared Sanchez 6-0.
Then came Barr’s other barnburner, as his match with Josh Sanchez went down to the final seconds. Trailing 1-0 at the beginning of the third, Barr took the lead with a reversal with a little more than 35 seconds remaining. But in the final 25 seconds, Sanchez pulled off an escape to tie the match, then a takedown for a 4-2 victory.
“(He) just kind of lost his balance there on the edge of the mat, and kind of lost where he was, and that was the difference in the match,” EHS coach Greg Buckbee said.
Junior Lorenzo Serna closed the varsity tournament for Emporia by making quick work of Alex Meek, pinning him at the 1:10 mark.
With Tuesday’s meet came the end of the home careers of some young athletes who have allowed themselves at least a little time to reflect on what it will mean to never wrestle at EHS again.
“I’m gonna miss it a lot,” Barr said. “I like being here.”
“It’s kind of nice to see ’em grow up,” Buckbee said. “They came in as boys, and they’re leaving as men. It’s nice to see that.”
Tuesday at Emporia High
Dual results
Emporia 59, Shawnee Mission South 18; Emporia 51, Shawnee Mission West 27.
Emporia results
103 — Open
112 — Detwiler, EMP, def. Buenger, SMS, T-fall, 19-3; Coker, SMW def. Detwiler, fall 3:23.
119 — Dakin, EMP, def. Klopper, SMS, fall 1:51; Dakin def. Kestroke, SMW, fall 3:53.
125 — Becker, SMS def. Walburn, EMP, fall 5:29; Stinson, SMW, def. Walburn, fall 1:38.
130 — Trahoon, EMP, def. Pabst, SMS, maj. dec., 14-6; Kliewer, SMW, def. Trahoon, fall 1:24.
135 — Tovar, EMP, def. Lewis, SMS, fall 2:54; Tovar def. Powell, SMW, fall 1:52.
140 — Ayala, EMP, def. Haffey, SMS, fall :13; Ayala def. Whittenburg, SMW, fall 3:30.
145 — Sanchez, EMP, def. Langley, SMS, fall 2:49; Sanchez def. McMullan, SMW, fall 2:27.
152 — Peak, EMP, def. SMS, default; Peak def. Powell, SMW, fall :42.
160 — Gaskill, EMP, def. SMS, default; Gaskill def. Allen, SMW, inj. default.
171 — Lee, EMP, def. Quelle, SMS, fall 2:46; Lee def. SMW, default.
189 — Kolmer, EMP, def. Moore, SMS, fall 2:15; Kolmer, EMP, def. Ja. Sanchez, SMW, 6-0.
215 — Barr, EMP, def. Ashley, SMS, 3-2, 3 OT; Jo. Sanchez, SMW, def. Barr 4-2.
285 — Beardall, SMS, def. Birch, EMP, fall 1:52; Serna, EMP, def. Meek, SMW, fall 1:10.