If veterans such as Sal Tovar, Justin Rose and Mark Kolmer are the sluggers in the heart of Emporia High’s wrestling lineup, sophomore Chase Sanchez could be called the top-ranked Spartans’ resident utility player.
Playing a sport in which team success comes primarily from individual achievement, Sanchez has been about as much of a team player as a grappler can be. He’s hopped from weight class to weight class both thanks to his own fluctuating weight — he gained some after getting sick earlier this year — and because of team needs.
“I just jumped around just ’cause the team needed me to jump around,” Sanchez said. “I was just doing (whatever I could do) for the team.”
After all the moving around — to four different classes in all — Sanchez is finally settled in at 145 pounds. And within the 145 class, he’s a slugger. That class is where he’s now the reigning Centennial League champion after last weekend’s league tournament, it’s where he’s ranked at No. 6 in Class 5A, and it’s where he’ll be at this weekend’s regional tournament on the EHS mat — and, if Sanchez gets there, at the state tournament in Valley Center the following weekend.
“I feel like I’m wrestling at the top of my potential right now,” he said.
Sanchez is now 2-for-2 on league titles. He won the Centennial crown last year at 130 pounds, and that class is where he started this season.
“That was where he thought he wanted to be, what he thought was gonna be best for the team, and he was sacrificing, and (it) wasn’t a good situation for him,” EHS coach Greg Buckbee said.
Sanchez wrestled at 130 through the pre-break Winter Wrestling Classic, but then put on weight after falling ill. When he returned to action at the Jan. 14 home dual against Paola and Gardner-Edgerton, he wrestled at 152 pounds in his first match, and at 145 in his second, winning both bouts.
He and the Spartans figured he’d stay at 145 for the remainder of the year — but then came another curveball. Tavo Dikin, the Spartans’ 140-pound grappler ranked second in Class 5A, got sick before the Rocky Welton Invitational in Garden City on the weekend of Jan. 31. So Sanchez stepped in at 140 that weekend before finally — cross your fingers, Spartan fans — returning to 145 for good at senior night.
“He’s handled it great,” Buckbee said. “He just goes out there and wrestles like he’s supposed to.”
“It wasn’t really that much tougher,” Sanchez said. “It was just, they were a lot more stronger than I thought they were (in the higher classes).”
With two league titles, the next step for Sanchez is to wrestle well this weekend and earn his first trip to state at the Kansas Coliseum next weekend.
“I had a tough regional last year,” he said. “But (I’m) hoping to come back strong and just get to state this year, and hopefully place.”
A year after the Spartans sent nine wrestlers to state and finished sixth as a team, Sanchez is one of about that many grapplers who are good bets to grab a top-four spot on Saturday and represent EHS at Valley Center. Tovar (135 pounds), Rose (130), Kolmer (189) and Dikin also won their respective league titles last weekend, as did Zeb Peak at 152 pounds, Logan Gaskill at 160 and Lorenzo Serna at 285.
Joining EHS in this weekend’s regional, beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday, will be Gardner-Edgerton, St. Thomas Aquinas, Mill Valley, Shawnee Heights, Highland Park, Seaman and Topeka West. Gardner-Edgerton, which Emporia beat 59-12 in their dual earlier this year, is the only other top-10 school the Spartans will face at the regional. The Trailblazers are No. 7 in the current Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association rankings.