VALLEY CENTER — On a first day that brought some surprises for Emporia High — some good, others not so good — the most important result of all was an unsurprising one: the Spartans are in excellent shape to bring home their 10th State wrestling team title tonight.
Three Spartans advanced to today’s championship finals at the Kansas Coliseum, and after also getting seven wrestlers in the semifinals and 10 of their 13 State qualifiers to the quarterfinals, Emporia had a commanding 23.5-point lead over Lansing in the Class 5A team standings at the end of Friday’s action. And with plenty of observers marveling once again at how good Emporia’s squad is, coach Greg Buckbee still believed his team could’ve done more on Day One.
“We had some surprise wins, some surprise losses,” Buckbee said. “Those surprise losses hurt, surprise wins get you pumped. I thought we were a little tight. I didn’t think we wrestled very well.”
Because the Spartans have been Class 5A’s top-ranked squad all year, it stands to reason that most of what went right for EHS wasn’t a surprise. For instance, the Spartans’ finalists for today — seniors Sal Tovar and Tavo Dikin and junior Lorenzo Serna — were good bets to become entries in their respective championship bouts. But there were some pleasant surprises, like Zeb Peak’s first-round pin of Pittsburg’s Jordan Brown, mixed in with some bad ones — in particular, the fact that Mark Kolmer won’t be wrestling in today’s 189-pound finals.
Tovar, in reaching the 135-pound championship, tied Dusty Spaulding’s EHS career record of 131 wins with Spaulding in attendance at the Coliseum. Nos. 129 and 130 came easily for Tovar — he pinned Miege’s Joe McSorley in just 29 seconds for a first-round win and marched to a 9-1 major decision over J.R. Roman of Hutchinson in the quarterfinals. But then his semifinal opponent, third-ranked Dillon Scanlon of Lansing, wasn’t much of a challenge, either.
Tovar burst in on Scanlon’s legs soon after the opening whistle, quickly got two takedown points, then used tremendous footwork to rotate around Scanlon and get position to pin him, which he did in just 46 seconds of work. Tovar got congratulations from his coaches and teammates, as well as a standing ovation from some of the EHS faithful as he left the ring.
“It’s a great feeling,” Tovar said. “I was pumped and ready to go, and I just caught him, and I wasn’t gonna let him go out of bounds. And I just stuck him for the fans out here who watch me and support me.”
Dikin looked dominant at 140 pounds, pinning Ryan Demato of Bonner Springs in less than a minute in the first round and beating Allen Catalan of Liberal by a 6-1 decision in the quarters. In the semis, Turner’s Jason Langford got rough with Dikin, at one point apparently throwing a punch, which cost him a penalty point. But Dikin wasn’t messed with on the scoreboard, where he ended up on top 8-1.
“I’m not real sure of that one,” Dikin said when asked if Langford threw a punch. “He might’ve, but I got a point for it, so it’s OK. Really, (assistant coach Ryan Karjala) just wanted to help me through. He kept telling me to go back, go back. And I finally did, and he went right over the top of me, so I got my first two (points).”
Serna’s victories at 285 pounds in his first trip to State were less eventful, but just as big. He pinned Newton’s David Garcia in Round One, then beat Ricky Gomez of Liberal by a 7-2 decision in the quarterfinals and McPherson’s Zach Peterson 3-1 in the semis. Even as one of the Spartans who’d gotten EHS to the top of the standings, Serna wasn’t even ready to concede that the Spartans are in good shape to win the title.
“It’s a little too early to determine that,” he said. “We still gotta perform tomorrow.”
Of the four Spartans — Kolmer, Peak, Logan Gaskill and Chase Sanchez — who made it to the semifinals only to fall short of the finals, Kolmer’s defeat was easily the biggest shock. The top-ranked grappler at 189 pounds, Kolmer had an easy time pinning Brandon Pate of Winfield in the first round, then had trouble with Hutchinson’s Dakota Sherry in the quarterfinals, but scored a go-ahead takedown near the end of the second period to eke out a 3-2 win.
Against Liberal’s Nate Davis in the semis, Kolmer — last year’s State runner-up — had a 2-0 lead with time winding away in the third period. But with about seven seconds left, Davis turned a reversal on Kolmer, sending the match to overtime.
“Man, he just kind of sat back on his haunches, sat back on his hips, and Davis just ran him over,” Buckbee said. “That’s what Mark usually does to people.”
With four seconds left in the second OT, Davis notched a pin, Kolmer remained on his back on the mat for several seconds afterward, clearly dejected about falling short of a State championship.
“It’ll feel a lot better (if we win the team championship),” Kolmer said, “but it’s still one of my goals down the drain.”
Peak, ranked No. 6 in the state at 152 pounds entering the tournament, had an outstanding day before his semifinal loss to Liberal’s Tyler Sutherland by pin. He beat Anthony Mies of Wichita Carroll by a 10-2 major decision in the first round, setting him up for a match with Brown, ranked No. 3 for the semis. But Peak not only defeated Brown, he made awfully quick work of him. After getting ahead by a 4-2 score, he pinned Brown with eight seconds left in the first period.
Gaskill won by a 10-0 major decision and a 6-5 count in his first two bouts, then ran into the top-ranked wrestler at 160 pounds, Bishop Carroll’s Kyle Detmer. Detmer dominated the semifinal bout, beating Gaskill by a 12-4 major decision.
Sanchez won his first 145-pound match by injury default, then scored a fall in the quarterfinals before making top-ranked Colby Crank of Hutchinson work for a win. But Crank sent Sanchez to the back side in a well-wrestled match that ended in a 6-5 decision.
Spartans losing their first-round matches were Colby Walecki at 125 pounds, Taylor Lee at 171 and Jordan Barr at 215. They then went a collective 2-1 in the consolation first round Friday afternoon, with Walecki and Lee getting wins.
Both Dakin brothers, Bryce at 103 pounds and Jared at 119, won their first-round matches before suffering losses in the quarterfinals. Other than Kolmer’s defeat, probably the biggest bad surprise was Justin Rose losing in the quarters.
Rose, making his fourth State tournament appearance, fell behind 8-0 in the first two periods against Andover Central’s Jake Umscheid. While still trailing by that score coming down onto the final minute of the third period, he appeared to come close to pinning Umscheid near the edge of the ring. The official was on the ground for an extended period of time, studying Umscheid’s shoulders, before Umscheid finally broke out of Rose’s grasp with less than a minute left, leaving Rose with three near-fall points. He ended up losing the match 8-4, bouncing him to this morning’s cross-bracket action.
Emporia finished the day with 113.50 team points. Lansing had 90, followed by Carroll with 88, Liberal with 75 and Valley Center with 70.
Buckbee believed the back side results today would be instrumental in determining whether the Spartans become champs — meaning that Kolmer, Rose and the other Spartans who are still wrestling for non-individual glory needed to stay motivated.
“That’s the State title right there,” Buckbee said. “If you wrestle well on the back side and you bring those kids on through and win in those matches, that’s the State title right there.”
In the EHS title bouts scheduled for today, Tovar will wrestle Winfield’s Vance Oliver and attempt to get his record-setting 132nd win; Dikin will take on Cade Blair of Valley Center; and Serna will wrestle Tony Marquez of Carroll.
Class 5A State Tournament
Day One
Friday
Top 10 team scores
Emporia 113.50, Lansing 90, Bishop Carroll 88, Liberal 75, Valley Center 70, Andover Central 68.50, Arkansas City 65, McPherson 59, Mill Valley 51, Great Bend 45.