Do Sal Tovar a favor and don’t show him this story.
Tovar seems to think that the Emporia High wrestling team has a lot of naysayers this season. He’s under the impression that the Spartans are the Rodney Dangerfield of Kansas wrestling.
Well, the truth is the Spartans have been ranked first in Class 5A all season, and after Tuesday’s meet at Emporia High, it doesn’t appear they’re going to leave the top spot at all this season.
Emporia opened Tuesday’s meet with a 47-24 win over Paola, and then finished the night by making a statement with a 59-12 victory over Gardner-Edgerton, the third-ranked team in 5A.
“A lot of people think we won’t win state, and this proves that we are good and we should be No. 1,” Tovar said. “It just sets the bar up high.”
The Trailblazers got off to a good start against the Spartans, taking a 12-0 lead by winning the 112 and 119 weight classes against EHS freshman Skyler Carlson and sophomore Bladimir Flores. But then Emporia’s experienced wrestlers took the mat and quickly flipped the score.
Senior Jared Dakin won his only match of the night at 125 pounds, scoring the only point of the match in the third period by escaping from the bottom position.
Junior Colby Walecki, who has taken over the 130-pound spot, pinned Justin Long with 33.9 seconds left in the first period.
Tovar was next at 135, wrestling against the third-ranked wrestler in 5A, Micah Flora-Swick. Tovar, the top-ranked wrestler in 5A, couldn’t get the pin, but won convincingly, 14-1.
“I wanted to build confidence, set an example to people that look at this result,” he said, “and just intimidate everyone, is what I’m trying to do.”
Tovar’s win gave Emporia the lead, 13-12, and senior Tavo Dikin continued to add to it, winning his match at 140 pounds, 6-2.
Sophomore Chase Sanchez was one of three Emporia wrestlers to wrestle both his matches. Sanchez has been sick and he returned to action Tuesday. He gained weight during his absence and won his first match of the night at 152 pounds.
Against Gardner-Edgerton, he moved down to 145, the weight he plans to wrestle at the rest of the season. Sanchez pinned John Hernandez with 47.1 seconds left in the second period.
Junior Logan Gaskill and senior Caleb Chiroy both pinned their opponents in the first period. Gaskill finished his opponent off at 152 with 4.5 seconds left in the first period, and Chilroy won his match at 160 with 22.4 seconds left.
Senior Taylor Lee went unopposed at 171. Senior Mark Kolmer pinned Alex Chamblin 35 seconds into the second period at 189 pounds.
Senior Jordan Barr won a long match against Kyle Pacheco, 6-4. Pacheco had to take several injury timeouts and even led 2-1, but Barr came back and controlled most of the match.
Junior heavyweight Lorenzo Serna followed his title at Derby on Saturday by going 2-0 on Tuesday. Serna pinned Paola’s Cale Karrigan with 14.9 seconds left in the first period. He was unable to pin Gardner-Edgerton’s Pat Thomas, the sixth-ranked wrestler in 5A, but still won easily, 14-1.
“It (the Derby tournament) motivated me a lot, because the competition from Derby was like a mini-state for me, and I know where I’m at right now and I know where I need to be later on,” Serna said. “I can’t get high up over myself. I still have to push myself to get better.”
Freshman Bryce Dakin finished off the Trailblazers, winning 5-2 in the final match of the night and giving the Spartans 12 straight wins after dropping the first two matches. Dakin won both his matches on the night.
The Spartans did not come into Tuesday’s meet overconfident after finishing second at Derby behind Goddard, the top-ranked team in 6A. EHS coach Greg Buckbee said the Spartans came out a little flat at Derby, but he felt they wrestled better on Tuesday.
The Spartans came into the meet wanting to make a statement.
“It’s Emporia wrestling and we kind of started to put out a big name for Emporia, and it does motivate us because we don’t want to be behind anybody,” Serna said. “We want to be on top.”
While Emporia’s more experienced wrestlers showed their strength, the younger wrestlers also performed well against Paola, showing the depth of the program.
Buckbee sat several of his seniors against Paola, because they have to sit at least one meet this year and he wanted to make sure they are able to wrestle later this season on senior night.
The wrestlers who filled in barely missed a beat. Junior Andrew Laib won at 160; junior Nathaniel Flanagin won at 171 and freshman Nic Dikin won at 215.
“We told them that we don’t expect much of a dropoff,” Buckbee said. “When we’re ready to put you in as a varsity wrestler, we want you to compete, and they did that.”
Senior Zeb Peak also won his match against Paola at 145, one of the only EHS top wrestlers to sit out against Gardner-Edgerton.
The Spartans are back in action on Friday at the two-day Newton tournament. Their next home meet is on Jan. 24.
Tuesday at EHS
Team results
Gardner-Edgerton def. Paola 51-18; Emporia def. Paola 47-24; Emporia def. Gardner-Edgerton 59-12.
Emporia results
103 — B. Dakin, EMP, def. Ebeling, PAO, 16-1; Dakin def. Wade, GE, fall 1:35.
112 — Harris, PAO, def. Detwiler, EMP, 2-1; Stokes, GE, def. Carlson, EMP, fall 3:13.
119 — Pursley, PAO, def. Flores, EMP, fall 2:49; Stokes, GE, def. Flores, fall 1:54.
125 — Staats, PAO, def. Walburn, EMP, fall 1:52; J. Dakin, EMP, def. Litvak, GE, 1-0.
130 — Walecki, EMP, def. Long, GE, fall 1:27.
135 — Tovar, EMP, def. Flora-Swick, GE, 14-1.
140 — Mosley, PAO, def. Padilla, EMP, fall 3:06; T. Dikin, EMP, def. Kidwell, GE, 6-2.
145 — Peak, EMP, def. Timpe, PAO, fall 3:46; Sanchez, EMP, def. Hernandez, GE, fall 3:13.
152 — Sanchez, EMP, def. Henness, PAO, 19-3; Gaskill, EMP, def. Gilliland, GE, fall 1:55.
160 — Laib, EMP, def. Helliker, PAO, 8-0; Chiroy, EMP, def. Stockton, GE, fall 1:38.
171 — Flanagin, EMP, def. Hall, PAO, fall 1:21.
189 — Staats, PAO, def. Cardenas, EMP, 8-5; Kolmer, EMP, def. Chamblin, GE, fall 2:35.
215 — N. Dikin, EMP, def. Trumbley, PAO, 3-1; Barr, EMP, def. Pacheco, GE, 6-4.
285 — Serna, EMP, def. Karrigan, PAO, fall 1:45; Serna def. Thomas, GE, 14-1.