By ADAM STEWART

News editor

Every Marion High School wrestler who competed Friday and Saturday in the Halstead Invitational advanced to the medal rounds and placed in the top six.

That was good enough for Marion to place second out of 21 teams in the invitational, despite having three open weight classes.

Marion had two wrestlers in matchups of the top two ranked wrestlers in the state in the finals.

At 152 pounds, senior Brody Carroll, ranked second in Kansas, faced top-ranked Alex Thibault of Halstead; and at 220 pounds, senior Evan Slater — also ranked second — wrestled against top-ranked Ryker Greenbaum of Douglass.

Neither Carroll nor Slater had much success in those matchups. Carroll fell behind 4-0 in the first round and 5-0 in the second round. He lost by a score of 7-1 to place second.

Greenbaum pinned Slater in the first round, leaving him in second place.

“We’re going to have to get a lot better to win state championships like we want,” coach Chad Adkins said after the tournament.

That improvement will take a lot of hard work, he said.

In the 113-pound weight class, sophomore Beretta Janzen reached the third-place match against Kaden Sare of Smoky Valley. The match was low scoring through the first two rounds, with Janzen trailing 1-0 after two rounds. Janzen won in the third round with a pin.

Adkins said Janzen was the best of the Marion wrestlers in the tournament at sticking to his game plan, avoiding mistakes, and wrestling with good fundamentals.

In the 120-pound division, freshman Remington Putter faced John Brunner of Remington for fifth place. Putter dominated scoring in the first two rounds, going up 9-0, before winning in the third round via pin.

Senior Eric Regnier faced Zack Turner of Southeast of Saline for fifth place in the 126-pound division. Regnier trailed 2-0 after the first round and lost by pin in the second round, placing sixth.

Senior Brayden Putter defeated Zach Thornburg of Remington by a 2-1 score for fifth place at 138 pounds.

Junior Luke Steele lost by pinfall in the second round against Lane Moran of Leon-Bluestem, placing sixth in the 145-pound division.

Senior Derrick Dvorak placed fifth at 160 pounds by pinning Remington’s Kolby Burns in the second round. Dvorak led 2-1 after the first round.

Junior Zac Lewman wrestled Kolby Carr of Douglass to a stalemate, tied at 0, in the first round of their fifth-place match at 170 pounds, but Carr pinned Lewman in the second round.

Sophomore Adam Janzen faced Hunter Ackermann of Douglass in the third-place match at 182 pounds. In a high-scoring match, Janzen fell behind 5-1 in the first round, but caught up a little bit in the second round, 8-5. Ackermann won on points, 13-8.

Junior John Nordquist fell behind 2-0 in the fifth-place match at 195 pounds against Wyat Goodin of Wichita Independent. Goodin pinned him in the second round.

Consistency in the early matches was what put the Marion wrestlers in position to earn medals, Adkins said.

“They’ve all been wrestling how they’re capable of,” he said. “When it’s inconsistent, I don’t know what to expect sometimes.”

Marion’s next tournament will be the Eureka Invitational on Saturday.