No medals, but Warriors win two at state wrestling meet
Sports reporter
With three wrestlers qualifying at the 3A-2A-1A state wrestling meet this past weekend at Hays, Marion High School had a shot at bringing home a medal.
Instead, all three wrestlers failed to do so, going 2-6 in eight matches wrestled.
Senior Casey Nelson and sophomore Charlie Holub won their first matches, but proceeded to lose the next two, knocking them out of medal contention. Senior Gavin Moore lost his only two matches.
Still MHS head coach Chad Adkins was proud of his wrestlers making it this far.
The three wrestlers finished the season with a combined record of 53-44.
Holub was the first on the mat Friday for the Warriors as he faced Spencer Hinson of Silver Lake in the 135-pound class. Hinson came in at 30-14 against Holub's record of 17-12.
Holub began the match tentatively after not wrestling in practice due to a knee injury, but held on to defeat Hinson, 7-4.
His next match against Phillipsburg's 32-5 Kade Bloom did not go as well, lasting only 35 seconds.
Holub wrestled one match Saturday and fell to Norton's Jon Harding, 14-0.
"We knew it was going to be an uphill battle for Charlie," Adkins said because he had not been able to practice. "Not that he couldn't do it, we just knew it would be a battle."
The good thing for Holub is he has two more years to earn a state medal.
"That's the advantage of coming as a sophomore," Adkins said. "For him to win a match is an accomplishment in itself."
Moore then took the mat against Atchison County Community's Brian Faught. Moore fell behind early 9-4, but used two reversals later to cut the lead to 9-8. Faught used a reversal of his own and back points to take the 13-8 victory.
Moore lost his next match to Ryan Swatzell of Phillipsburg, 16-3. The losses at the tournament gave Moore a 20-18 record, but also the memory of qualifying for state in his final year.
Nelson, who led Marion with a 24-10 record heading in to the tournament, added a notch to his win column when he defeated Hoxie's David Obermeyer, 4-1, in the first round.
Obermeyer had been 30-13, but Nelson wore him down all match and allowed him to score just one point.
"Casey wrestled very, very well," Adkins said.
Needing a victory in the next round to ensure a medal, Nelson fell to Southeast of Saline's Matt McGinty, 16-0. Nelson had wrestled him before, losing just 5-4, but McGinty used an array of takedowns and back points to defeat the Warrior senior.
"If you make a mistake here, they capitalize," Adkins said. "And that's what happened."
Despite not taking home any medals, Adkins said the three qualifiers did everything he asked them to do.
"They wrestled really well in the first round, all three of them," he said. "You just can't make many mistakes here."
