Wrestlers Compete In State Tournament
Sherlock and Pacheco Place Third
Five Indian wrestlers qualified for the 3-2-1A State Wrestling Tournament by placing in the top four positions in the Regional Tournament in Ellis. Freddy Pacheco (112), Cody Sherlock (125), Terrance Lamb (130), Darris Keller (135), and Jesse Pacheco (145) all represented St. Francis in the State Tournament on Friday and Saturday, February 27th and 28th.
In Friday's action, three wrestlers--Freddy Pacheco, Darris Keller, and Terrance Lamb were eliminated from the tournament. Cody Sherlock and Jesse Pacheco advanced to the medal rounds and both placed 3rd in Saturday's competition.
Freddie Pacheco (26-13) was defeated by Anthony Henely (26-2; ranked #5 by KWCA) of Herington by an 8-5 score in his first match. Freddy lost by fall (2:09) to Michael Vander Linden (36-8) of Burlington in his second match and was eliminated from the tournament.
Cody Sherlock (31-8; ranked #4 by KWCA) met Mark Smith (23-11) of Rossville in round one and won by an 8-1 decision. Cody defeated Matt Unruh (30-4; ranked #5 by KWCA) of Rock Creek 9-5 in the second round. Cody lost to Devin Frye (23-3; ranked #2 by KWCA) of Eureka by a 6-2 score in the championship semifinals. Frye will wrestle for the state championship. On Saturday, Cody wrestled Aaron Patton of Wellsville (26-2; defending state champion at 119#: ranked #1 by KWCA) and defeated Patton in a 3-0 decision. Cody then wrestled in the third place match against McMullen of Plainville winning 4-0. Cody placed third in the tournament.
At 130 pounds, Terrance Lamb (34-5) defeated Adam Engelkin (19-10) of Oskaloosa by a technical fall (17-1) in round one. In his second match, Terrance was defeated 6-1 by Cody Wildin (30-3) of Marion. Wildin has advanced to wrestle for the championship at 130 pounds. Terrance later was defeated by Cole Orr (26-12) of Hill City by a narrow 3-2 margin. Terrance was thus eliminated from further action.
Darris Keller lost to Devin Bingham (30-6) of Burlingame by a 17-7 decision. In round two, Darris pinned Matthew Yoder (24-12) of Hillsboro in 2:16. In round three, Darris lost by fall to Sheldon Graves (38-7) of Rossville to end his season.
Jesse Pacheco (27-9) defeated Kenny Cummings (33-10) of West Elk 7-5 in round one. Jesse pinned D.J. Brown (35-9) of Plainville in 4:57 in round two to advance to the championship semifinals. There, Jesse met (defending champion at 140#) Cas Spangler (ranked #2 by KWCA) of Beloit and lost by an 18-8 decision. On Saturday, Jesse defeated McKenna of Norton in a 6-4 decision and then wrestled in the third place match against Wichman of Silver Lake. Jesse won an exciting 13-11 decision to win third place.
Going into the championship round of the tournament, St. Francis was in 16th place with 32.5 points.
Good job, wrestlers!
Please click on the photos to view a slideshows from the state tournament.
