Wrestlers Compete at Western Kansas Tournament of Champions
The high school wrestling team traveled to Wakeeney on Friday, January 26, to compete in the Western Kansas Tournament of Champions. The Indians placed eighth as team and had four wrestlers earn individual placings.
Norton won the tournament scoring 154 team points. Smith Center placed second with 144.5. The remainder of the competing teams finished in the following order: 3rd - Phillipsburg 122.5, 4th - Plainville 120.5, 5th - Oakley 115.5, 6th - Hill City 81.5, 7th - Wichita County 78, 8th - St. Francis 60, 9th - Trego Community 58, 10th, Ellis 51, 11th - Thomas More Prep-Marian 38, and 12th - Stockton 36.
Individual results for St. Francis wrestlers
Perla Yanez: lost by fall to Segarra, Hill City; lost by a 15-0 technical fall to Pyle, Ellis; lost by fall to Colburn, Stockton. Click here to view Perla's bracket.
Aaron White: lost by a fall to Sisson, Phillipsburg; won by fall over Chapman, Wakeeney-Trego; lost by a 11-4 decision to Hamel, Hill City; lost by fall to Ridder, Wichita County. Click here to view Aaron's bracket.
Tiernan Poling (Placed 3rd): won by a fall over Howell, Stockton; won by a fall over Cole, Plainville; lost by a 16-1 technical fall to Johnson, Norton; won by a 8-1 decision over Atwood, Smith Center. Click here to view Tiernan's bracket.
Shadryon Blanka (Placed 5th): lost by fall to Minkler, Phillipsburg; won by fall over Micek, Trego Community; lost by fall to Hansen, Plainville; won by fall over Castillo, Wichita County. Click here to view Shadryon's bracket.
Luin Norris (Placed 3rd): lost by fall to Junkermeier, Plainville; won by fall over Aumiller, Trego Community; won by fall over Hernandez, Wichita County; lost by fall to Wiltfong, Norton; won by fall over Prewo, Oakley. Click here to view Luin's bracket.
Trayton Doyle (Placed 2nd): won by fall over Manchillas, Wichita County; won by fall over Smith, Plainville; won by a 3-0 decision over Dunn, Trego Community; lost by a fall to Kuhn, Smith Center. Click here to view Trayton's bracket.
Coaches Award’s
Practice Wrestler: Garin Cooper
Coach’s Award: Perla Yanez
Most Outstanding Wrestlers: Tiernan Poling, Luin Norris, and Trayton Doyle - all placed in the top 3 of the Western Kansas Tournament of Champions.
Coach Dylan Loyd shared the following comments:
"This past Friday we were able to travel down to WaKeeney and compete in the always tough Western Kansas Tournament of Champions. They started this tournament a few years back and is one that always has state/regional implications involved. This year was no different as our regional tournament will look fairly similar to this one here in a couple of weeks. It’s always good to be able to see this quality of competition. It may not always look great in the win column but, competing against some of the best kids around is what these guys need to do in order to get better. The MCL schools have always been just very physically dominant and there were a lot of impressive teams and individuals at this tournament. Right now, at this point of the season guys are starting to separate themselves from the rest of the pack. The season is getting to that point where the guys who believe in themselves and have the mental toughness to withstand the grind of the season stand above everyone else. We are not at that point yet but, we have some guys who still need to figure out just how good they are. At this point in the season everyone on this team have been tested. We have a pretty good feel of where we are at and, know that there is still work to do. These next couple of weeks will be two of the most important weeks of our season. We will have good practices here to help us get to where we need to be. The goal is to keep getting better every single day and just keep focusing on things that we can control; that will be paramount to attaining goals.
Individually, Perla Yanez had a tough day. She battled in a pretty tough weight class and really did some good things. She is wrestling in a weight class with a lot of depth and with a lot of young wrestlers who just have a lot of experience. In past years, you typically don’t see this amount of experience at this weight class. Perla continues to get better each week, and she’s always improving. Right now, she just needs to really hunker down and correct some mental mistakes and just keep chipping away. Aaron White continues to battle. He still is giving up crucial points by getting out of position and its very important for him to really work on correcting that. Anytime you start getting tired the first thing to go is your positioning. If you maintain solid position its hard to give up points. He just needs to keep working hard and being disciplined. Tiernan Poling had a good weekend and just keeps getting better. His one loss was to a returning state champion. So far, this season he has only lost to really good quality kids and that’s huge. This weekend Tiernan did a better job of working to get to his shots. I think if he continues to work on that he will be a very tough guy to beat. Still gets himself out of position every now and again, and he needs to work on cleaning that up, but I like where he’s at right now. Shadyron Blanka really had a perfect opportunity to finish 3rd this weekend had he of finished his first match like he started it. Had he of done that I think it would have been huge for his confidence. He’s getting better and that’s what we are looking for and wanting right now. There still things to improve, and all of them are fixable. He’s a young kid with quite a bit of potential, but I think he can shake things up here and make regionals very interesting. He has that kind of ability, he just needs to believe it for himself. Luin Norris had an up and down weekend. He was able to finish the tournament strong and that’s a positive moving forward. He was in position to win a very important match against his opponent from Plainville. He just made a mistake and ended up in a bad situation. I think he is one that if he puts it altogether can get out of our regional. He just really needs to hone down and correct mistakes, he does those things and he do something. Trayton Doyle had a weekend he really needed. Up to this point in the season he hadn’t seen the quality of competition he needed to in order to be ready for the post season. This weekend he was able to compete against two quality opponents. I know it wasn’t the outcome he had wanted, but getting beat can always be a good thing if you go about it in the right way. He now knows where he’s at and what he needs to continue to work on. He’s in a good place and now just needs to re-evaluate somethings and train hard.
This week we will travel to Leoti on Friday to compete in the Leoti Invitational. This will be our third year of competing in this tournament. Right now, the most important thing for us is to get some confidence and get healthy. We have had a pretty tough run of tournaments here in the month of January. We need to really figure some things out and really work on correcting these mistakes we continue to make. The end of the season is near and this is the time of year where things get fun. Everybody is nursing some sort of injury, but the guys who believe are the ones who always separate themselves. We have to start believing and when we do the opportunity to do big things will be there."
The Indians will wrestle in the Leoti Invitational on Friday, February 2.
