Hays High School qualified 14 wrestlers – seven girls and seven boys – to compete in the state tournaments, which are Feb. 21-22 for the girls at Park City and Feb. 23-24 for the boys also at Park City.

On Feb. 9, the girls wrestling team competed in Dodge City for regionals, hoping to end a long season with a handful of state qualifiers.

The lone champion for Hays was senior Lexi Burton, who beat Amayah Caro from Garden City to take home the gold medal. Senior Lexi Barnett, senior Addison Otte, junior Tionna Napue and freshman Timber Lovewell all took third place in their weight classes. Senior Katie Gutierrez and freshman Kayla Macias finished out the qualifiers by taking fourth place.

On Feb. 16 and 17, the boys wrestling team travelled to regionals in Arkansas City. After the girls team qualified seven competitors the week prior, the boys team hoped to replicate that in their tournament.

Senior Harley Zimmerman, the defending 5A champion in his weight class, was the Indians’ only finalist at regionals after winning by fall over Blake Stein from Great Bend. Other qualifiers included senior Elijah McCullough and sophomore Jonathan Rigler in fourth, junior Dalton Meyers in fifth, senior Tacoma Augustine in sixth, senior Will Linenberger in seventh and freshman Camden Luck in eighth.

Since this is his first year wrestling for Hays High, Luck was a first-time competitor at regionals.

“It was exciting,” Luck said. “It was fun, but I think I could’ve done better.”