The Hays High boys wrestling team competed at the home Bob Kuhn Invitational on Jan. 24-25 in Hays, while the girls competed in Dodge City on Jan. 23.
Competing in Hays for the boys, junior Jonathan Rigler and sophomore Cyler Luck both placed second out of their weight divisions and got 23.5 points each for the team.
Senior Dalton Meyers placed third with 18 points; sophomore Tanner Geist placed third with 10 points; freshman Gaven Deneault placed fifth with 12 points; sophomore Camden Luck placed sixth with four points; and senior Roberto Macias placed seventh with 6.5 points.
senior Camdyn Copper, junior Mason Desaire, junior Grady Lind, sophomore Ethan Branaman and freshman Brian Prough competed, but did not place at the tournament.
“Our tournament numbers were down a little bit, but overall, we wrestled all right,” coach Heath Meder said. “We had a few rounds in the tournament where we didn’t wrestle that well, but we did come away with a couple kids in the finals. We had Johnny Rigler in the finals. In fact, he was wrestling really well but lost in the finals. Also, we had Cyler Luck place in the finals. It was a nice surprise to finish as high as he did. We knew he could wrestle that well, but it’s just nice to see those achievements.”
On the girls’ side, competing in Dodge City, sophomore Crystal Walters and freshman Jenessa Carrillo won their matches, scoring six points each for the team, and senior Ava Ruiz and sophomore Emersyn Copper scored three points each.
Senior Tiona Napue, junior Audrey Gutierrez, junior Addison Neuburger, sophomore Timer Lovewell, sophomore Keyla Macias, sophomore Kenlee Vehige, sophomore Addalyn Wilkie and freshman Chloe Robben all competed also but did not score points for the team.
“Dodge City’s girls’ team is nationally ranked right now,” Meder said. “The Dodge City girls’ team is really solid. And we came out and competed. We knew in the dual that we might not do well, but honestly, wrestling against that caliber, I thought we showed up, and we won some matches that we needed to.”
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