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Wrestlers snag fifth at KVL dual meet

By Shawn Linenberger - | Dec 6, 2006

Tonganoxie emerged from the inaugural Kaw Valley League preseason dual wrestling tournament with a winning record.

The Chieftains placed fifth in the tournament with a 3-2 record.

In pool play Saturday at Basehor-Linwood, THS fell to Mill Valley, 56-24, in its first dual and then defeated Piper, 54-24, before falling to Santa Fe Trail, 63-18. Tonganoxie bounced back and defeated Basehor-Linwood, 63-16.

Tonganoxie’s 2-2 record placed the Chieftains in a fifth-place dual against Bonner Springs. THS won, 54-24.

Lansing clinched the KVL crown with a 44-36 win against Santa Fe Trail.

“I think our team performed well for the first tournament of the year,” Tonganoxie coach Jeremy Goebel said. “Because we have a lot of young guys and first-time varsity wrestlers who got introduced to high school wrestling.”

One young grappler who’s already familiar with high school wrestling is Matt Brock. The sophomore had a strong rookie season last season and opened this season with a clean sweep. He finished the day at 5-0.

“I think it’s a great start,” Brock said. “That motivates me to be better.”

Junior Travis Adcox finished the day at 4-1, as did sophomore Kevin Hamm and seniors Derek Parrett and Jonathan Ferris, who also led the team in takedowns with seven.

“Our seniors performed well,” Goebel said. “I thought they stepped up to the plate and provided some good senior leadership in terms of those youngsters kind of seeing those guys perform well.

“That kind of enabled them to take the young kids under their wing and, hopefully, develop through the seniors.”

Other wrestlers who finished the day with winning records were Steve Davis and E.J. Fields, both 3-2.

“We had numerous kids with winning records and that’s a great way to start the season off in terms of motivation and confidence for the kids,” Goebel said.

As for the new dual tournament, Brock said he preferred a regular meet in which wrestlers compete in their own weight-class tournaments. Points gained through those brackets go toward overall team scores.

However, he saw a positive with Saturday’s tournament.

“It motivates us to wrestle better as a team,” Brock said.

Goebel said he would like the tourney format tweaked.

“I think it’s good giving your kids five matches a day,” Goebel said. “I would like to see us going to a two-day tournament in which you play every team in a dual tournament and an individual champion is crowned as well. And then we wouldn’t have to have a league tournament at the end.”

Tonganoxie will compete again Friday and Saturday at a tournament in Eudora.