Staff writer
The Marion Warriors came very close to winning the Hesston wrestling tournament Saturday missing first place by less than 16 points.
Marion scored 151.5 points second, only to Chaparral’s tally of 167.
“We wrestled very well this weekend,” coach Chad Adkins said, “better than we did the week before. Ezra (Darnall), Bryce (Shults), Tyler (Palic), and Remington (Putter) also wrestled particularly well.”
He said that the team might have won the tournament if they had a full roster.
However, the Warriors had two tournament champions among eight of 11 wrestlers who placed in the top four of their brackets.
Darnall and Shults were undefeated at 132 and 138 pounds.
“Ezra came from behind against a very good kid from Nickerson,” Adkins said. “It was definitely his best tournament of his career. Bryce also got to the championship by wrestling very smart. He is putting together all the tools needed to win a lot of matches this year. ”
Adkins said Noah Albin made it to the finals where he finally lost, going 2-1 to come in second at 145 pounds.
“He scrambles better than anyone on our team,” Adkins said.
Remington Putter also logged a 2-1 record to place second at 160 pounds.
“Remington was the last of our four finalists and he lost a very close match but wrestled very well,” Adkins said. “I am looking forward to some very special things from him this season.”
Tyler Palic went 3-1 to place third at 195 pounds.
“We were beating a ranked kid from Chapparal 7-2 going into the third period in the semi finals,” Adkins said. “We lost our balance in a scramble situation and got caught. We’ll get that match next time.”
Jarrett Johnson also went 3-1 to place third at 126 pounds.
Charlie Nordquist went 3-2 to place fourth. Jarret McLinden went 2-2 and came in fourth, too.
Kolton Brewer went 1-2 but did not place, while Jared Rahe and Ryan Cochran were 0-2 in their respective weight classes.
The Warriors wrestle at 3 p.m. Friday in the Marion County Duals.