Cubs’ Goodner, Elder pick up state wins

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Sports

February 27, 2017 - 12:00 AM

HAYS — The white-headed fellow spent two days at the classes 3-2-1A State Wrestling Tournament here tucked in the staging area for Smith Center’s elite team. He called the boys by first names, but, he allowed, “I’m really here to watch my grandson, Colton Hutchinson.”
With Humboldt’s three state qualifiers out of the fray, Granddad Hutchinson’s questioner, who had found a rare lower-level seat among the Redmen, replied: “Humboldt did OK, for only its second year of wrestling.” “And you had three make it to state? I’d say that was outstanding,” gushed Hutchinson. It wasn’t hyperbole on his part; he’s seen success year after year with Smith Center wrestling and football teams, the later immortalized in Joe Drape’s “Our Boys,” an Iola Reads selection of a few years ago.
Outstanding perhaps, but none of the three Cubs was effusive during the five-hour journey home Saturday. However, as it is with the other 224 state qualifiers in Kansas’ three smallest classes, it’s an accomplishment to hold dear for a lifetime.
Maybe “once in a lifetime,” said Noah Johnson, the oldest, a junior and 17, of the three Cub wrestlers. Even so, in another year all three will have another chance to attempt snatching the coveted gold ring that dangles in form of a medal that are earned by just one in each of 16 weight divisions.
“It’s everyone’s goal to get to state,” Johnson added, regardless the sport. When regionals unfolded the previous Saturday there were thousands of competitors, weighing from just over 100 pounds to nearly 300, with an eye on a state berth. Being among those who made it is in itself an accomplishment not to be undervalued, Johnson said.
“It was a great experience, and a learning experience, for them and for me,” said Tell Wyrick, Humboldt’s head coach. “We found out what it’s like to wrestle against better competition,” than the Cubs had faced throughout the season. “It’s may job next year to make sure we face better competiton” in the run-up to the regional tournament.
He thinks the experience also will whet the three wrestlers’ appetite for state-level opponents even more than it was this year. “They’d had a taste and they want it again.”
 
GUNNAR ELDER, a freshman went in at 17-6 to Friday’s first round and outlasted Charles King, a St. Mary’s freshman. Piling up a 10-5 margin over three rounds that featured quickness and enthusiasm that had both close to hyperventilation. The last two of Elder’s points came in the final eight seconds, ensuring his victory.
In his second championship round test, Elder lost to John Kuhn, 32-3 and a senor from WaKeeney-Trego County, the decision coming on a second-round pin.
That pushed Elder to the consolation bracket, where he was on the cusp of advancing — he was up 9-4 — only to lose a prolonged battle that had he and Caleb Farmer, Whitewater-Remington sophomore, squirming over the mat for a minute or more in the third. Farmer finally managed to hold Elder’s second shoulder to the spongy surface.
Whether Elder will have an opportunity in the second lightest weight class in another year is speculation. Kuhn was the only senior in the class; eight of 16 were freshmen, four were sophomores. Nature has a way of adding weight during adolescent years, with efforts to prevent that progression difficult and sometimes unadvisable.
Dagen Goodner, typically brimming with confidence ahead of the tournament, may have had to deal with his biggest hurdle when Cub wrestlers weighed in Thursday evening. He wrestles at 160 pounds, which has a leeway of 2 pounds (162). He weighed 164.5. His answer was skipping anything with calories that evening and running hard for about half an hour. That turned the trick; he officially weighed 161.2 at the arena Friday morning.
However, the exersion may have robbed Goodner (25-5) of some of his edge, although he didn’t permit that to be an excuse for what transpired. “I just didn’t wrestle to my ability” in his three matches, Goodner said.
He was off-stride in his first outing, finally winning 11-10, with his final two points coming with two seconds remaining in the third – and final – round.
In his second match in the championship bracket, Maverick Green, 31-7 junior from Atwood-Rawlings County, and Goodner, a sophomore, neither scored in the first round. Green managed a 1-0 lead after two two-minute face-offs. Goodner forged back to 2-1 (his favor), but Green tied the count and then went ahead 4-2. Goodner got a third point late in the match.
That left Goodner with a win or go home mission. His foe was Alex Van Rooy, Cherryvale senior, whom he had beaten earlier in the season. This time Rooy persevered. He used a height advantage, and a bent-leg technique to deflect Goodner’s efforts to bring him to the mat, a strategic that frustrated Goodner.
Goodner wasn’t his usually aggressive self early in the match, fell behind and then, as the third wound down, was unable to recover, dropping a 7-2 decision. Goodner went home 26-7, the best showing of a Cub this season, and with two more years to notch his name in state wrestling annuals.
Junior Noah Johnson, going in 16-8 has wrestled underweight for his class, 220 pounds, all season, never tipping the scales at more than his football weight of 208. Friday he was at 203.
In his first match, Johnson took on Jacob Green, Norton senior who came in 26-1 and ranked No. 1 in the state at 220 pounds.
For Green it was a second chance at glory. He won a gold medal at state as a freshman, but was sidelined the last two years by injuries. His only loss was to Chris Cox, Oakley, ranked No. 2 in the weight division. Cox’s losses were to Green.
Saturday evening Green stylishly avenged his one loss by pinning Cox, a muscular six-footer, quickly in the first round.
It was no surprise, Green, with dazzling moves, pinned Johnson at the 1:28 mark of the first. “He was faster, stronger and had better technique than anyone I’ve wrestled before,” Johnson said, without a shred of equivocation.
In his second match, Johnson drew Hiawatha Senior Keenan Hinton. The two waded through a scoreless first period, before Hinton went up 2-0 in the second. Seconds later he rolled out of preclude to a pin attempt by Johnson and came over to pin the Cub wrestler with 28 seconds remaining the second.
“He (Hinton) looked bigger than 220,” Johnson said. “He must have lost quite a bit of weight to get down to 222 (limit for the class). He also was good at getting behind me,” which put Johnson at a disadvantage in trying to find openings to score.
 
JOHNSON lost weight — from 208 in football to 203 during the wrestling season — but not purposely. He declined to lose more to qualify for a lighter division, which left him with the larger foes.
Goodner played football at 185 — he earned all-league and state honorable mention as a linebacker — and dropped nearly 25 pounds to wrestle at 160. That may not occur in another year. “I’d like to play football at 200 this year,” which means he may move up a notch to 170 next year.
Johnson and Goodner, speaking with the Register Saturday evening, talked about how it proved difficult to find success at the state meet. Their opponents were taller, which gave them leverage, i.e. Rooy’s strategy to keep his legs under him, and emphasis for years on wrestling that has led to better competiton during the season in western Kansas was vividly evident.
Norton, Smith Center, Scott City, Hoxie and several others have for the past decade ruled wrestling for the small schools division. They also have remarkable support, important for a program to flourish. Fans for several of the 3A western Kansas schools arrived at the state tournament by the busload. The also had full-fledged cheer squads giving encouragement, marching like so many tin soldiers to their designated place along the sidelines before each match.
The close relationship between wrestling and improved football skills isn’t lost on Goodner and Johnson, both of whom have been starters on the gridiron for Humboldt since the first games of their freshman years.
“Keeping your head up and hip movement are big in wrestling and are important in football,” said Goodner, whose father, Kent, coaches with Wyrick.
Johnson isn’t looking past track in the spring or football in the fall to next wrestling season, but he did observe: “All three of us who qualified have another chance next year, hopefully along with some others. Seth (Hegwald) came within one match of qualifying this year, which would have given us four. Our experience will help us all next year.”

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