Mustangs head to regional action

Iola High senior Marcus Sullivan earned the top seed in the 160-pound weight class in this weekend’s Kansas Class 4A Regional Wrestling Tournament.
The regional is Friday and Saturday at Chanute High School. Action begins at 2 p.m. Friday with four rounds of matches.
Wrestling resumes at 11 a.m. Saturday. Consolation and championship finals begin at 5 p.m. at the CHS gym.
Seven other Iola High wrestlers join Sullivan in competing at the 2011 regional. Sullivan finished fourth at 160 last year, earning a trip to the Kansas Class 4A State Wrestling Tournament.
The top four finishers in the 14 weight classes advance to the 2011 state tournament in Salina, Feb. 25-26.
Seedings and preliminary brackets were drawn up Wednesday at a coaches’ meeting in Chanute. Coaches meet again at 1 p.m. Friday to finalize brackets.
“It’s all going to come down to how we wrestle.  We’re excited about the regional. It’s a tough one but we have opportunities to do well,” said Ron Schomaker, Mustang head coach.
Schomaker said he expected his wrestlers to be aggressive on the mat but that they would relax and wrestle. The regional is a double-elimination event.
Admission to the tournament on Friday is $4 for students (K-12) and $5 for adults. On Saturday admission is $6 for students and $8 for adults, which is for the entire day.
As it stands, Sullivan (25-2) as top seed in the 160-pound class has a first-round bye. There are 11 wrestlers in the bracket.
 Sophomore Stephen McDonald sports a 28-12 record, landing in the middle of one of the tougher weight classes, 189, in the tournament. Top-ranked Zach Grimes (36-1)  of Osawatomie and fifth-ranked Jared McComb (13-2) of Chanute are in the regional.
McDonald is slated to take on C.J. Hitt of Independence in the first round. The winner of the match takes on either Colby Morris (25-11) of Spring Hill or Raul Pascual of Coffeyville. These four are in the same side of the bracket as Grimes.
Senior Lee Berg (14-14) is in the 130-pound class. He is matched up with Race Kastl of Fort Scott in the first round. The winner takes on the winner top-ranked and top-seeded Kyle Johnson of Columbus. Jared Fiscus of Chanute is ranked sixth in Class 4A 130 pounds.
Freshman Mike Armstrong goes in with a 22-15 mark and earned a first-round bye in the 119-pound class. Austin Hood (30-1) of Louisburg is ranked No. 1 in Class 4A at this weight and is top-seeded in the regional. Michael Nemer of Spring Hill is fourth-ranked in the state.
At 135 pounds, Iola junior Brent Clark is 16-10 and is paired with Tyler Land of Anderson County in the first round. Clark is in the same side of the bracket as sixth-ranked Devon Dozier (33-7) of Osawatomie.
Troy Clark (30-9) of Chanute is the top seed at 135. He is ranked fourth in Class 4A.
 Sophomore Zeph Larney (10-18) drew Trey Thompson of Coffeyville in the first round of the 140-pound class. Brant Johnson (26-9) of Osawatomie was seeded No. 1.
In the 152-pound class, second-ranked and undefeated Sam Son (37-0) of Chanute is top seed. Iola junior Devin Culler (19-14) drew an opening-round bye and is in the same side of the bracket as Son.
Iola sophomore Chase Roettgen earned the 171-pound spot for the Mustangs in the regional. Roettgen wrestled junior varsity all season but won the spot this week in practice.
He is pared against Christian Morelien of Parsons (8-20) in the first round. The winner of the match takes on the winner of top-seeded Tyler Henness (19-5) of Paola and Aaron Napier of Columbus.
Henness is ranked fourth in Class 4A at 171 pounds. In the other side of the bracket is fifth-ranked Jake Bradley of Prairie View.