The Iola Mustangs may be a dark-horse candidate for a Pioneer League title with wrestlers filling most of the weight classes.
Dozens of grapplers gathered early Tuesday morning in the IHS gymnasium with a renewed vigor from their younger, less experienced 2024-2025 team.
“I’m stoked about the season. We have an amazing group of kids that work hard,” Iola coach John Taylor said. “They listen. They know what’s expected of them.”
Despite only having one returning senior from last season in Trapper Boren, the Mustangs are loaded with experience across all categories.
“It’s pretty exciting,” said Boren. “My freshman year, we had six people go out. It’s exciting to have more people joining in. I’m glad to see the sport grow, especially in a school so small. My plan is to make state. I started practicing during the summer doing more freestyle, so I was doing more year-round wrestling.”
Junior Evan LaCrone is is also gunning for his first run at a state title. Similar to Boren, he was a regular at in the IHS strength and conditioning program.
“I’m just trying to go to state and make sure this team goes somewhere,” LaCrone said. “I feel good. I just hope people show up and put in the work.”
With so many promising wrestlers taking the mat Monday, it seemed easy to overlook Iola already has three returning state qualifiers in junior Kale Pratt, sophomore Addie Wacker and junior Zoie Hesse — the latter two ranked second and sixth in the state for their respective weight classes.
Hesse and Wacker may have inspired a few more females to join their ranks and nearly double last year’s participants.
Although loaded with experienced, talented wrestlers, Taylor said his goal early on is to keep things simple. From drilling fundamentals to tried and true methods of getting into “wrestling shape,” Taylor does not believe in over-complicating Iola’s preseason routine.
“Getting everyone in wrestling shape is the biggest goal,” Taylor said. “There is one thing I can control as a coach and that’s that they never lose because they’re tired.
“Getting them in shape, wrestling shape, is different from any other sport.”
