HAYS — Redemption was the theme for the Humboldt Cubs on Friday at the Class 3-2-1A State Wrestling Tournament in Hays.
Humboldt faced a murderer’s row of wrestlers to start off the tournament. All four opponents were ranked top-five in their respective weight-classes headed into state and each one handed the Cubs a tough loss to open things Friday morning.
“It was tough this year,” head coach Kent Goodner said. “The competition is always tough when you have the top 16 kids in 3 through 1A here, but it was just luck of the draw.”
But, one by one, three of the four Cubs found their footing in the consolation round. Senior Noah Johnson (220-pounds), junior Dagen Goodner (182-pounds) and sophomore Gunner Elder (126-pounds) punched their ticket to day two of the tournament with victories.
“Gunner’s a good wrestler and I figured he’d come out and get the win,” Goodner said. “Dagen I wasn’t sure because the kid he was facing had a little bit better record. I knew it’d be a good match, I just didn’t know how it would end. Same thing with Noah. But I’m really glad to see us get wins at state.”
Elder opened things both rounds for the Cubs and, after suffering a 9-2 loss by decision to third-ranked Bryce Younger of Ellis, came out on fire in the second match and pinned Dayton Randall of Minneapolis in 28 seconds.
“It was either lose and go home or win and stay here,” Elder said. “That’s all it comes down to. It’d be better if I was 2-0 but that’s OK. I’ll just have to come up the backside and try to place tomorrow.”
Dagen Goodner opened things versus number-three Matthew Cruickshank of St. Mary’s and was pinned at 1:53. He was faced with a lesser but similar challenge in the opening consolation round with Goodland’s Evan Peter, who sported a solid 33-14 record this season.
Goodner spotted a flaw in Peter’s method early in the match and was able to use it to secure a close 3-2 win.
“That kid was strong,” Goodner said. “But he didn’t have the best technique and he was pushing into me and he was giving up his legs. So once I got the takedown I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to be able to score on me so I was just kind of riding it out from there.”
Johnson wrapped things up for the Cubs after being pinned by number three Chris Cox of Hoxie in 1:12 in the first round. Johnson came back in the consolation round to pin Tra Barrientes of Sylvan Grove in 1:58.
“He was a lot shorter than me so I figured I could get hold of his leg,” Johnson said. “He had pretty good balance but eventually I got him on his back and got the pin.”
For Johnson, the win was his first at the state tournament.
“I came here for the first time last year and lost my first two matches,” Johnson said. “It was pretty tough. But now that I have more experience I was able to pull out the second match. Three of us are advancing to tomorrow so it’s exciting.”
Senior Seth Hegwald also competed for the Cubs in the 195-pound weight class. He fell to second-ranked, 28-1 Nick Davenport of Brookville Ell-Saline by pin in the opening round before falling to Silver Lake’s Gideon Remer by pin at 4:39 of their consolation match.
The Cubs will start things off bright and early today with the second round of consolation play. Elder will face Russell’s Chandler Schoenberg, who’s ranked sixth in the state in his weight class. Goodner will face a league foe in Leon-Bluestem’s Coy Moran —he’s 0-3 against Moran — and Johnson will face Chaparral senior Adrian Gerber, who is ranked fifth in the state.
