Great Bend Post Sports
Despite a dominating performance at the Kapaun Dual Tournament, the Panther wrestling team dropped from No. 2 to No. 6 in the latest Class 5A rankings. Friday and Saturday, Great Bend was part of the perennially-tough Bob Kuhn Prairie Classic in Hays. Nine of the top 10 teams had at least 10 wrestlers in action. The Panthers, with just nine wrestlers in action, finished sixth with 133 points. Top-ranked Manhattan (6A) won with 267 points, followed by No. 4 Phillipsburg (3-2-1A) with 154 points, and Hays with 144.5 points.
Junior Jace Schartz won his bracket at 157 pounds. Ranked No. 3, Schartz opened with a tech-fall win against Oakley, then defeated Manhattan 15-3 to reach the semifinals. There he won a 6-4 decision against Pratt junior Wyatt Lovell. Schartz won a 15-0 tech fall against fifth-ranked Javian Granado of Lakin (3-2-1A) in the finals.
Fourth-ranked Matthew Johnson returned to action at 215 pounds for a second-place finish. The senior opened with a bye then pinned his next two opponents. He advanced to the finals with a forfeit win. Larned’s top-ranked senior Luke Fischer remains unbeaten, pinning his way to the championship, including a second-period pin against Johnson in the finals.
Junior Brody Schnoeleben climbed into the rankings at No. 6 at 285 pounds. He finished third in Hays. He needed 49 seconds or less to pin each of his first two opponents before getting pinned by the eventual runner-up from Manhattan. Schnoebelen needed just 29 seconds to secure his spot in the consolation finals, where he needed just 43 seconds to pin his opponent from St. Francis Trail.
Fifth-ranked Triston Tomlinson placed fourth at 120 pounds. The sophomore pinned each of his first three opponents to reach the semifinals, where he lost in sudden victory to Ashton Wynn of Trego. Tomlinson lost a 9-7 decision to Phillipsburg in the consolation finals.
Michael Montoya placed fourth at 165 pounds. After a bye, the junior won a 7-6 decision against Eisenhower, then advanced to the semifinals with a sudden-victory win against Phillipsburg’s Kayden Hudson. Montoya lost a 4-2 decision to Russell’s second-ranked Teagen Pfeifer in the semifinals, then was pinned by Hudson in the consolation finals.
Hayden Kelly placed fifth at 138 pounds. He advanced in the early rounds with a pair of decisions, then lost in sudden victory go Goddard-Eisenhower. Kelly needed just 16 seconds to pin his Trego opponent in the fifth-place match.
Panther sophomore Ambrose Kramer advanced out of round one at 113 pounds with a bye. He was pinned by top-ranked Ezekiel Witt of Manhattan in round two, then lost to Phillipsburg on the back side to end his tournament. Freshman Blake Stein lost his first contested match against third-ranked Seth Keeten of Phillipsburg at 144 pounds.
Larned junior Jai-Sean George, ranked No. 6 at 113 in 3-2-1A, won the 106-pound bracket. That included a first-round pin against Great Bend freshman Alexis Reyes, who bowed out of the tournament with a forfeit in round two.