By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
A 30-second pin is impressive but it has never been Great Bend High School senior Jace Schartz's style. When a wrestler builds a lead of 15 points, the match is ended by technical fall. Thursday in Liberal, Schartz collected his 53rd tech-fall win to break an eight-year-old state record for career tech-falls.
"It's really just to be dominant," Schartz said in a January appearance on 1590 KVGB/95.5 FM's "Sports Day" program. "If you go out there and wrestle 30 seconds, you don't get as much work in. If I pin a guy, maybe I just got lucky. But if I beat him 15-0, maybe he doesn't ever want to step on the mat with me again."
Entering the high school ranks with some muscle, Schartz wrestled against mostly older kids as a freshman at GBHS. The result was a disappointing record and a state appearance but no medal. He's turned that around with back-to-back state medals, including a third-place finish last year. Schartz is currently ranked No. 4 in Class 5A at 165 pounds. All three of his matches against top-ranked Kade Smith of Hutchinson have gone into overtime, and Schartz defeated Smith to win a regional title last year.
The state record out of the way, Schartz will change how he finishes matches.
"Going into regionals, we'll probably wrestle close to the same," he said. "We're going to get after them, we're going to get our practice in, we're going to get as many takedowns. Going into the state tournament, I have to look for pins."
Pins lead to more team points and state tournaments are normally very competitive. Last year, Valley Center took home the third-place trophy by just five points over Newton. While Schartz's end-game changes, his strategy does not.
"If I get you on your back now, you're going to fight hard and I'm going to let you off," he said. "Now, I have to be a little meaner and I'm not letting you off your back. How I'm wrestling absolutely will not change. I'll do the same moves, have the same mindset going into it. The only mindset change is when I get you on your back you're not going to get off your back."
Great Bend heads to the Class 5A regional in Newton on Feb. 21-22. The Class 5A State Wrestling Championships will be held at Park City's Hartman Arena on Feb. 28 and March 1.