Jr. Indians wrap up wrestling season at state tournament

Two Jr. Indians and two Jr. Lady Indians finished their season by placing at the Jr. High State Tournament this past weekend in Oklahoma City.

Aiden Frye took fifth at 72 pounds and Cooper Dobbins took third at 92 pounds in the boys’ division. Tesla Richmond took 6th at 175 pounds and Bentley Sharp took third at 200 pounds in the girls’ division.

Comanche had a total of 18 wrestlers. The boys finished in 28th place out of 151 teams. The sixth and seventh grade wrestlers finished 21st in the team race in their division.

In 82 matches, Comanche had a 47-35 record.

Frye had one pin and scored 32 total match points. Dobbins had three pins and had 26 total match points. Both wrestled in the sixth and seventh grade divisions.

On the girls side, the Jr. Lady Indians went 16-12 overall in the eighth and ninth grade divisons. They finished 25th in the team race in their division.

Richmond had one pin in her matches. Sharp had two pins in her matches and had 28 total match points scored.

Comanche High School wrestling coach Casy Rowell was able to go see the finals on Saturday and overall liked what he saw from the Jr. Indians and Jr. Lady Indians.

“I was as proud as I could be,” Rowell said. “We’ve got a bunch of newbies out there who have only been wrestling a year or two and they have gotten so much better than they used to be. Frye, Dobbins and Bentley have not been wrestling that long and they go in there and place at state.”

Rowell said it shows that wrestlers do not have to begin at a real young age to be successful.

“It just takes hard work and commitment and good technique.”

Rowell said he would have liked to see some of the eighth and ninth graders make the placing rounds, but it did not work out this year.

“It would have been great to see them push through to the placing rounds,” Rowell said. “A few of them were really close and were one match away from making it. When you lose those quarterfinal matches, though, it’s hard to fight back into the placing rounds.”

Rowell thinks it will be a learning experience for the future.

“When they get into high school and we want to win a state championship again, those kids who get third and fourth place, the team points they get are huge,” Rowell said. “We’re proud of them and we’ve come a long ways but we’re not satisfied. We think we can do better. The key to winning those key matches is practice. We need to grind and pay the price because if you don’t want to be the best in this sport then this probably isn’t the sport for you.”