Comanche sending 11 to state wrestling tourney

Thirteen Comanche wrestlers went to the regional meet at Plainview last weekend and 10 punched their ticket for the right to wrestle at this weekend’s state tournament.

“That definitely exceeded our initial expectation,” said Casy Rowell, head coach. “We were always hoping  that we can send them all, but you’ve also got to be realistic when you look at the matchups and stuff, and there were definitely some tough matchups. We were definitely surprised by how well our guys wrestled and stepped up. To take 10 is pretty amazing.”

Rowell said coaches were expecting to take between five to eight wrestlers to state.

“I was real proud,” Rowell said. “The kids showed up. We had some guys that wrestled over their heads a little bit, which is what you want to do this time of year. Hopefully we can do that again this week.”

Hannah Koen qualified for girls state the previous weekend with a third place finish at the regional, taking the total number of Comanche wrestlers going to state up to 11.

Koen becomes the second Comanche girl to qualify for the state tournament, following in the footsteps of Gracelyn Yates last year. Koen can still be the first Comanche girl to win a match at state and be the first one to win a state title.

“She’s very tough and wrestles hard,” said Dilynn Hare, girls coach. “She has a lot of determination. At the regional she did everything she had been taught and I think she will have a good chance at state.”

In the third-place match, Koen pinned her Plainview opponent in the second period.

At the boys regional, six Indians qualified for the final. None of those that advanced to the final won the championship.

“It was a little disappointing we didn’t get any winners, but the goal is to get to state, which is what they did. You want to get into the final where you can guarantee yourself a spot at state. You can’t do that if you lose in the semifinals and it puts a lot of pressure on you to win one of those last two matches.”

As a team, Comanche took third with 245 points, just five points behind Blackwell with 250. Marlow won the regional with 282.5 points.

Qualifying for state were Legend Yates (126 pounds), fifth; Jack Newton (132), second; Gunnor Yates (138), third; Noah Presgrove (145), second; Tucker Oliver (152), second; Logan Bain (160), third; Kasen VanBuskirk (170), second; Devon McCarty (182), second; Owen Bigford (195), second; and Cade White (285), second.

Rowell said it was hard to pick out any outstanding individual performances because they all wrestled well, but he was impressed with Newton and McCarty who did not wrestle last year, and impressed with freshman Legend Yates for also qualifying.

“I was proud of Gunnor and Devon coming back to get third,” Rowell said. “When you lose a semifinal, it’s hard to come back and have to wrestle again.”

Rowell said he received several compliments on his team’s performance from other coaches.

“I think we shocked a lot of people,” Rowell said. “Some people in the wrestling community were expecting us to have a down year.”