Hillsboro 7th, Marion 14th

By NICHOLAS KIMBALL

Staff writer

Buhler High School won the Marion County winter duals Friday at Marion and Hillsboro.

Hillsboro finished seventh and Marion 14th.

In pool play, Hillsboro beat Douglass and Fredonia but lost to Rock Creek.

In the semifinals, Bluestem defeated Hillsboro. The Trojans wrestled Wellington to finish seventh as a team.

In girls competition, Hillsboro’s Rachel Schafer went undefeated, finishing 4-0. Her fastest match of the day lasted 23 seconds.

“To finish 3-2 in our duals and place seventh overall out of 16 teams was pretty impressive, considering we had three open weight classes and only one senior and two juniors in the line-up,” Hillsboro coach Scott O’Hare said.

The team was led by junior Aidan Simmons and sophomore Sutton Redger, both of whom finished 5-0 individually. Freshman Jaxon Chrislip finished 4-1 to add to it.

“I thought we had some wrestlers step up and show some very good strides from last week in terms of understanding position, executing technique, and just being tougher and more aggressive,” O’Hare said.

Marion wrestlers finished 1-4 overall as a team Friday, beating Fredonia but losing to Riley County for a 14th place finish.

The Warriors were led by Brian Nguyen going 3-0 individually and Julian Resser going 2-1.

“Individually we looked much better than we did at our first tournament,” Marion coach Tyler McMichael said. “It is a great thing to see when wrestlers start to understand the concept of the sport and gain more confidence to compete.

“We have some time over break to continue to get better before we kick things back off in January.”

After Christmas break, Hillsboro will return to action Jan. 4 at Smoky Valley, followed by the Charles McMillen tourney Jan. 6in Herington.

Marion will make its return in Herington as well.