Hillsboro grapplers finish 10th at Halstead

The Hillsboro wrestling team finished 10th of 21 schools at the Halstead Invitational Friday and Saturday with 89½ points.

Jordan Bachman’s second-place finish paced six medalists.

Remington was the tournament’s overall winner, beating runner-up Douglass 147-143½.

“Overall I’m still pleased with where we are at at this point,” said Trojan coach Scott O’Hare. “We still have several things to correct and improve on, but we also feel like we are making nice progress on many areas and improving each week.

“Aside from technical improvements, with this group we really need to focus on discipline and mental toughness. I felt like there were several matches and specific situations when things got tough, we backed down, bailed out, or became complacent. I would really like to get this group convinced to remain disciplined and tough in difficult situations.”

Hillsboro stormed out of the gates Friday, climbing as high as fourth in team standings with the quartet of Bachman, Tristan Rathbone, Kyle Horton, and Andre Patton advancing to the seminfinals.

The Trojans couldn’t hang on, though, due to limited matches in the consolation bracket, and by Friday’s end, Hillsboro dropped to fifth.

Hillsboro’s momentum fizzled out after that, and Bachman was the only one to advance to a title match.

Charlie Major, and Rathbone were 2-2 and 4-1, grabbing third-place finishes. Horton went 3-2 for fifth.

Patton and Austin Rempel finished sixth, going 2-3, and 3-3.

Others competing were Paul Glanzer (1-2), Raymond Johnston (2-2), Garrett Helmer (2-2), Lane Flaming (2-2), Connor Morey (1-2), and Jared Janzen (1-2).

The Trojans will compete at Eureka on Saturday.