Hillsboro wrestling team suffers first duals loss in a year
Sports writer
It won’t be back-to-back undefeated dual seasons for the Hillsboro High School wrestling team.
Opening the season Thursday in an MCAA dual meet at Hoisington, Hillsboro’s season got off to a rough start with the Trojans posting a 1-2 finish on the night.
HHS dropped its first two duals against the hosting Cardinals and the Smoky Valley Vikings — two of the MCAA’s best — by respective 37-36 and 45-36 scores, but edged Marion in the finale, 36-28.
“This was a very disappointing way for us to start the season,” said a frustrated Trojan coach Scott O’ Hare. “But it gives us a good measure of where we are.
“These are probably three of the toughest teams in the MCAA, and to start off the season wrestling all three in the same night was a tough challenge.”
Only Dimitri McClelland, Nick Mueller, Toby Jones, Tyler Jones, and John Hein picked up victories in their classes while Brett Mueller and Robby McClelland were awarded victories by default.
The 130-pound McClelland pinned Dylan Bell in 2:44 in the second period to give the Trojans an 18-9 edge overall.
Arguably the Trojans’ best chance this season for the most success, Nick Mueller scored a fall on his 135-pound opponent Drew Reisner in 3:02 of the second period to help earn his 100th career victory.
Already the record-holder of the most wins in a single season at Hillsboro, Mueller finished his day 2-1 to keep adding to his mark.
Toby Jones defeated Justin Larson by a 7-1 decision in the 145-pound class while Tyler edged Taylor Bullard, 7-6, in the 171-pound division.
Jared Mitchell pushed the 215-pound senior Hein all the way to the end, but Hein was able to score a pin in 2:34 of the final period.
“I felt like the kids competed hard and wrestled pretty well against Hoisington to start out the evening for the first competition of the season,” O’Hare said. “However, we came out very tentative in the next dual against Smoky Valley and did not wrestle nearly as aggressively.”
The Vikings were able to dictate the pace of many of the matches, jumping out to an 18-0 lead by the time 125-pound Darren Mueller was able to win by default.
Nick Mueller disposed of Cody Suhr in 36 seconds to get Hillsboro to 18-12.
Toby Jones took down Andres Peterson with one second left in the match and Tyler Jones pinned Jake Lawless in 1:07 of the first.
Evan Just picked up a victory by default in the 189-pound class and Hein scored the pin on Alex Peterson at the 3:28 mark of the second period for the Trojans’ final points.
Bret Mueller suffered his first loss of the day against Marion to complete his first meet at 2-1.
Robby McClleland downed 119-pound Randy Regnier, 5-1, also completing the day 2-1.
Darren Mueller was another who finished 2-1 despite a 6-2 loss to Andy Shipman.
Nick rounded out the 2-1 finishers with a hard fought 6-2 loss against arch-rival Cody Wildin.
Toby and Tyler Jones were the lone Trojans who finished 3-0, after Toby beat Tyler Neil by a 7-4 decision and Tyler pinned Andrew Kjellin in 3:18 of the second period.
Aaron Bina scored his first win of the year in the 152-pound division, pinning Levi Anderson in 3:25 of the second period.
Just and Gabe Anderson were victorious by defaults with Anderson wrestling at 215 pounds.
“We saw a number of positive things throughout the night, but as expected we still have a lot to work on,” said O’Hare. “As Coach Bowman and I talked about, it certainly won’t require a complete change in the way we do things, just some tweaking on a lot of little things.
“Probably the biggest challenge will be finding a way to get this group to wrestle with more intensity and aggressiveness.
“I felt like many of the matches we lost were simply because our opponents got a little aggressive and physical with us and we did not respond very well.”