Wrestlers split up to compete in Halstead and Abilene tournaments
Staff writer
The Hillsboro High School wrestling team competed in both the Halstead and Abilene tournaments this past weekend.
Ten wrestlers went to Abilene Friday to compete in the Abilene Junior Varsity Wrestling Tournament and 11 Trojans wrestled Friday and Saturday at the Halstead Invitational Tournament.
According to Scott O'Hare, Trojan wrestling coach, the JV tournament in Abilene gave the young wrestlers some valuable experience.
"It is a very tough and competitive tournament," said O'Hare. "This type of competition will certainly help these younger guys develop into more solid wrestlers for us on the varsity level down the road."
Twenty teams competed at the tournament in Halstead where Hillsboro finished fourth with 135 1/2 points, six points out of third place.
"We wrestled our best tournament of the season at Halstead," said O'Hare. "Hopefully our technique will continue to improve and our effort and intensity will continue through the rest of the season."
Chris Jensen took second place at 119 pounds and Eric Cress took second place at 135 pounds.
"I was very pleased with Chris and Eric making it into the championship finals," said O'Hare. "Both of them defeated wrestlers in the semifinals that they had lost to earlier in the year. That really shows the progress these guys are making to this point in the season."
Kurtis Shaw place third at 275 pounds and Andrew Bina took fourth place at 145 pounds.
"Andrew Bina and Kurtis Shaw both put together a string of solid victories to make it into the consolation finals matches after tough losses in the opening round," said O'Hare. "Kurtis eventually defeated the kid that he lost to in the opening round to get into his finals match."
Zach Magnuson took fourth place at 103 pounds.
"Zach Magnuson really put things together this weekend and wrestled a very solid tournament," said O'Hare. "He looked good throughout the tournament and earned his first varsity medal."
Ric Johnson at 125 pounds, Matt Brown at 152 pounds, and Ben Schaefer at 160 pounds placed sixth.
"Ric, Matt, and Ben also wrestled some very good matches through the consolation side to get into the medal round," said O'Hare. "Even in their consolation matches, where they came up on the losing end, they competed very well."
According to O'Hare, the wrestlers weren't at their best Friday, but wrestled to win on Saturday.
"Putting eight out of 11 guys into the medal round was a tremendous accomplishment at such a large," said O'Hare.
The Trojans' next meet will be at 5:30 p.m. today in Lincoln against Lyons and Lincoln wrestlers.
County spelling bee to be held in Peabody
The Marion County spelling bee will be held at 10 a.m. Feb. 9 at Peabody Elementary School gymnasium. Contestants from 11 county schools will compete. Guests are welcome, but must be at the school by starting time.
Preliminary spelling bees may be held for any home-schooled student who has not passed the eighth grade and will not be 16 years old before May 31. Those interested should contact Ken Parry at 620-983-2188.
