BELOIT — Hoisington High School qualified five wrestlers at the Beloit regional on Saturday for the Class 3-2-1A state wrestling meet in Hays.
The meet will be held at Gross Memorial Coliseum on the Fort Hays State campus this coming Friday and Saturday.
In Beliot, Hoisington took third place as a team.
“We wrestled as a team very well,” Hoisington head coach Dan Schmidt said. “They had some very good teams at that regional and we ended up in third. You don’t score 122 points and not have a team wrestle well.”
Of the five going, Cody Batt (189-pound weight class) and Ethan Soeken (215) finished in second place to be the highest-placing Cardinals in Beloit.
Batt lost by decision 15-3 to Tate Omli of El-Saline for the regional championship.
“Batt has been wrestling behind some tough kids at 189 for a couple of years now,” Schmidt said. “But now it is his turn to wrestle, and he is doing really well this year.”
Soeken’s run through the brackets was ended by Jacob English from Beloit, who won in a 10-5 decision.
Chance Demel (140), Dalton Bell (145) and Eric Hellerud (171) each took third place in their respective weight classes.
Demel, dropped from the championship bracket by Kregg Clarke of Lyons, beat Keith Short of Southeast of Saline for third.
Demel qualified for state last year as a freshman, taking sixth place at the meet.
Bell bested Matt Schneider of Phillipsburg by a 1-0 decision, and Hellerud beat Hillsboro’s Dylan Delk in an 8-0 decision.
“With the exception of Batt, each of these kids have been to state before,” Schmidt said. “Dalton (Bell), this is his third time at the state meet. Not only have they all been, but they have all won matches at the state level before.”