Great Bend Junior High wrestlers improved their dual record to 6-2 for the season after finishing second overall Saturday at the Clay Center dual tournament.
“Our only loss was in the first round versus a very physical Maysville team,” said assistant coach Jake Hofflinger. “We know how close we were to winning and that makes the loss sting more.”
Great Bend lost first round to Maysville 43/54 before dominating Clay Center in the second round 72/21. The panthers only lost four matches against Clay Center.
“After missing some opportunities in the dual with Maysville, our kids knew they would have to step it up and they really did,” said Hofflinger.
The third round dual was against Hays Middle School. “Hays has a good dual team this year. We knew going in that this would be a close contest,” said Hofflinger.
The Panthers battled to win 10 of the 18 matches besting Hays 56/40 in the dual. “I could tell our kids were motivated heading into this match up. Its always nice to beat Hays,” Hofflinger said.
The final matchup was against Junction City who fell to the Panthers 75/26 after the great bend squad won 11 of the 15 matchups.
“We finished a lot better than we started. We need to work on warming up properly and winning our first matches of the day,” said head coach Norbert Muth. “We had a good day. The one we lost was just a match or two away and we were ahead in some of those.”
Six wrestlers went unbeaten for the duration of the event; Brantley Baldwin 75, Carson Schooler 90, Drew Liles 95, George Weber 115, Gage Fritz 141, and Kevin Miramontes 180.
The Panthers next find the mat on Thursday, Dec. 3, in Garden City and again on Saturday, Dec. 5, for the only home tournament of the year. The home tournament will be held in the Panther Athletic Center.