BY MACK McCLURE
mmcclure@gbtribune
After holding their own against Class 6A wrestling powerhouse Garden City High School in the mid-to-upper weight classifications, the 5A Great Bend Panthers pinned Liberal 61-16 Thursday night at the Panther Athletic Center.
Garden City held off Great Bend 39-26 in the closest matchup of the evening, but the Panthers’ Damian Plughoeft (140), Louis Burley (152), Jake Schridde (160), Simon Sullivan (171) and Ramon Garcia (215) notched impressive victories over the Buffaloes.
“I think things are coming together,” Great Bend head coach Norbert Muth said. “We’ve got some kids that make some young mistakes, but things are coming together a little bit.
“From what they showed me tonight, they wrestled hard in every match and that’s all that we can ask. We tell them if they wrestle hard and leave it out there for six minutes, then you always have a shot and I think our kids did that tonight.”
After Plughoeft pinned Garden City’s Braxton Medina with 1:29 left in the first period, Burley won by major decision, 12-1, over Garden City’s Dylan Standley and then Schridde, ranked No. 3 in Class 5A by the Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association, won in the same fashion over Alex McDowell, 11-1.
That set the stage for a pair of comeback victories by Sullivan and Garcia.
“He’s a tough kid and he doesn’t look the part,” Muth said of the resilient Garcia. “He weighs about 185 pounds dripping wet, and sometimes he’s our 189-pounder and sometimes he’s our 215-pounder … wherever we think that we’re going to need him the most.
“He’s always going to give you 100 percent and that’s what we ask.”
Sullivan seems to be getting better as the season progresses.
“Simon, when he does things and doesn’t let the crowd influence his thoughts and just stays within himself and does what he does well, he’s a tough kid to beat,” Muth said of Sullivan. “When he starts listening to everybody else around him, he sometimes gets himself in trouble.
“He hasn’t been a state qualifier for us yet, but I really think that if he stays the course the rest of the season, I think he’s got a real shot of being there at the state championships.”
Only one-third of the Burley trio wrestled Thursday night in Louis Burley. Chris Burley, top-ranked at 112, sat out with an ear problem and Greg Burley (125) is out with a broken collarbone.
“Louis is always solid,” Muth said of Burley, a three-time state qualifier. “He’s one of those kids that is always in the match and sometimes, I think he thinks about his matches too much beforehand.
“You can mentally drain yourself a little bit, just over-thinking it throughout the day at school and everything else,” Muth said. “Sometimes, I think he’s one of our guys that we have to back off a little bit. Not necessarily in the (wrestling) room, but just get him to relax a little bit and we’re going to work on that.”
When the pair of sidelined Burleys return, the Panthers will undoubtedly be better.
“So much of it is mental,” Muth said. “Right now, with our young kids, we really don’t know exactly what they’re going to do.”
Six Panthers — Ryan DesLauriers (103), Brodie Bretz (135), Plughoeft, Schridde, Darian Blair (171) and Sullivan, who bumped up to 189 — won by fall in their landslide team win over Liberal.
“We knew we would have a tough time against Garden and so, we were focused on getting a split,” Muth said. “We had a pretty good performance against Garden and I think we stayed after it.
“I think we kind of got on a roll against Liberal.”
Great Bend wrestling
Thursday
At Panther Athletic Center
Team results
Garden City 58, Liberal 18
Great Bend 61, Liberal 16
Garden City 39, Great Bend 26
Hays 59, Liberal 21
Hays 43, Garden City 21
Garden City 39, Great Bend 26
103 — Ryan DesLauriers, GBHS, won by forfeit (Garden City Open)
112 — Anthony Calderon, Garden City, won by major dec. over Zack Schridde, GBHS, 14-1
119 — Matt Urrutia, Garden City won by dec. over Brett Roberts, GBHS, 7-6
125 — A.J. Hurtado, Garden City, won by tech. fall over Zach Gregg, GBHS, 24-9
130 — Colt McElroy, Garden City, won by decision over Kade Sander, GBHS, 4-2
135 — Tyson Phillis, Garden City, pinned Brodie Bretz, GBHS, 0:28, second period
140 — Damian Plughoeft, GBHS, pinned Braxton Medina, GBHS, 1:29, first period
145 — Chris Adler, Garden City, pinned Emerson Campbell, GBHS, 1:38, second period
152 — Louis Burley, GBHS, won by major decision, Dylan Standley, Garden City, 12-1
160 — Jake Schridde, GBHS, won by major decision, Alex McDowell, 11-1
171 — Simon Sullivan, GBHS, won by decision over Juan Rodriguez, Garden City, 9-5
189 — Aaron DeLeon, Garden City, pinned Darian Blair, GBHS, 1:19, third period
215 — Ramon Garcia, GBHS, won by decision over Eric Roriguez, 4-2
Great Bend 61, Liberal 16
103 — Ryan DesLauriers, GBHS, pinned Shaddock Wood, Liberal, 1:34, first period
112 — Zack Schridde, GBHS, won by forfeit (Liberal Open)
119 — Brett Roberts, GBHS, won by technical fall over Michael Frazier, Liberal, 17-1
125 — Zach Gregg, GBHS, won by forfeit (Liberal Open)
130 — Kade Sander, GBHS, won by technical fall over Cody Smith, Liberal, 17-2
135 — Brodie Bretz, GBHS, pinned Dalton Moody, Liberal, 0:28, second period
140 — Abdebayo Briamah, Liberal, won by major decision over, Willie Godfrey, GBHS, 15-4
145 — Damian Plughoeft, GBHS, pinned Ayodale Briamah, Liberal, 0:11, first period
152 — Louis Burley, GBHS, won by decision over Trenton Wilson, Liberal, 10-3
160 — Jake Schridde, GBHS, pinned Tomas Saquiz, Liberal, 0:58, first period
171 — Darian Blair, GBHS, pinned Shawn Lay, Liberal, 1:14, first period
189 — Simon Sullivan, GBHS, pinned Bruno Andrade, 1:34, first period
215 — Justin McPhail, Liberal, pinned Ramon Garcia, GBHS, 0:14 first period
285 — Jorge Nunez, Liberal, won by forfeit (GBHS Open)
