Last weekend, Manhattan High boys wrestling added another win to their season with their victory at the Bob Kuhn Prairie Classic in Hays, scoring 533 points.
MHS had seven first place wrestlers: senior Cameron Coonrod, senior Calaeb Hutchinson, sophomore Jack Hutchinson, sophomore Joseph Panfil, sophomore Josiah Borge, junior Kaden Dibbini, and sophomore Liam Nider. Hutchinson, in particular, made a comeback after his surgery on his meniscus.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” Hutchinson said. “I started out six and one, dropped a match to a nationally ranked kid. I wrestled pretty tough, but then I ended up getting injured…before we started wrestling, I had surgery on the 22nd of December, and my first competition back was Hays, and I went 9-0 and got Outstanding Wrestler for the tournament.”
Meanwhile, the girls wrestling was runner-up at the 5th Annual Newton Girls Tournament, scoring 231 points against 34 other schools. Juniors Sophia Hoeme (140) and Kayla Cramer (130) placed first in their respective classes, senior Alayna Slifer (135) was second, junior Tierra Young (145) took third, sophomore Tasia Miller (155) and senior Evelyn Thornburg (125) for fourth, senior Eva Lucios (100) and freshman Kalena Borge (105) for fifth, senior Erica Li (170) for seventh, and junior Eleanor Radi (120) for eighth place. The boys came to compete at Newton as well, placing eighth as a team with 119.5 points.
“We placed second out of a couple of good teams from 1-4A schools,” Lucios said. “We were able to see different kinds of competition, and I think we did pretty decent. I don’t want to say that was our best wrestling, but we did decent enough to place second. There were a couple State placers…a State champion, so we were definitely going to get good competition.”
They traveled to Dodge City, getting runner-up at the Showdown. Senior Cameron Coonrod (144) placed first, junior Max Evans-Pryor (175) was in second, sophomore Franke Force (106) and sophomore Liam Nider (190) took third, senior Garrison Vikander (285) took fourth, senior Jonathan Jordan (165) was in sixth, sophomore Benjamin Busch (138) took seventh, senior Brecken Crist-Funk (165) in seventh, sophomore Josiah Borge (113) in seventh, sophomore Bode Busch (157) in eighth and sophomore Tucker Werth (120) in ninth.
Manhattan wrestlers are now preparing for Centennial League at Washburn Rural, a tournament that has both teams confident in their victory.
“I am feeling very confident about the League,” Dibbini said. “I am really excited to go against the #1 kid ranked in 6A. I barely lost this first time this season and I’m ready to get revenge.”
