Iola High’s Mustangs finished the most successful regular season in their short history of high school wrestling competition. This week the wrestlers have prepared for the 2012 Kansas Class 4A Regional Wrestling Tournament.
The regional is Friday and Saturday at Fort Scott High School. Action begins at 2 p.m. Friday with three rounds of matches.
Wrestling resumes at 11 a.m. Saturday. Consolation and championship finals begin at 5 p.m. at the FSHS gym in Fort Scott.
Admission to the tournament on Friday is $5 for students (K-12) and $6 for adults. On Saturday admission is $6 for students and $8 for adults, for the entire day.
Admission prices are set by the Kansas State High School Activities Association.
The top four finishers in the 14 weight classes advance to the 2012 state tournament in Salina, Feb. 24-25.
Seedings and preliminary brackets will be drawn up tonight at a coaches’ meeting in Fort Scott. Coaches meet again at 1 p.m. Friday to finalize brackets.
“We’re taking 11 wrestlers, which is up from Iola’s seven of last year, to the regional tournament,” said Aaron Sweazy, Mustang head coach, “but only four of those individuals have regional tournament experience.”
Iola High seniors Devin Culler and Brent Clark and juniors Zeph Larney and Chase Roettgen competed in the 2011 regional at Chanute. Culler and Roettgen got to Saturday’s consolation bracket action last year while Larney and Clark ended their seasons on Friday after two losses.
There are two ranked Class 4A teams in this regional — Pittsburg at No. 3 and Chanute at No. 10. There are 19 ranked wrestlers spread throughout the 14 weight classes at the Fort Scott regional.
“I’ve challenged our wrestlers to believe all season and we have broken all sorts of records in doing so. The next challenge I’ve put to them is trying to qualify four individuals to state, which would be one more than Iola has taken before,” Sweazy said.
“It is going to be hard enough for teams to qualify one wrestler to state across the 4A regionals but I think our guys are up to the challenge of trying to exceed expectations once again.”
Iola’s top wrestler going into the regional is Culler at 160 pounds. Culler will also be one of the top individuals in the regional at 26-8. The regional features top-ranked and undefeated Sam Son, a senior from Chanute High, in the 160-pound bracket.
Clark goes into the regional at 16-17 in the 138-pound bracket. There are three state-ranked kids in his weight division — No. 2 Victor Hughes of Fort Scott, No. 5 Taylor Watkins of Columbus and No. 6 Jared Fiscus of Chanute.
Roettgen, who found success moving up to 220 pounds this season, is 17-13. And the 220-pound weight class is wide open. Larney is 9-19 at 152 pounds and the same is for his weight class at the regional.
