SALINA — Iola High’s Addilyn Wacker started her Class 4A state wrestling journey on a fine note Friday.
The 130-pound freshman seized the upper hand by running a half nelson to secure a pin over Aairiana Wogomon of Concordia with 45 seconds left in the third period.
The state meet started on a rougher note for Iola’s two sophomores.
Zoie Hesse fell via pin to Rae Wilson of Rock Creek 43 seconds into their 190-pound match.
On the boys’ side, Iola’s Kale Pratt lost a 17-1 technical fall to Goodland’s Omar Hernandez in the 157-pound weight class.
HUMBOLDT had three wrestlers secure first-round victories at the Class 3-1A State Meet in Hays.
On the girls’ side, Taevyn Baylor improved to 38-3 on the season with a pin over Jaelene Vestal of Wichita County in the 155-pound weight group, while Savannah Koch pinned Hannah James of Ellis 79 seconds into their 190-pound bracket.
On the boys’ side, Cole Mathes took advantage of a first-period takedown, and led from there in a 4-2 win over Kaiden Bliss of Trego County in the 190-pound division.
Curt Shannon dropped his first match of the day, falling 9-7 to Luke Smith of Atchison County in the 126-pound bracket. Brody Gunderman was pinned in the second round of his 165-pound match to Sager Bryan of Decatur Community.
On the girls’ side, Humboldt’s Jordan Hency was pinned at 1:47 to Kallan Rothchild of Trego/Quinter at 115 pounds.
Willow LaCrone fell to Gracyn Dombroski of Ellinwood with a pin at 1:10 in the 170-pound bracket. Gabriela Vargas-Garcia was pinned in the second round of her 235-pound opening match to Rivver Long of Stockton.
THE FIRST-ROUND victors are assured of advancing to Day 2 of their respective competitions Saturday, but were to have second-round matches later Friday. Those who dropped their openers fall to the consolation bracket, and must win at least once to advance to Saturday.
Friday evening’s action was not completed by press time.
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