SC is among regional favorites

By Rod Haxton, editor

A difficult path to the state tournament has gotten a little tougher for the Scott Community High School wrestling team.

While SCHS takes a No. 7 state ranking into this weekend’s Class 4A regional tournament at Pratt, they have just three grapplers ranked within the top six in their respective weight classifications at the state level.

Heading that list is 103-pound sophomore Clay Mulligan (30-1), who is ranked No. 2; 119-pound senior Paco Antillon (31-7), ranked No. 3; and 145-pound senior Dakota Hayes (33-3), ranked No. 6.

The number of state-ranked Beavers has been cut by two over the past couple of weeks with a season-ending injury to Dillon Stucky (140), along with 189-pounder Luke Hayes (31-8) who dropped out of the rankings following his third place finish in the Mid-State Activities Association tournament.

SCHS head coach Jon Lippelmann has a lot more faith in his wrestling squad than he does a ranking system.

“That’s why we wrestle,” says Lippelmann. “Rankings don’t measure someone’s heart or how bad he wants to win. Hopefully that’s something we’ve been able to instill in our kids.”

The Beavers have hopes of slipping possibly eight wrestlers through what some consider the toughest regional in the state.

Five of the state’s top 10 ranked teams are in the Pratt regional, along with 24 grapplers who are ranked within the top six in their weight classes. That’s second only to the Holton regional which has only two state-ranked teams - Clay Center and Abilene - along with 26 ranked wrestlers.

Mulligan will be the top seed in his weight division while Antillon will likely be the No. 2 seed behind Robbie Hines (Ulysses).

L. Hayes could possibly get the No. 1 seed in his weight division.

Senior Morgan Numrich (152, 30-9)) should be one of the top four seeds, but will be in a weight division where he’s dropped close decisions to the three grapplers who will likely be ahead of him, including two-time Class 5A state champion Cade Blair (Valley Center) and Josh Rodriguez (Ulysses), who is a returning state medalist.

After being ranked for most of the season, 189-pounder Luke Hayes has slipped out of the top-six in Kansas, but should still earn one of the top four seeds in regional. Pratt’s Chase Kreutzer will likely get the No. 1 seed after defeating Hayes in the Mid-State Activities Association tournament two weeks ago. Hayes (31-8) should still be the No. 2 or No. 3 seed and earn a return trip to state.

Two other grapplers who have been slipping under the radar for most of the season are Alex Kough (112) and Calvin Erven (215).

Kough (22-13), a freshman, has put together a very solid season and with only one state-ranked wrestler in his regional bracket he could be in good position to earn a trip to the state tournament.

Despite being a state qualifier last year, Erven (29-9) has seemingly gone unnoticed for most of this season. The senior will have two state-ranked wrestlers in his bracket, including Titus Hopper (Valley Center) and Adam Weber (Colby).

“Everyone hopes they have an easy path to state, but that just doesn’t happen,” says Lippelmann. “There are going to be a lot of quality wrestlers at this regional and we had better be ready to wrestle our best. If we stub our toe and lose to someone we aren’t supposed to, then that’s going to make it even more difficult to get to state.

“If we show up and wrestle like we’re capable, I’m confident we’ll have a good weekend.”