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Terrance Adeleye goes for a takedown on Westmoreland in his 3rd place match.

The strength of the wrestlers was tested at the Hartman Arena as they attended the 2018 State Wrestling Competition in Park City, KS. Seven wrestlers attended the tournament that took place February 23^rd and 24^th with three boys placing, two of which were seniors and the other a junior.

This was a successful season for the wrestling team with all of the boys leaving the team with a winning record. The boys who attended were Matthew Whitton, Max Bazan, Logan Roether, Russell Wilkey, Sadiki Smith, Terrance Adeleye, and Kenson Henderson. Terrance Adeleye ended the tournament in 4^th, Max Bazan left with a 5^th place medal, and Logan Roether in 6^th.

“I worked really hard this year to make it to state,” Terrance Adeleye said. “I wanted to take first.”

Terrance went to state for the first time this year as a junior and was the highest placer on the team. Adeleye wrestled in the 182 weight class and qualified for third place after losing in the quarterfinals. At the conclusion of the match Adeleye ended his junior season with a record of 30-12.

“I expected myself to do better going into the tournament,” Bazan said.

Max Bazan, a senior this year is a four-time state qualifier and has placed 5^th all three years excluding his freshman year. Bazan gave up his first place opportunity in the semi-finals as he wrestled against his biggest opponent all season, Gunnar Murray and lost again in the consolation semi-finals.

“If there was one thing I wish I could have done different, it would have been [setting up] the takedown attempt in semi-finals overtime that decided the match,” Bazan said. “Looking back, that could have been a major turning point.”

Not all of the boys who attended placed at state, but two were one match away from earning a medal. Both boys- Whitton (126) and Henderson (220) – lost their consideration round three matches.

The team, as a whole, ended up taking 15^th place out of 31 6A teams who had attended, with a total of 41 team points. Terrance Adeleye contributed the most to the team point’s total, scoring a total of 16 points.

“I wish we could have taken more boys,” Coach Laster said. “but I’m happy with the number of kids we are taking.”

This is the most amount of boys that have been taken to state since the 2014-2015 school year. The team had a lot to be proud of as they took a total of seven boys, only one of which had ever been to state before. All three of the varsity seniors were given the opportunity to compete at state to finalize their season.

“The wrestling team this year has helped me build a lot of friendships as well as building my discipline,” Henderson said. “I was happy to have been given this opportunity.”