Lions Down SM NW Gardner, Kan. — The Lansing wrestling team split a pair of duals at Gardner-Edgerton on Wednesday night, beating Shawnee Mission Northwest after being edged by the host Trailblazers. The Class 5A top rated Lions suffered a narrow 35-32 dual loss to Gardner-Edgerton — the No. 8 ranked team in 5A — in their opening dual but recovered to earn a 40-23 win over the Cougars.
Against Gardner, Kevin Keller got the Lions on the winning track with an 18-1 technical fall win over Kiefer Price in the 112-pound weight class and Bo Pursel followed up with a win by pin over Ryan Fitzpatrick at 119. Both Pursel and Keller are ranked No. 1 in Class 5A in their respective weight classes.
Lansing lost its next four bouts, but Garret Hinckley — who’s ranked No. 3 at 145 pounds — righted the ship with an 11-6 win over Gardner’s Austin Keelin — who’s ranked No. 4. Dillon Scanlon pinned his 152-pound opponent Nathan Danron to help pad the Lansing team score, and 171-pound Tyler Baughman pinned the Blazers’ John Hernandez for another Lion win. Scanlon and Baughman are each rated No. 2 in their weight classes.
A win by pin by Derique Cary, over Gardner’s 285-pound Brian Allson wasn’t quite enough to pull off the dual win for the Lions. Grant Koberlein at 125, Clayton Bogner at 130, Cameron Trout at 160 and Nathan Naphy at 215 all lost to ranked opponents from Gardner-Edgerton.
Keller kept things rolling in the Lions’ dual win over Shawnee Mission Northwest, edging Chandler Gordon 10-9. Gordon placed third in the 103-pound class at last year’s 6A state tournament, and head coach Ron Averill said it was another big win for his senior 112-pounder.
“Kevin Keller had a really big night,” Averill said. “His close match against Shawnee Mission Northwest, that kid was third at state last year, that was a good moment for him.”
Pursel earned a 15-0 tech fall win over Matt Vanausdall and Andrew Walker earned a 4-2 win over Colton Almos at 135. Spencer Blew, rated No. 1 in 5A at 140 pounds, pinned Colby Everett for the win and Hinckley took a 13-6 decision over Dallas Ernsdorff.
Scanlon pinned Jeff Barnhill in the 152-pound bout and Trout notched a 16-5 victory over Scott Schneider. Baughman accepted a forfeit from Northwest and Litton Van Der Werff finished off the Lions’ winning in the dual with a 12-4 victory over Mario Galvin.
Bogner was once again defeated by a ranked opponent in the dual against the Cougars.
Although they did pick up one of the wins, Averill said his team didn’t look up to speed on Wednesday night.
“I felt like overall we were pretty sluggish in our first time out after Christmas break,” the Lion coach said. “Hopefully it was good to work out some kinks and get back on the mat and hopefully refocus a little before this weekend’s tournament.”
After several wrestlers missed the final meet of 2010 with illness or injury, Averill said that extra-long layoff did raise some concerns.
“It’s going to be nice to get back into a groove and get rolling coming up here,” Averill said. “Hopefully we don’t have any snow days or anything and we can just really get going.”
The Lions head to the Louisburg Invitational this weekend, with two pools in each weight class that will meet in crossover matches for medals. Averill said it’ll be a good experience for the team as they face even bigger meets in the coming weeks.
“This weekend will be a good tune-up for our big tournament the next weekend in the Bobcat Classic (at Bashor).”
