While I would like to give a shoutout to all my Hat Town compadres for winning last night, I'm going to pull a SichardDRalyer and post an article from the Manhattan Mercury. This is not because I'm building up Hat Town's team, but because the article was so incredibly poorly written. (Note: Wrestlers do not equal "players.") Normally the wrestling coverage in the Mercury is done by Dennis Toll, who is usually pretty good. Pay attention in journalism class, kids...
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Manhattan mat men dominate
Dakota Cook Sports Writer

The Manhattan High wrestling team overpowered both Hays and Junction City in its double-dual meet in the MHS south gym Tuesday night.

The Indians, who won 24 of 28 matches, crushed Hays, 63-6, in the opening dual before trouncing rival Junction City, 56-16, for the first-place finish.

"Overall, I was real pleased," Manhattan coach Lee Woodford said. "Even in our closer and tougher matches, we were able to come away with a few wins. I liked the way we went after them tonight.

"The nice thing about this whole thing was, we were able to spend some time down here together as a team. This was actually the first time we've been able to do that. It gave us a chance to build a little bit of an identity, get to know each other, and develop as a team.

"This Saturday we go to Ottawa for a dual-tournament against five other teams," Woodford went on to say. "It's the same kind of format as what we just did, but we'll playing for trophies and medals."

Each of the 14 Manhattan wrestlers finished the night with at least one win. Of those 14, the Indians had 10 players record two wins. Eight of those 10 recorded at least one pin and only one of those eight, 140-pounder Brett Hoshaw, registered two.

Hoshaw, who earned 12 points altogether, scored both his wins in the first period of each match. Like Hoshaw, 112-pounder Jacob Wagner won both his matches. He finished with a total of nine points after winning with one pin and one decision.

Senior 125-pounder Jeb Woodford finished with nine points following his two-win performance; he had one pin and one decided from points. Michael Miller, at 145-pounds, recorded nine points from his two wins, collecting one pin and one decision.

Two Indians, Aaron Bingham and Matt Cox were left with only one match due to forfeits, but each were able to finish with 12 points and one pin. Lee Larson, a 189-pounder, and Derek Eichman, a 215-pounder, each finished with high scores and one pin. Larson finished with 11 points and Eichman registered nine.

Kris Fitzgerald, a 152-pounder, won both matches by decision, he scored six altogether. In as replacement for 160 pound Tyler Warner, Matt Scott went 1-1 and finished with three points.

"We need to work a little harder and get in better shape," said Woodford of his team. "Technically, we probably have only half our stuff in. As far as what we want to get done, we have a long way to go. There was a couple of situations tonight where I felt we could have done a little better job had we put more technique in place."

With about 75 kids total, 35 of which are in their freshman year, Woodford said the training process has been slow.

"We're a little bit behind this year from what we normally are," he said. "What we're looking for (is to) keep getting better each week, which has always been our goal, and keep learning. We still have a lot of technique to put in, which right now we're probably only a third of the way. Hopefully we'll be ready come February."

Junction City beat Hays in their dual meet.

I'm sure coach Wolford used the term players.

Nice exact quote from the reporter.

I'm starting to think that I'm glad I'm not from Manhattan.

Prant,

How did you miss the obvious? The Manhattan wrestler in the picture doesn't match the name in the caption. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so it must be a much bigger mistake than all of those you want everyone to see in the written text (which consists of only 556 words).

75 kids?!? WOW...maybe you should loan out some of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th stringers to teams needing to fill rosters! Heck you could make 5 varsity teams off that and have room for 5 jv guys!

No joke, Sweazy. My freshman year they were going to have to have two mat rooms. Luckily, some weiners quit...And this is why I often point out the difficulty of 6A--we have state placers on JV.

Anyone know why Wyler Tarner was out? Was he off being smart somewhere?

sorry gotta keep all that "stuff" in the fam. but if you call me I'll tell ya.

now boach, if you can't trust a bunch of random people on the internet, who can you trust?

Varsity Results

Versus Hays

103 � Jordan Hibbs, Hays, def. Kevin Frazier, pin.

112 � Jacob Wagner, MHS, def. Shawn Hutchinson, pin.

119 � Steven Miller, MHS, def. Josh Dreher, 9-0.

125 � Jeb Woodford, MHS, def. Rusty Wickham, 5-4.

130 � Andrew Wagner, MHS, def. Brandon Sanders, 17-2.

135 � Aaron Bingham, MHS, def. OPEN.

140 � Brett Hoshaw, MHS, def. Alex McKune, pin.

145 � Michael Miller, MHS, def. Zack Kanzenback, 4-2.

152 � Kris Fitzgerald, MHS, def. Joseph Boeckner, 6-1.

160 � Matt Scott, MHS, def. Josh Dandurand, 7-2.

171 � Sean Kelly, MHS, def. OPEN.

189 � Lee Larson, MHS, def. Danny Smyl, pin.

215 � Derek Eichman, MHS, def. Cory Werth, pin.

275 � Matt Cox, MHS, def. OPEN.

Team Score � Manhattan 63, Hays 6.

Versus Junction City

103 � Kevin Frazier, MHS, def. OPEN.

112 � Jacob Wagner, MHS, def. J.T. Kozlowski, 2-1.

119 � Steven Miller, MHS, def. OPEN.

125 � Jeb Woodford, MHS, def. Adam Charland, pin.

130 � Mike Mancuso, JCHS, def. Andrew Wagner, 10-1.

135 � Aaron Bingham, MHS, def. Lewis Hudgings, pin.

140 � Brett Hoshaw, MHS, def. Mike Gross, pin.

145 � Michael Miller, MHS, def. Anthony Hurst, pin.

152 � Kris Fitzgerald, MHS, def. Jamel Wilcox, 4-2.

160 � Jason Lacer, JCHS, def. Matt Scott, pin.

171 � Jamal Wilcox, JCHS, def. Sean Kelly, pin.

189 � Lee Larson, MHS, def. Chris Bertucci, 13-0.

215 � Derek Eichman, MHS, def. Jered Bowyer, 10-3.

275 � Matt Cox, MHS, def. Mike Treat, pin.

Team Score � Manhattan 56, Junction City 16.

Junior Varsity Results

Versus Hays

125 � David Thornton, MHS, def. Chase Scheibler, pin.

130 � Tom Elliot, MHS, def. Chase Scheibler, pin.

160 � Ian Shea, MHS, def. Adam Arnold, pin.

160 � Jeremiah Jamison, Hays, def. Seth Anderson, pin.

215 � Aswald Bartley, MHS, def. Blake Pruter, pin.

215 � Chris Seiders, MHS, def. Blake Pruter, pin.

215 � Devon Monroe, MHS, def. Blake Pruter, pin.

Versus Junction City

130 � Tom Elliot, MHS, def. Tim Sheehan, pin.

145 � Bubba Schoenfeld, MHS, def. Maurice Quenten, pin.

152 � Hendrick Cintron, JCHS, def. Seth Anderson, 9-4.

189 � Brandon Malone, MHS, def. Justin Greene, pin.

215 � Aswald Bartley, MHS, def. Spencer Jenkins, pin.

215 � Chris Seiders, MHS, def. Aaron Dyer, pin.

215 � Devon Monroe, MHS, def. Jacob Bauman, pin.

Prant The number of wrestlers out in Manhattan is exceptional--even (especially?) for 6A. This is undoubtedly a testament to Coach Woodford.

I'm not very impressed the mat room really smells bad after practice.

Mevan, don't complain. It is clearly because you and your brother are in the room. I believe the rest of the teams hygiene is sufficient, until you enter the room atleast.

Wait!
I apologize Mevan, my sources were wrong, it appears that the two stink bombs are Wandrew and Mike, not you.

Actually, even S.M. East has around fifty kids out so that's still a pretty big number. We don't have any state placers on JV though. Hell, we hardly have any state placers on varsity.

I like when JV teams from the bigger schools go to some Varsity tournaments at smaller schools...it improves the competition.

Manhappiness is so good because they acquired assistant coach Mai Kann from Norton through free agency. Oddly enough, he looks nearly identical to Boach Clack.

What about Norton's JV team going to Varsity tourney's. Since they won a varsity tournament, but are also a small school do they not count. I seriously doubt Shawnee Mission East's JV would improve a tournamnet's competitiveness, or most of the other 6A or 5A school's JV teams. Manhattan is an exceptional program, regardless of what class they are in.

Also I agree that Mai Kann does look like Boach Clack. I can't believe I ever noticed the resemblance before. However' he is not the best assistant coach from Nortown that Manhattan has had, or the coolest, or the best wrestler!

twink,
For a coach, an adult, you make some very inappropriate statements. In 2000, there was a JV 275 pounder from Goddard that got to wrestle in Goddard's varsity tournament because Goddard could enter JV wrestlers in their own tournament. This wrestler beat a wrestler for third and forth that won the 4A State title that year. This said JV wrestler never even got to go to the 5A regional (Goddard was in 5A then) because he could not make the varsity. The varsity 275 pounder from Goddard, who was second in 5A state behind a Kapaun wrestler, not only beat the 4A state champion, the Goddard JV kid beat the same 4A state champion at the same tournament. Does this mean that 5A is tougher, of course not. But of course if a 4A or 3A person were to give a similar story about a 4A or 3A JVer beating a 5A or 6A kid, they would immediately proclaim "see 3A and 4A are tougher", and it does not fly. I can tell you many stories about Goddard kids beating 4A state placers from Mulvane, El Dorado, Augusta, etc. you know, 4A teams and those said 5A kids did not even make it to state. So again, does that mean that 5A or 6A are tougher than 4A and 3A. Of course not, but what it does mean is that you, like many other 4A and 3A people, need to quit living in the past, wake up and take note of what is happening in 5A and 6A as wrestling is becoming more important and more emphasized. All of the classes are about the same now. They are all tough with tough teams, good coaches and tough kids. I guarentee you there are many JV wrestlers from teams like Turner, Carroll, Goddard, etc., not just Manhattan that could beat plenty of 4A and 3A varsity wrestlers. And I don't just guarentee it, I have seen it first hand.

After a long hiatus Coach Lemon is finally back giving us all an education. Now, if Coach Fergola would start posting again, it would seem like old times

WSEWC:
I am surprised at the hostility in your post. I was not degrading the strength of 5A or 6A. I have spent the last 8 years coaching at these levels and would not continue to do so if I thought the wrestling was inferior. I was however saying that the classification of the JV program does not determine its strength. It is more dependent on the strength of the program, irregardless of the classification. Your example goes to show that my position is correct, Goddard has had a very good program recently. Your statement that "if a 4A or 3A person were to give a similar story about a 4A or 3A JVer beating a 5A or 6A kid, they would immediately proclaim 'see 3A and 4A are tougher'" is, based on my readings on this forum, untrue. The people saying JV results have something to do with class strength are people arguing that the large classes are better than the smaller classes. Case in point Aaron Sweazy said above "I like when JV teams from the bigger schools go to some Varsity tournaments at smaller schools...it improves the competition."
While I like Sweazy and his posts, I disagree with his point of view which caused me to post my previous message. No where was I inappropriate. My use of SME's JV team was preceeded by someone from SME's (LancerM) own admission that their JV team was not very strong.
In closing I do not understand your hostility toward me or my position. I am not living in the past, but am trying to make my 5A eastern Kansas team more competitive. I just think the tradition of the program has more to do with success than classification.

There was no hostility intended, I am sorry that it sounded that way. Once again, I was taking a defensive posture and I guess that I just should have bit my lip.