Congratulations to the following high school wrestlers who placed at the Kansas High School State Track meets this weekend.

Joe Bach of Liberal won his second 5A State discus title with a throw of 171 feet. Joe also took third in the shot put at 53 feet one inch.

Mark Kolmer of Emporia took 2nd in the 5A javelin with a throw of 181 feet 8 inches.

Nate Davis of Liberal took 4th in the 5A 110 Meter Hurdles at 15.16 seconds.

Sam Blecha of Ottawa took 2nd in the 4A shot put at 52 feet and 8.25 inches.

These are the placers that I saw and there are probably others. I apologize if I missed someone. If you know of any others who placed at the State track meets or did well in any other team sports, please list them.

I watched Hawkins from Goodland win the discus as well. While I don't think he wrestled this year, he placed last year I think.

Zach Puetz of Garden Plain won Discus and Shotput in 3A.

John Binning of Atwood placed 1st in 2A Shotput.

Luke Kenner from Hoisington took 7th in 3A Shotput.

Keath Thomas form Phillpsburg was 7th in 3A Discus and Javelin.

Sage Thimmesch of Garden Plain took 2nd in Pole Vault followed by Cade Hewitt of Beloit in 3rd and Ryan Swatzell of Phillipsburg taking 6th all in 3A.

Colt Rogers of Smith Center finished 3rd in Pole Vault and 5th in 300 Hurdles for 2A.

Gabe Wickham of Phillipsburg took 5th and Cas Spangler of Beloit placed 7th in the 300 Hurdles for 3A.

Jacob Yoder of Hillsboro took 5th in the 100 meter and 2nd in the 200 meter dash in 3A.

These were all of the wrestlers that I could find. Several were also in relays too.

Nathaniel Martens - Newton: 7th in the 5A 200m, 2nd in the 4x100m relay, and place ? in the 4x400m

Derek Newell of Ulysses 2nd at 152, 3rd in the 100, 5th in the 4x1.

I'm not sure any of these placings are truly noteworthy. We really won't know if any of those athletes are any good until we have a grand state for track and field. We should add one more week and have all the placers in all classes come back and compete against each other and maybe we'll get more scholarships for Kansas.

Before you all torch me, hopefully you can hear the sarcastic tone and understand I am only joking.

Well done men. State medals are hard to win regardless of sport or school classification. Please wear them proudly!

Gary Seibel
Salina South

On May 17, 2008 the Saint Thomas Aquinas Rugby team completed a very successful 20-4 season with their first Kansas State Rugby Championship. Four of their star performers this year wwere wrestling varsity senior starters EJ Walter, Tom Greer, Eric Nachbar and the "Double Z" Zach Zillner. They were all varsity football players too.

Congratulations to these four senior Saints wrestlers, rugby and football players on a great season in these three rugged contact sports this year.

My former Renegade, Johann Swanepoel, now a 10th grader at SM South is a 6A State Champion in the Javelin! Johann has some of the top throws in the nation this year!

Marshall McCall and Colt Rogers both part of Smith Center Champion 4 x 100 relay and 3rd place 4 x 400 relay.