Jim Ramirez The Hoxie Indians can easily be recognized in Class 3,2,1A as “Lord of The Ring” with capturing their second consecutive back-to-back state wrestling championship title. It was mat business as usual for Hoxie, as the Indians simply dominated their competition with scoring such a wide margin of team points that mathematically the tournament was over before the state placement rounds even began. This year’s Indian squad, with six state finalists and three individual state champions in Tate Weimer @ 113, Drew Bell, and Derek Johnson @ 160 along with three silver medalist and a bronze medalist, scored an eye popping 186 points, 97 points better than the second place Douglas Bulldogs who finished with 89 points.
Douglas surprised the field with finishing as Runner-Ups since they literally entered the state tournament as a non-ranked team. However, the Bulldogs built some momentum heading into the state tournament with peeking at the right time with winning their regional tournament they recently hosted. Joe Martin won his 285 lb weight class by pinning everyone he faced at the state tournament along with pinning 21 of 24 opponents he faced this year. Martin with winning state, became the first champion for Douglas since 2012, and also helped the Bulldogs (along with three other teammates) finish the Class 3A-1A state tournament in second place, their best placement at state since 1978, where they also placed second.
Wrestling in the state tournaments is always tough. So it’s worth mentioning that a couple of other non-ranked teams deserves some recognition by joining Douglas as total surprises with wrestling beyond everyone’s expectations that saw Belleville Republic County and Minneapolis finishing in the top ten.
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