Jim Ramirez There’s a new kid in town in Class 4A wrestling as Tongonixie won its first state championship title since 1991. After finishing third at last year’s state championships, all hands were on deck as the Chieftains were on a mission this year to win it all. They continued their magical season on the strength of placing six wrestlers, four of whom reached the finals while crowning a champion in Gabriel Bailey @ 182 lbs. Collectively in a total team effort, Tongonoxie as the second ranked team entering the tournament, scored 136 team points to slip past Augusta who was ranked #1 coming into the tournament and finished second with 127.5 team points. Coaches, wrestlers and fans knew prior to the tournament start, it was going to be a dog fight between Tongonoxie and Augusta battling for a team championship title with several other teams expecting to be close on their heels. The tournament certainly didn’t disappoint its fans and was well worth the price of admission.
Augusta, was led by their champion Marcus Terry @ 120 lbs who captured his second state title while having to deal with overcoming a broken collarbone that saw him missing six weeks during the season. But where the Orioles gained some scoring momentum from a teams perspective is when six wrestlers managed to place in the top 6 of their weight class. Where Augusta fell a little short on team points is they didn’t match the number of finalists the Chieftains had with only putting two Orioles in the finals. Nevertheless, they competed well enough to make a run at a state title.
The Andale Indians, last years state champion team gave a good account of themselves with making a little noise of their own as well with placing third in the team race with scoring 111 points. They too, crowned only one champion in Owen Eck @ 138 lbs while placing six wrestlers in the tournament.
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