Jim Ramirez After winning its first team state title last year, the Washburn Rural Junior Blues enjoyed the taste of victory so much, they decided to repeat as 6A team state champions once again. The right combination and mixture of ingredients was definitely present to savor all the taste and aroma with bringing eleven wrestlers to state and placing six medalists. In a total team effort, all Junior Blues contributed points in some capacity whether placing at state or not that led to scoring 151 team points. That was just enough points to overcome a serious challenge from the Derby Panthers who finished as runner-ups scoring 142.5 points for the Junior Blues to reign as champions once again. But first, there was still some mat business to take care of before thinking about celebrating to prematurely. In order to secure a team title, since the race was still up for grabs prior to the championship finals, the Junior Blues needed to win at least one individual title out of its three finalists. They more than succeeded with crowning a pair of champions with Aidan Boline @ 160 and Austin Fager @ 182.
What’s so interesting about the team race finish at state, is that the top six teams at state all competed in the same regional tournament making it extremely difficult to possibly bring a few more teammates to the state tournament. This is especially true if a particular weight class was stacked with ranked or honorable mention wrestlers competing in it.
Derby and Manhattan meanwhile with finishing 2nd and 6th in the team race, won the honors of placing the most wrestlers at state with each team placing eight. However, Derby crowned a champion in Tate Rusher @ 138, with some state medalists placing relatively high, while Manhattan on the other hand, had to settle with a couple of 3rd place finishers and below.
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