A few years ago, Pittsburg High School wrestling coach Scott Rieck would have looked at a 7-1 Southeast Kansas League record and a second-place league finish and been happy with the result.
“I would have been grinning like a cat in a sandbox,” Rieck said.
But Rieck said he was disappointed when the Purple Dragons ended their 2010 season with that mark after defeating Parsons and Labette County in a double-dual Thursday night.
“When you have a good team, and you know you have a good team, you feel like you should win the conference,” Rieck said. “So it’s disheartening to take second with this team.”
The Purple Dragons’ only loss came earlier this year to undefeated Chanute, in a tight match that could have gone either way. But they’ve won every match since, and blistered Parsons 43-6 and Labette County 69-18 to end the league season.
“Looking back, it was the best we’ve ever done,” Rieck said. “And it’s a young group. We’re starting seven sophomores, five of which were on JV last year. And we’re using two freshmen, three juniors and two seniors.
“At least half of our team was JV last year,” Rieck said. “So looking at the big picture, it wasn’t too bad. But it still wasn’t what we wanted. Our kids wanted to win the league outright.”
The Purple Dragons only lost two matches Thursday night, with the rest of the opposing points coming courtesy of forfeits. Aaron Seybold and Jeremiah Jones continued their tears with two pins apiece, while Beau Bennett earned his 21st win by fall out of his 26 season victories.
Now, the team will focus on regionals, which will take place on Feb. 20 at Bishop Caroll in Wichita. The team will prepare for that meet with heightened expectations — Rieck said he expected at least four wrestlers to reach the finals and wrestle for state titles: Seybold, Beau, Brent Koehn and Mario Corado. Seybold, Corado and Bennett are all ranked No. 2 in their individual weight classes in Class 5A, and the No. 1 ranked wrestler in each category is coming through a different regional. Koehn is ranked No. 4 in his class.
“If things go right in state pairings after regionals, he could find himself in the state finals again, just like last year,” Rieck said. “All of those guys have a chance. There isn’t a totally dominant No. 1 wrestler in any of their classes like last year.”
He said another five — Jones, Broc Bennett, Daniel Blair, Austin Haake and Austin Winner — could find themselves wrestling for medals.
“We’re looking at three or four to make the finals and another four or five to wrestle for medals,” Rieck said. “In the top 10 teams, there’s a lot of parity. That’s going to make for an interesting state tournament.”
Kevin Flaherty can be reached at kevin.flaherty@morningsun.net or by calling 231-2600 Ext. 134
