Buffs hold off Great Bend in dual, host Hays Thursday with WAC title on the line

Story Credit: Brett Marshall/GCHS Athletics

If Garden City High School’s boys’ wrestling team is to defend its Western Athletic Conference championship when it hosts Hays High at 6 p.m. Thursday in The Garden, Buffaloes’ head coach Paul Lappin said his squad will have to improve upon their Wednesday dual win over Great Bend in the first of back-to-back WAC match-ups.

The Buffs held on for a 39-34 victory over the Panthers but it wasn’t without some anxious moments after the Buffs had stormed out to a 33-9 lead when they had completed the 150-pound division.

At that point, the Buffs had won at 106, 113, 120, 126, 132, and 150 while losing only at 138 and 144 to two of the Panthers’ top wrestlers in Cal Schartz and Trevin Maciel.

“The whole thing was just a lot closer than it should have been,” Lappin said afterward. “We started off strong but we’ve got to finish matches.”

Several of the losses saw the Buffs’ wrestlers leading on points only to get pinned in the later stages of the match.

“We get ourselves out of position,” Lappin lamented. “I’ve said this over and over, it’s like I’m a broken record, but we’ve got to do all the little things that matter most.”

After Morales, a freshman, had won his 150-pound match to put the Buffs up 33-9, Lappin watched his team lose matches at 157, 165 and 175, two of them by falls and one by a major decision that provided the Panthers with 16 points and cut the deficit to eight, 33-25.

That left freshman Mason Guerrero at 190 pounds to hold off the Panther rush. With a modest 13-16 record coming in, Guerrero battled Brady Mendez through more than five minutes before finally getting a pin of Mendez at 5:24 of the final period.

Those six points secured the team victory as the Buffs then lost at 215 pounds by a fall and the final 285 pound match by a 7-6 decision for Great Bend’s final tally of 34 points.

“Mason fought like crazy,” Lappin said. “He was able to get off his back and get the pin. I thought Adrian (Morales) did an awesome job considering he found out late that he was in the lineup.”

The dual with Hays will be the final action of the regular season. The Buffs will have two weeks to prepare for the Class 6A West Regional at Wichita North (Feb. 20-21). The State tournament is Feb. 27-28 in Overland Park.

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Western Athletic Conference

Dual No. 3

Wednesday, Feb. 4

At The Garden

GARDEN CITY 39, GREAT BEND 34

(Garden wrestlers listed first)

106–Izaac Gonzalez won by fall over Charlie Foster, 1:31

113–Roman Garcia won by fall over Noel Gonzalez, 0:53

120–Fabian Merjil won by dec., 8-4, over Abel Spencer

126–Pace Plankenhorn won by fall over Logan Turner, 1:43

132–Zach Long won by fall over Kawika Martinez, 1:18

138–Logan Polson lost to Cal Schwartz by tech fall, 16-0, 1:43

144–Isaiah Ayala lost by maj. dec. to Trevin Maciel, 14-1

150–Adrian Morales won by fall over Julian Galindo, 2:58

157–Jordan Moreno lost by fall to Triston Tomlinson, 3:25

165–Juan Ortiz lost by maj dec, 15-6, to Aiden Stacey

175–Connor Wheeler lost by fall to Cruz Folk-Robinson, 4:16

190–Mason Guerrero won by fall over Brady Mendez, 5:24

215–Carlo Toledo lost to Kristian Bustamante by fall, 2:31

285–Manuel Hernandez lost by dec., 7-6, to Josue Bustamante