Gfeller Adjusts To New Weight

By brent.maycock@cjonline.com

ROSSVILLE — For each of his first two high school wrestling seasons, Rossville’s Bryce Gfeller was pretty much the big dawg on the block in more ways than one.

For starters, Gfeller spent both years pushing the top end of his weight class — 106 as a freshman, 113 as a sophomore. Making weight was never really a problem, but also something Gfeller had to work at.

His combination of size and strength made him tough to beat and very few did. Gfeller went 38-7 as a freshman and 27-2 as a sophomore, capturing state titles each year.

Jumping up two weight classes to 126 this year, Gfeller is in somewhat new territory. And yet things seem awfully familiar.

“I’m not as big at 126, but it’s really not that much different,” Gfeller said. “It hasn’t been that big of an adjustment.”

So far whatever adjustment there’s been, Gfeller has handled it fine. After pinning Sabetha’s Seth Harrell in the finals of last Saturday’s Rossville Invitational, Gfeller is now 18-2 on the season.

His only losses this year have come to Marysville’s Chris Deters in the finals of the Mission Valley Invitational and KC Sumner’s Emmanuel Browne in the finals at the Eudora Tournament of Champions. The loss to Deters came at 132 coming out of football and both wrestlers who have beat him are ranked No. 1 at their respective weights in their respective classes.

The past two seasons, Gfeller relied heavily on his strength to overpower opponents. If he got in a bad spot, or even a good one for that matter, more times than not he simply could muscle his way through it to be in control of the match.

Even though he’s stronger this year than in past, he’s found he’s had to draw on other aspects of his game to be successful.

“I’ve definitely improved a lot on my technique,” Gfeller said. “A lot of guys I’m facing are bigger, taller. I’m pretty quick and agile and my technique has gotten a lot better. I worked on it a lot during the summer and me and Coach (Cody) Lambotte have worked on my feet and on shots. It’s a slower pace than at 106 or 113 where there was a lot of action.

“Before I could use my strength to force my shots. Now I have to kind of wait and set them up in the right position.”

Rossville coach Curt Brecheisen has noticed a difference in his two-time state champion.

“Like the rest of the guys here, he spent a lot of time in the weight room in the summer and that was a good step for him in the right direction,” Brecheisen said. “He’s quick enough and fast enough that it hasn’t been a hard transition for him. He’s got enough in his tank and he’s a little more aggressive, more physical. He realized he had to get more physical and everything now has a little more pop to it.”

Halfway home on his quest to become a four-time state champion, Gfeller is ranked just No. 3 at 126 this year in Class 3-2-1A. Ahead of him are No. 1 David Hileman of Smith Center, who captured the 126 title last year, and No. 2 Riley Tubbs of Wabaunsee, who was runner-up to Hileman at state last year as a freshman.

Both will be major obstacles for Gfeller with Tubbs a Mid-East League rival whom Gfeller should see plenty of over the next month, including possibly at this weekend’s Basehor-Linwood Invitational. Other ranked wrestlers in the Basehor field are Sumner’s Browne, Tonganoxie’s Gad Huseman, Baldwin’s Levi Green, Goddard’s Christian Bowen and Olathe North’s Tyler Flood with Browne (4A) and Bowen (5A) each ranked No. 1 in their respective classes.

“There are definitely a lot of good kids at 126 and I’m going to have challenges,” he said. “I have a lot of confidence knowing what I’m doing and that I know what it takes to win, how hard I have to work. I’ve watched them wrestle Alex a lot and know how they like to wrestle.”