HAYS — The
smiles worn by Isaac Luellen and Kole Davoren were genuine, and for good
reason.
State championships don’t come along every day and any time you
can win one, there’s a sense of accomplishment, satisfaction and exultation.
So when Luellen captured his second straight Class 3-2-1A
182-pound title, he “dabbed.” And when Davoren followed with his first state
title at 220, he pumped his fists in the air and pointed to the Rossville
cheering section.
But the celebrations were somewhat limited and the somber looks on
the rest of the Bulldawgs told the other side of the story.
On a day where Rossville could boast two state champions, two
runner-up finishers and five total placers, the Bulldawgs simply weren’t in a
mood to celebrate. Not when the performance left them painfully short of ending
Norton’s reign in Class 3-2-1A and delivering the program’s first state title.
“They did what they had to do all weekend long,” Rossville coach
Curt Brecheisen said of Norton, which got three state champions and edged the Bulldawgs
by a mere four points for the team title, 121-117. “They went three for three
tonight and we went two for four. We knew it was going to be a dogfight and it
was.”
Rossville held a one-point lead going into Saturday’s championship
matches and had four wrestlers in the finals while Norton had three. Matching
the Bluejays champion for champion was a must and if at all, Rossville needed
to stay a step ahead.
But by the time Luellen and Davoren captured their titles, Norton
had done its work. The Bluejays got titles from Skylar Johnson at 113, Mike
Kasson at 160 and Gavin Lively at 195 with Lively’s pin in the finals clinching
the title ahead of Davoren’s crown.
“They were just too much for us,” Luellen said.
That somewhat sums up Luellen’s season as well. No matter what
came his way, he handled it with relative ease. A state champion a year ago
despite missing the first half of the season, Luellen was at full strength as a
senior and boy was he strong.
A 5-3 win over KC-Turner’s Jacob Smith was his only close call of
the season and really became a turning point in his run to a 46-0 record.
“After beating him at Basehor, I was ready to go for state,”
Luellen said. “I was dominating after that. I felt good all year, but after
Basehor, it was over.”
The 182 title match with Lyons’ Cody Clark was over quickly as
well. Luellen needed 15 seconds to get his first takedown and locked Clarke up
in a cradle right away. He couldn’t get the valuable pin points and did give up
a reversal, but cruised the rest of the way to a 16-3 major decision.
If Luellen was the known commodity, Davoren was the surprise
champion. How much of a surprise? The senior didn’t even start wrestling until
his junior year. No kids background, no nothing.
“Derek (Gentry) got me to come out because they didn’t have a 220
so I thought I’d give it a try,” Davoren said. “I went out last year and
enjoyed it and it helped me in football. I really didn’t I could be this good,
honestly.”
In his title match with Smith Center’s Dalton Kuhn, Davoren got a
first-period takedown and appeared to be in solid position going into the third
period up 2-1 and starting on bottom. Instead, Kuhn turned him for two back
points, forcing Davoren to rally.
He did, getting an escape with just under a minute left and then
the winning takedown with less than 40 seconds to go, taking a 5-3 win.
“It’s really amazing,” said Davoren, who finished 38-6.
The fantastic finish for the Bulldawgs was dampened by a
heartbreaking start to the finals as both Bryce Gfeller and Isaiah Luellen fell
short in their bids to get Rossville rolling.
Gfeller (41-6), a two-time state champion, had a known rival in
his 126 final in Wabaunsee’s Riley Tubbs, a Mid-East League colleague whom
Gfeller had gone 2-1 against this year. That included an 8-4 win over Tubbs in
last week’s regional finals where Gfeller was able to work on his feet and rack
up takedowns.
In Saturday’s rematch, Tubbs grabbed the early lead by putting
Gfeller on his back for a two-point near-fall in the second period. Gfeller
fought back to tie the match 3-3 less than 30 seconds into the final period and
then let Tubbs up to try to get a winning takedown. It never came and Tubbs
capitalized for a late takedown of his own for a 6-3 win.
“I didn’t shoot near enough throughout the whole match,” Gfeller
said. “We’ve been back and forth all year and he got me when it mattered. It’s
definitely motivation to get No. 3 next year.”
Sophomore Isaiah Luellen faced a tough challenge to get his first
state title, meeting undefeated Christopher Ball of Hoisington in the 152
finals. The task got even bigger when Ball scored an early takedown and rode
Luellen out the rest of the period.
Even though Luellen (39-7) fought back and got a takedown in both
the second and third periods, Ball stayed one step ahead and took the 6-5
victory.
“I got rode a lot so if I couldn’t get up, I wasn’t going to beat
him,” Luellen said. “I thought he was getting tired, but it all went back to I
couldn’t get off bottom. There wasn’t really much I could do.”
Rossville also got a third at 120 from Alex Cavanaugh (41-3), who
gave the team a huge shot of momentum when he beat Norton’s Ryan Johnson 3-2 in
the consolation semifinals and followed with a 7-1 win over Southeast-Cherokee’s
Tyler Kester for third.
But in the end, the Bulldawgs came up just short of the goal of
becoming state champions.
“We should feel blessed, but we all feel the same way,” Brecheisen
said. “Our expectations from Day One this season was to be No. 1. And we didn’t
get it.”
