CHS sending six to state

Comanche wrestling accomplished something that has not been done in recent memory. On Saturday, six Indian wrestlers were in the regional final of their weight class. Even the 2020 state championship team had only five.

“I’ll have to go back and look at the records but I don’t think we’ve done that since I’ve been here,” said Casy Rowell, head coach. “Six finalists is pretty phenomenal, so I’m really happy about that. I would have liked to have some help on the backside, but those guys did wrestle well, it was just competitive.”

The Indians also placed third as a team.

Of the six finalists, Gage Jessen was only winner. Aidan Frye, Legend Yates, Matt Hunt, Erik Roy and Kanon Clift finished in second.

In the finals, Frye lost a close 3-2 match at 106 pounds. Jessen picked up a pin in the second period at 120. Matt Hunt lost by technical fall at 126. Legend Yates lost by technical fall at 138. Eric Roy lost 10-0 at 175 and Clift lost 7-2 at 190.

“It’s nice to have six qualifiers and even better that none of them are going to have to wrestle that  first day (Thursday),” Rowell said.

For the first time, the state tournament will be spread out over three days instead of two. Action begins Thursday and continues Friday and Saturday.

Rowell saw some standout performances from his team.

“Gage wrestled probably the best he’s wrestled all year and it’s a good time of the year to be wrestling your best,” Rowell said. “He dominated everybody he wrestled, which was awesome and pinned his kid in the finals. He was beating the kid by a lot of points before he pinned him, so he definitely controlled the match.”

The coach also liked the way Frye wrestled.

“He probably doesn’t get as much credit as he deserves,”  Rowell said. “He goes out and handles business all the time. He just had a tough match in the finals and fell 3-2. I think he knows what he needs to do to turn that around.”

Rowell said he thought Hunt wrestled well, but ran into a multiple-time state champion (Colt Colette of Checotah) in the final as did Legend Yates in his match against Jesse Justice of Sperry. 

The coach also mentioned Roy’s tough overtime win in the semifinals before running into last year’s state runner-up (Kyle Harrell of Hinton) in the final. 

In his semifinal match, Clift defeated the same wrestler he beat for third place at state last year before falling to another state placer in the final.

“We still have one more week (of practice) left,” Rowell said. “We’re going to do a little bit of training, but a lot of it is just having the right mentality going into the state tournament. Regionals are important to qualify for state, so the state tournament is where you want to try to be your best. Hopefully, our guys are waiting to wrestle their best at the right time.”

The boys will be joined by four girls - Brook West, Mya Padilla, Celina Quezada and Kylie Willer - at the state tournament, the largest number of girls ever sent by Comanche.