Holton Wrestling

Holton Wildcats came into the Class 4A state wrestling tournament last weekend with the most wrestlers qualify for state in school history in nine but had only been ranked in the Top 10 KWCA team rankings a few times this season.

Well making history just qualify for the state tournament of course wasn’t enough for the Wildcats who already had enjoyed a great season on the mats and capped it off with a cherry on top capturing the Class 4A state title in impressive fashion.

Holton finished the state tournament with 104.5 total points, 7.5 better than Colby who finished second place. Seven of the nine state qualifiers grapplers medal for the Wildcats and all of the grapplers earned at least two wins apiece which proved to be crucial to the state championship, as Holton went 32-16 overall in their matches at state.

Pacing the way for the Wildcats was their lone individual champion senior, Hunter Price who went 4-0 on the day to capture the 120lbs weight class state championship. Price started the competition off with an 8-1 decision win in the first round and didn’t look back from their winning the final match with a 7-4 decision.

After Price, it was sophomore, Lucas Lovvorn earning the second best finish with a fourth place in his weight class of 138lbs, while five other Wildcats earned fifth place finishes. Jonah Lutz (126lbs), Justin Rieschick (132lbs), Lane Lassiter (145lbs), Andrew Rieschick (160lbs) and Cooper Zeller (285lbs) all ended their state tournaments with wins capturing fifth place finishes for the Wildcats.

Both Mason Baum (152lbs) and Justin Pool (113lbs) didn’t place at state but provided crucial points to Holton’s team total with their two wins each.

State tournament started off with an impressive run by Holton who went 8-1 in competition the first round, but came falling down the team standings after round two with a 2-7 round, putting them in eighth as a team after day one of competition.

Holton wouldn’t go quietly as they responded with a perfect third round of action 9-0 to propel themselves back towards the top and then capped of the state tournament going 6-1 in the medal matches with win their first ever state championship in wrestling in school history and cap of a great season for head coach, Cullen Jackson who was named KWCA Class 4A Coach of the Year.