South Wrestling on verge of being annual contender

With Park Hill South Wrestling’s 44-24 dual victory over Belton last week, Dan Dunkin’s Panthers have assured themselves at least a share of the Suburban Mid-Seven conference championship, the first in school history. Bret Rounkles, Jimmy Carpenter, and Sam Eickhoff led South with pins in their respective matches. While the achievement is something to hang their hat on, Dunkin sees the title as a step on the way to what he hopes is sustained success in coming years. The young wrestlers South sees filling their varsity spots is reason to believe the Panthers are on the right course.

“I don’t know if we’re ready yet,” Dunkin said of excelling into the area’s group of elite programs. “It’s coming and it’s on the horizon.”

Sophomores Carpenter, Adam Weatherly, and Chase Gray qualified for state last year as freshmen and didn’t perform as well as they would have liked leaving room for improvement and a burning desire to return again. Alex Fortuna and Eickhoff were one match away from qualifying last year, but fell short of advancing.

“It’s a very similar story for most of them,” Dunkin said. “But I expect big things from them now. We’re getting a nucleus of kids coming back with quality experience.”

Eickhoff is one of two seniors in the starting lineup for the Panthers. After leading in his state qualifying match last season, he got pinned, leaving him with a goal to be fulfilled in his final tour.

“Sam wants to beat if not emulate one of his older rivals from the past, since he’s not there anymore it allows him the chance to fill that void,” Dunkin said of his captain.

At the heavyweight position, South has had trouble finding a mainstay throughout the season, but feel they have a good candidate to compete for them in districts.

“We’re playing musical chairs with our heavyweights. At certain times we’ve had as many as five guys,” Dunkin said. “We’ve talked about it already and we’ve got some young, good looking guys, but they’re willing to give it to Cody Hodges, our senior.”

The Panthers have been battling injuries throughout the season, but hope to be getting healthy at just the right time. After accomplishing the goal of winning a conference title, Dunkin still believes he can get a solid group of wrestlers qualified for the state tournament in late February.

“I’m still focused on that right now (getting six to state), depending on how some of our injuries shape up,” Dunkin said. “The goal still stands.”

As he looked up at the banner that would eventually list their newly clinched title, Dunkin indicated they wanted to hold the title by themselves and could earn that this week as they complete their conference season against Winnetonka.

“That banner up there, I’d rather have the title outright than share it as co-champs. I’m greedy when it comes to things like that,” Dunkin said.