Park Hill sees success in state wrestling tune-up

Park Hill coach Bill Erneste wanted his team to approach last week as a practice run for the state tournament. Three consecutive days of wrestling, first a dual against nationally ranked Kearney and then the two-day Winnetonka Tournament, would closely resemble the three day long state wrestling tournament next month. By winning both, the Trojans had one of their best weeks of the season and built a strong case for being at the top of the rankings in Class 4.

After Kearney came from behind to beat Park Hill earlier this season at the Park Hill Invitational, both schools came into Thursday night’s dual as two of the top teams in the state, and their fan bases were in for a classic matchup. Battling from dual to dual, at the end of the night the Trojans would claim redemption with a 32-20 win over the Bulldogs.

“If you win on the first night of the state tournament, you have one match and one match only. So Kearney was that first match. I couldn’t have been more proud of the fight in our kids, they showed a lot of heart,” Erneste said. “I think it was great for wrestling. You had the Kearney fans and Park Hill fans who packed the gym for two quality wrestling programs that are only 20 miles apart.”

Park Hill would use that victory as momentum the following two days at the Winnetonka Tournament where they placed eight wrestlers on their way to racking up 431 team points and the tournament championship. Sean Hosford, Ke-Shawn Hayes, and John Erneste brought home first place medals. Hunter Roberts, Canten Marriott, Russ Coleman, and Malik Colding placed second while Colston DiBlasi took third.

The title round featured some quality matchups with other top teams like Blue Springs and Seckman, possibly previews of state tournament matchups to come four weeks from now. Overall, the Trojans are satisfied with their past week, but know they aren’t a finished product yet and will be fine tuning in the time leading up to the district tournament on February 9^th.

“We’re on target,” Erneste said. “We want to use this for practice and so far we’ve had a good practice.”

The Trojans will compete in the St. Joe Benton and Oak Grove tournaments over the next two weekends.

Park Hill South has seen success this year with the help of a strong senior class. Until recently, the Panthers have been plagued with some early season injuries and were hoping the Winnetonka Tournament would be one of their first tournaments back at full strength. While the Panthers finished fourth out of the 15 team field, they would see the injury bug catch them again when Logan Gillespie (220) suffered a shoulder injury.

“We’ve been getting stronger as a team until today where we suffered a few injuries,” Park Hill South coach Dan Dunkin said.

The Panthers saw good results from several wrestlers over the weekend with Adam Weatherly and Chase Gray bringing home second place medals. Jimmy Carpenter and George Barth placed third while Alex Weatherly took fourth. Dunkin says the tournament was a good chance to go against some of the best teams in the state to see how they fared.

“We wanted to go against the top three teams in the state to see if we can hang with them, we’re there,” Dunkin said. “We’re going to give it a shot. I was just a little disappointed we couldn’t hang a little more, but we’re not scared though. I like how our kids are wrestling. We just need to be on the other side of the result.”

Dunkin believes postseason success will rely on healing up the rest of their injuries and adding that extra amount of push they’ll need to find themselves in a position to compete at districts and state.

“We need to heal up first, and then we’re going to get into better shape, review film, and do what we have to do,” Dunkin said.

Park Hill South will be competing in the Liberty Tournament this weekend.