Iola’s Andrew Garber prepares for state

Iola’s wrestler Andrew Garber will compete in Salina this weekend at the Class 4A State Tournament.
“It’s another week of wrestling and I get to do what I love to do,” Garber said.
It was always Garber’s goal to make it to the state tournament this season. Last year, he came up one win short in the Class 4A Regionals. Garber qualified in the 182-pound weight class this season after taking second place at the Louisburg Class 4A Regional on Saturday.
Garber enters the tournament with a 29-8 record. So far, this year’s highlight was placing first at the Anderson County Invitational on Dec. 13. He also won the Eureka Invitational and was the Pioneer League Champion. He placed second at the Fredonia Wrestling Invitational.
“Garber did very well,” Coach Jason Bates said. “He’s had a couple of losses that happened in the last few seconds — little mistakes that cost him. He’s only lost eight matches so far. If you take off those three or four last-second losses, he’d have an even better record.”
Garber said he needs to be more aggressive at state.
Bates agrees.
“He needs to do a better job at moving on his feet,” Bates said. “Once he ties somebody, he just stops moving his feet. That’s when they either attack him or if he does get a good shot, but stops moving his feet, that’s when they get a good chance to counter his attack.”
At the state competition, the top six wrestlers in Class 4A will be decided. The tournament is double elimination. One loss will move a wrestler to the consolation bracket. In order to place in the top six, Garber will need to make it to at least the semifinals in the consolation bracket.
“He’s got a good chance at winning matches at state,” Bates said. “If he continues to wrestle as he has been, work on a few things, fine tune things he does well and adjust some things, he’ll have a very good chance.”
Garber has been wrestling for 11 years.
“I use to watch WWE, then I heard about kids wrestling,” Garber said. “I didn’t think anything was different until I started. I just kind of fell into it.”
He said he enjoys the physicality of wrestling. He also played football for the Mustangs. He said the sports help each other.
The state tournament will end Bates’ first season as Iola’s coach.
“I really didn’t know what to expect when I came in. I didn’t know the wrestlers,” Bates said. “I didn’t know what they were good at. They’ve been used to doing things one way. I do things a little differently. I was really surprised at how well they adapted to the new program and they really improved throughout the year.”
Updates from the tournament will be tweeted as well as appear in Saturday and Monday Registers.