CHANUTE — Marcus Sullivan earned a return trip to the Kansas Class 4A State Wrestling tournament. The question is if the Iola High senior goes as a regional champion or a second-place finisher?
Sullivan got past Chanute High senior Tyler Kidwell 5-3 in a160-pound weight class semifinal Friday night at the 2011 Class 4A regional tournament at Chanute High School. Sullivan finished fourth at 160 a year ago.
Sullivan went into the regional as the top seed in the 160-pound class. He had a first-round bye Friday afternoon then pinned sophomore Matt Lofing of Osawatomie in 3 minutes, 3 seconds in the quarterfinals.
Sullivan takes on John Metcalf, a sophomore from Fort Scott, in tonight’s championship match. Metcalf defeated Spring Hill freshman Blake Hampton 2-1 in the semifinals.
Freshman Mike Armstrong of Iola made it to the 119-pound semifinals Friday and lost. Armstrong dropped into the consolation bracket semifinals and is in a holding patter most of today.
Two rounds of consolation matches begin at 11 this morning at CHS. The consolation semifinals are the third round of action.
Armstrong had a first-round bye Friday then defeated Fort Scott freshman Jerad Heckman 5-3 in overtime. In his semifinal match, Armstrong lost an 11-1 decision to top-ranked Austin Hood of Louisburg.
Junior Devin Culler and sophomores Stephen McDonald and Chase Roettgen of Iola have some work to do today. Culler at 152, Roettgen at 171 and McDonald at 189 have work back through the consolation bracket of their respective weight classes.
McDonald won an opening-round match Friday by pinning C.J. Hitt, a junior from Independence, in 1:31 at 189. In the quarterfinals, McDonald lost to Coby Morris, a junior from Spring Hill, 7-2.
Culler earned a first-round bye Friday in the 152-pound class. In the quarterfinals, Anderson County senior Zach DuPont pinned Culler in 3:38.
Roettgen dropped a 13-2 decision in the opening round to Parsons’ Christian Moerlien. In the first round of consolation Friday, Roettgen was behind Aaron Napier but turned him for a pin with 46 seconds left in the match.
To reach the third-place match and earn a trip to state, all three Iola wrestles must win three matches today.
Junior Brent Clark and sophomore Zeph Larney concluded their seasons with two losses in their weight classes Friday.
Clark was pinned by Anderson County’s Tyler Land in 3:15 of their opening-round match at 125. In consolation bracket action, Clark was pinned by Blake Lewis of Spring Hill.
In 140 pounds, Larney was pinned by Trey Thompson of Coffeyville in 1:29 to open the tournament. Larney lost in the first round of consolation action by an 8-1 decision to Alex Gert of Spring Hill.
Iola High senior Lee Berg failed to make weight at 130 pounds Friday morning.
Matches begin at 11 today with the consolation finals slated for 5 o’clock. The championship finals are at 6:30.
Sessions can start earlier than stated times.
Sullivan goes after regional title
