Three Red Demons place at state wrestling tournament
Day 1
Darville advances to State Championship
By Shelton Burch
Sports Editor
The Dodge City Red Demons wrestling team opened their 6A State Tournament bracket with multiple loses in the first round, and an even higher percentage in the second round.
Despite that, nearly all the Red Demons will wrestle in Saturday’s final day of the Tourney.
The Red Demons will have nine of their original 10 wrestlers competing Saturday. This proved the case despite four losing their matches in the first round, and five losing their matches in the second round.
Athletes had to win at least one match Friday to advance. Senior Weston Moon lost his first and second matches Friday.
Red Demon head coach Lars Lueders said second day wrestling is pretty typical, and three of the four who lost in the first round survived to wrestle again Saturday with wins in their second matches.
“It’s good for those three guys getting through,” Lueders said. “They wrestled really well. They adjusted well and they wrestled a lot better than they did the round before so that’s the main thing that we’re excited for and we’ll those nine guys tomorrow and try to win a couple matches and try to nine to place tomorrow.”
The day finished on a high note for the Red Demons however. Junior Couy Weil advanced to the semifinals before
losing on a pin, but junior Evan Darville won a 5-3 decision in his final match of the day.
He’ll wrestle for the 6A State Championship in the 285 weight division.
He had beaten his two previous opponents by pinning them in the first period of each match Friday, but won by just two points in a match that lasted all six minutes against Marcus Hicks of Wichita Northwest.
“Hicks is a good competitor and so is everyone else,” said a winded Darville. “It’s just he knows what to do with his hips and he couldn’t get thrown.”
Darville said it felt really good to advance.
“Last year I just came out here,(and) didn’t place at all, and this is a big up,” Darville said. “(I’m) looking to prove myself here.”
The close match between Darville and Hicks was something Lueders said was expected.
“We’ve wrestled him twice before and we’ve beat him twice by one point so we knew it was probably gonna be a close match,” Lueders said. “What I liked was the composure of Evan. He got taken down in the first period, was losing right away, but then we ended up turning him and getting the win and we actually won by two points.”
That composure, Lueders said, made the difference.
Here are the Tournament records for each Red Demon through Friday:
– 113: Couy Weil went
120: Daniel Rojas went 1-1
– 126: Edwin Estrada went 1-1
– 132: Garrett Edwards went 1-1
– 138: Cisco Soto went 1-1
– 152: Weston Moon went 0-2
– 160: Jashon Taylor went 1-1
– 195: Ansony Quezada 1-1
– 220: Cody Terrell 1-1
– 285: Evan Darville went 3-0
Day 2
Red Demon wrestlers Evan Darville, Ansony Quezada and Couy Weil medaled at the 6A State Wrestling tournament this weekend.Overall, the team finished in 11th place with 68 points.
The tournament took place Friday and Saturday in Park City, Kansas. The Red Demons took 10 wrestlers to the event; three seniors, two juniors, three sophomores and two freshmen.
“I think more than anything what I’m taking away is just it was a learning experience, because we return a lot of kids, and we even have kids that didn’t come to the Regional or State Tournament that have a lot of potential and could be state-placers for us next year,” Red Demon head coach Lars Lueders said.
That bodes well for next year.
“Number one, looking at next year it was a great learning experience and I think what we learned this weekend will pay off dividends next year,” Lueders said.
The other takeaway was how hard the kids worked.
“I think our kids really wanted it and they gave 100-percent effort, and that’s all you can ask of the kids,” Lueders said. “We prepared them the way that we thought we should, they did everything on their end, and so we’re proud of their effort and proud of how they represented Dodge City High School this weekend.”
One major lesson the team learned was how important it is to win close matches.
“It’s all about the match-situations, the certain situations you get into in a big-time pressure situation,” Lueders said. “So what we learned was how to handle pressure and how to win close matches.”
The Red Demons were led by junior Evan Darville, who entered the Saturday as the lone Red Demon unbeaten after the first day.
He lost in double overtime, finishing second in the tournament. Weil, a junior, and Quezada, a senior, also medaled, each earning fourth place.
Saturday’s second-place finish for Darville was the end of a strong season for him, and one that ended with him medaling, something he was unable to do last year.
“The growth from Evan is amazing,” Lueders said. “I mean it’s awesome to see where he was last year to this year. He beat a kid in the quarterfinals that knocked him out of the tournament last year. The kid that beat him first-round last year didn’t even place in his bracket this year.”
That itself shows the growth Darville made this season.
“It’s not really surprising by seeing how much work he put in the offseason and how much work he put in the weight room and the things that he did to prepare himself,” Lueders said. “So yeah, it’s awesome to see, but at the same point it’s not surprising.”
That effort led to Darville finishing 40-10 overall this season.
“This season I just worked harder than I had ever before, dedicated myself to wrestling and it just shows in the placing,” Darville said. “I obviously didn’t finish where I wanted to but I still placed higher than I did last year.”
For Darville, however, Saturday showed he isn’t done.
“There’s still more to improve on and I’ll just be doing that (in the) off season and looking to get better,” Darville said.
Top team scores
Olathe North 1512. Topeka-Washburn Rural 149.53. Manhattan 142.54. Derby 140.55. Garden City 1166. Wichita-South 1117. BV Northwest 918. Haysville-Campus 89.59. Olathe South 88.510. Hutchinson 73 Individual results
113 – Couy Weil (26-14) placed 4th and scored 15 team points 120 – Daniel Rojas (26-24) place is unknown and scored 5 team points 126 – Edwin Estrada (18-19) place is unknown and score 3 team points 132 – Garrett Edwards (27-11) place is unknown and scored 2 team points 138 – Cisco Soto (20-8) place is unknown and scored 1 team point 152 – Weston Moon (23-23) place is unknown and scored 0 team points 160 – Jashon Taylor (32-19) place is unknown and scored 1 team point 195 – Ansony Quezada (24-9) placed 4th and scored 17 team points 220 – Cody Terrell (23-19) place is unknown and scored 2 team points 285 – Evan Darville (40-10) placed 2nd and scored 22 team points
