Lancers sending school-best 13 wrestlers to state tourney

SM East's Xander Todd grappled with Lawrence's Macon Ezell at the regional tournament. Photo courtesy LJWorld.com. By Richard Gwin.

SM East swimmers and diver aren’t the only ones celebrating big Lancer wins over the weekend. The wrestling team is heading to state after dominating displays at both the Sunflower League and state regional tournaments the past two weekends.

The Lancers took the Sunflower title at the league tournament the weekend of Feb. 10, with 12 of the 13 Lancer wrestlers planing in the top six in their classes. Gavin Jorns and Blaine Hill won the 120-pound and 170-pound classes, respectively.

This past weekend, the Lancers edged out highly ranked Lawrence at the state regional tournament by three points. The victory came after Lawrence, which was hosting the tournament, had to pull junior Nick Pursel from the finals in the 170-pound class because of an ailing left shoulder. Blaine took the 170-pound championship match by default.

The regionals performance qualified 13 Lancer wrestlers — the most in school history — to advance to the state tournament this weekend at the Wichita-Hartman Arena in Park City.