Bollinger to wrestle for State title at 138

Saturday, February 27, 2016

SALINA -- Fort Scott sophomore Derek Bollinger will wrestle for a State championship later today at the Class 4A State Wrestling Tournament here in a rematch of last weekend's final in the Columbus Class 4A Regional.

Bollinger is one of five Tigers still alive for a medal out of the six the team brought here. Bollinger, who placed sixth at 132 pounds last season, took a 3-2 decision over El Dorado senior Mason Herman in the first round and then won by the same score over Holton senior Justin Pool in the quarterfinals.

Bollinger (40-6) won a 5-4 decision over Austin Hernandez of Goodland (39-5), a senior who was seeded on the top of the bracket, in the semifinals. This sets up the Regional rematch against Burlington junior Colby Johnson (40-11), who defeated Bollinger, 7-1, in last Saturday's final.

Johnson reached the final with a 6-0 decision in the first round over Rodney Longshaw of Towanda-Circle, a pin of Derrick Martinek of Carbondale-Santa Fe Trail in the quarters, and a 2-1 decision over 40-match winner Pedro Ordonez of Hugoton in the semifinals.

Sophomore Zarek Fewell (39-8) won his first-round 145-pound match over Clearwater senior Josh Long by a 6-2 score. He pinned Tonganoxie sophomore Caden Searcy just as time ran out in the quarterfinal bout.

Fewell lost a 3-2 decision to Holton senior Justin Rieschick (40-4) in the semifinals. Rieschick will take on Mulvane's Anthony Scantlin (37-4) in today's championship bout.

Fewell begins today's action in the consolation semifinals, assured of no worse than sixth place. Two wins gives him third place. But he has to wait and see how the rest of the consolation side plays out before he knows who he will wrestle. There are two rounds of matches to be wrestled out before the consolation semis.

Freshman Tyler Gorman was pinned his first-round match at 106 pounds to Concordia sophomore Blake Leiszler. in consolation, Gorman pinned Chase Weber of Andover in the second period.

Gorman (31-12) will wrestle Tanner McGivney of Abilene (32-6) in the second round of consolation this morning as he looks to win a medal. McGivney was the No. 1 seed but was knocked down to consolation with a quarterfinal loss to Jake Patch of Andover Central.

Sophomore Kyle Montojo was pinned by Tonganoxie freshman Korbin Riedel in the first round at 120. This was Riedel's 40th win of the season although he lost in the next round to Tate Carney of Colby.

Montojo (15-14) pinned Matt Atkinson of Rose Hill in the first round of consolation to conclude his first day of competition. His second-round consolation match this morning will be against Nathan Keegan of Louisburg (28-11)

Senior Phillip Moran was pinned by Winfield senior Bryce Ledford in the first period of his first-round match at 126. He bounced back in the first round of consolation to pin Kody Gibson of Meriden-Jefferson West, a 30-match winner this season.

Moran (22-14) takes on Gad Huseman of Tonganoxie (34-11) in a second-round consolation match this morning.

Junior Chris Stell (22-22) was pinned in the first round at 152 by Holton junior Tyler Price. In consolation, Augusta senior Rob Winzer (32-9) took a 5-1 decision, eliminating Stell from further competition.

The tournament resumes this morning at 10 a.m. KOMB-FM will have live coverage of all Fort Scott matches with Larry Gazaway on 103.9.