The wrestling team began its postseason run in impressive fashion as they edged past Zumwalt South 39-30 on Jan. 21 to win the GAC Central Conference Championship at Liberty. 

This marks the first time an LHS wrestling team has won conference was 2015-16 season when they were co-champions and qualified five wrestlers to state.

“Everyone wrestled really well whether or not they won or lost,” Coach Kling said. 

Individual winners for LHS were: Brendan Kelly, Aidan Kelly, Zane McCulloch, Trenton Williams, Wyatt Haynes, Cole Wolfe, Jackson Ward and Matthew Craig. 

One match that stood out was Craig, who moved up from the 220 weight class to 285. 

“That’s impressive. You’re giving up a lot of weight to wrestle heavyweight,” Kling said.  

While Cole Wolfe lost to his opponent earlier in the year, he recovered and defeated him at the conference meet. 

“The whole team wrestled well. Even the kids who lost and got pinned. They still wrestled good.”

Down by eight points, Justin Little got a reversal in his match which surrendered fewer points. 

One highlight of the night was Zane McCulloch’s match that went into overtime with McCulloch getting a takedown for the victory. 

Trenton Williams, who normally wrestles JV, was moved up for this meet and beat his opponent in the 145 weight class.

Wyatt Haynes also recorded his 150th career win when he defeated his opponent in the 170-pound weight class. 

Haynes, who took third place at state last year, won his match with a pin in 1:01. 

“It was a lofty goal this year [on achieving 150 wins] with Corona impacting tournaments,” Haynes said. “But I’m not going to let it stop there.”

Districts is up next for the wrestling team on Feb. 13 at Zumwalt South. Sectionals are also at South on Feb. 27. 

“Against Zumwalt South, we had guys step up in ways that they didn’t even think they could,” Haynes said. “We set a tone pretty early and it helped us in our later matches.” 

And with COVID impacting teams and athletes, anything can happen as the quest for state begins.