The Larned High school’s wrestling team wrestled their way to the top. State was held February 22 and 23 in Salina for girls and February 24th and 25th in Hays for boys. This year Larned had six students make it to state: Luke Fisher, Carter Atteberry, Landon Haney, Jaisean Jorge, Reese Watkins, and Lili McKenna. Larned had three athletes place: Luke Fisher with 1st, Cater Atteberry with 3rd, and Reese Watkins with 6th. Wrestling has been known as one of the toughest sports that you can participate in. It is a high intensity sport and that makes how they did so much more impressive. 

Reese Watkins placed third place at state. Reese went 22-17 on the year and 2-3 at state in the 120 weight class. Next season, Reese will be a senior. So she plans on setting her goals high, “I really want to make it to state next year and place even higher than I did this season.” With this season only having four girls on the team, Reese is excited that there will be more girls coming up and joining the team next season. 

Lili McKenna also made the state team and went 24-16 on the season. While attending state Lili went 1-2 in the 110 weight class. Lili has shown a lot of improvement in wrestling since last season. Lili stated, “I want to improve even more next year since I know that I can.” She enjoys wrestling because “It’s a family thing.” In Lili’s past, she has had many family members take part in wrestling. It’s a thing that they all have started doing and it has become more of a family tradition. 

Luke Fisher was the State Champion going 3-0 in the 190 weight class. At the end of the season, he was 40-3. Luke has been a great wrestler over the years and has been someone that people love to watch. Luke “loves the atmosphere that they have and being able to hold a tradition for Larned wrestling, but also for Larned sports as a whole.” Luke has very high expectations for his senior season at Larned. He stated, “I have already set two of the three records that you can.” The records that he set so far are pins and wins. Luke wants to be the first person in the Larned Wrestling program to have two state champions titles. Luke also wants to join the 100 win club next season. 

Larned High School senior, Carter Atteberry, placed third at state going 5-1. Carter was in the 215 weight class and he ended the season with a record of 34-8. This season, Carter got his 100th win about mid season. He said, “My favorite memory was my freshman year when we qualified seven people for state and I got to watch Samajay Alboyd win our first title in over 30 years.” Carter has been a great wrestler over the years. He has also been a role model for the many future wrestlers to come. 

Jai-Sean Jorge is a sophomore at Larned high school. This season Jai-Sean went 12-10. While attending state he went 1-2. Jai-Sean was in the 106 weight class this season. Jai-Sean said, “I enjoy battling in matches and winning.” Jai-Sean enjoys the fact that even if he is losing, he is still able to prove to people that he is capable of winning. 

Additionally, Landon Haney was a part of the state team this season he went 14-23 this season. When Landon was at state he went 0-2 in the 175 weight class. Landon was a sophomore this past season. He “…is happy about how much he improved from last season.” With this he has high expectations for next season. He also made it farther than he did last wrestling season. “Next season I want to make it farther than I did this season.” 

Our wrestlers overall did good this season. During the past couple of years we have had some talented people come through that have improved our wrestling program tremendously. They have shown how tough they are and what wrestling means to them. Out of our six state qualifiers we will be having five of them returning next season. The wrestlers have high expectations for next season and want to achieve even more than they did this season.