ShawneeDispatch.com

A week ago Mill Valley wrestling coach Travis Keal was disappointed with his team’s intensity on the mat at the Kaw Valley League Dual Tournament.

Keal wasn’t pleased with the Jaguars’ fifth-place finish at a tournament when he was convinced his wrestlers were better than that.

After a week’s worth of quality practices, the Jaguars showed their coach that they got the message as they turned in a third-place finish at the 24-team Eudora Tournament of Champions on Friday and Saturday.

Mill Valley took 12 wrestlers to the tournament. Six of them earned medalist honors, and all 12 won at least one match to contribute to the team score of 204.5. Lansing won the tournament with 322 points and Chanute was second with 259.5. State power St. Thomas Aquinas was sixth with 175.5.

“It was a good weekend. I’m real proud of the kids,” Keal said. “This is the first time we’ve got a trophy at a big tournament like that.

“Even the kids who didn’t get a medal, they scored points, they helped win their team a trophy, and I think they understand that because they see it now. It used to be that we’d have five or six kids medal and we’d have our other kids win one or zero matches. Now they see that every little bit counts.”

Sophomore Ryan Hodges sparked the Jaguars early as the 103-pounder cruised through his pool on Friday before advancing to Saturday’s bracket competition and placing second overall in his weight class.

Five other Jaguars followed suit and joined Hodges on the medal stand. Junior Trevor Boyer finished fourth at 112; senior James Mullin won the tournament title at 145; senior Andrew Rogers finished fourth at 160; senior Josh Van Holland placed second at 171; and sophomore Leo Beck was fifth at 215.

Van Holland may have turned in the top individual performance of the tournament for Mill Valley. In his first outing at 171 after competing in the first two meets at 189, Van Holland upset Lansing senior Grant Hinckley, the No. 1 ranked wrestler in the state in Class 5A, with a 3-1 decision in the semifinals before ultimately taking second.

“Grant beat him twice last year pretty bad,” Keal said. “(Van Holland) wrestled a pretty good match. He’s a strong kid who’s been working hard in the practice room trying to get better.”

Mill Valley next competes Friday and Saturday at the Johnson County Classic at Blue Valley High School. The top teams from Johnson County, including numerous Class 6A schools, will be in attendance. It will be another opportunity for Mill Valley to try to collect a team trophy at a large tournament with numerous tough teams.

“We want to build off of this and go to Johnson County and see if we can’t get another trophy and go into Christmas break feeling good about ourselves,” Keal said. “I hope the kids see what happened (at Eudora) and come in there more hungry when we hit the mat (this week in practice).”

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