6A Wrestling...WOW!

This year, Catch It Kansas orchestrated a massive amount of state wrestling coverage. On Friday alone, we had an all day live blog from the 6A and 5A tournaments, along with photos and around 89 videos, and a special wrestling edition of the Catch It Kansas Show.

Championship Saturday had two live blogs, one for the 6A fifth-place through championship matches, and one for 5A. Plus even more video and photos.

This massive amount of coverage was the result of two months of planning. And believe it or not, it was a greatly scaled down version of what we initially planned.

We figured it was better to use this year as a test run, so we know what to expect when we cover the event for real next year.

All of this coverage was the result of a mountain of work, but I don't think I have ever had so much fun doing so much work.

Part of it was due to the fact that the 6A-5A tournaments were at the INTRUST Bank Arena, which is an amazing facility.

But mostly, it was because in 6A, which I was covering, Derby, Goddard, and Wichita Heights were separated by only 7 points going into the finals.

Derby, in first place with 148 points, had top-ranked Bradley Little in the 140-pound final, and Cody Shavlik in the 145-pound final.

Two-time defending state champion Goddard, had top-ranked Kaleb Bonilla in the 103-pound final, No. 2 Trey Houlden in the 140-pound final, No. 3 Dalton Beard in the 189-pound final, and No. 5 Josh Hicks in the 215-pound final.

Heights had top-ranked, and maybe the best pound-for-pound wrestler in the state, Daniel DeShazer in the 125-pound final, his cousin No. 2 Uylesses DeShazer in the 135-pound final, and No. 4 Hunter Jameson in the 160-pound final.

Translation--the team title was up for grabs with three local interest teams having a realistic shot.

Daniel DeShazer won his match for his second title in three years of high school wrestling, but Uylesses lost, meaning Heights settled for third.

Bonilla gave Goddard a win at 103, setting up a huge match between Little from Derby and Houlden from Goddard at 140.

Little had owned Houlden all year, beating him by 5 or 6 points in every match. But on the biggest stage, Houlden got a 2-point takedown with 10 seconds left in the match to beat Little by 1 point.

The Houlden win, along with a Shavlik loss in the next match made the team scores Derby 148, Goddard 145.5. Derby was done for the tournament and Goddard still had two dogs in the fight.

With all eyes on the 189-pound match, Dalton Beard, younger brother of Goddard legend and four-time state champion Boaz Beard, locked up Goddard's third-straight state championship in a raucous arena with a 3-2 win over Wichita Southeast's Alex Chaparro.

The win was Goddard's fourth in five years, and came in a year when the Lions had lost eight individual championships over the last two years. They were supposed to be down.

Guess not.

I can't wait for next year.