BY JACKSON MEDINA
The 2023 Eastern Kansas League (EKL) wrestling tournament took place this past weekend at Blue Valley Southwest. Eight teams competed, including St.James Academy, St.Thomas Aquinas, Bishop Miege, Blue Valley, Blue Valley North, Blue Valley Northwest, Blue Valley West, and Blue Valley Southwest. Varsity, junior varsity, and girls varsity teams took action in this tournament with all eight teams fielding a varsity and junior varsity team.
Bishop Miege, Blue Valley, Blue Valley North, Blue Valley Southwest, and Blue Valley West competed with a girl’s team.
Blue Valley Southwest secured its fifth EKL title in the last five years. The Timberwolves had all 14 wrestlers in the top six with three champions, six silvers, two bronzes, two fourth-place finishers, and one six-place finisher. Blue Valley West came in second place as a team with 182 points, with Blue Valley coming in a close third with 180.5 points.
St.Thomas Aquinas finished in fourth place with 168.5 points, but their two top wrestlers Kaden Allen (ranked second) and Sean Carrol (ranked first), did not compete due to injury. St. Thomas Aquinas Head Coach Eric Akin discussed these two wrestlers’ plans for the coming weeks.
“Wrestling is a long season,” Akin said. “Kaden and Sean have been banged up from our last several tournaments, and I thought it would be best to let them rest for a couple of weeks to get their bodies back to where they should be for the postseason.”
The match of the night came at 165 lbs. Aquinas Senior Dylan Elmore is ranked No. 1 in all classes and is committed to the Naval Academy. His opponent, Blue Valley Southwest freshman Tad Forsyth is ranked No. 5 in class 5A. This was their first meeting this year. Elmore won via fall in the third period. Elmore spoke about the match and his goals for the rest of the season.
“Forsyth is a hardnose freshman,” Elmore said. “He frustrated me at first, but I had to relax and stick to the plan. Winning EKL is nice, but the end goal is capping off my season with another state title”.
Match results:
Girls Varsity
- Girls BV West
- Girls BV Southwest
- Girls Blue Valley
- Girls Bishop Miege
- Girls BV North
Junior Varsity Boys
- BV Southwest JV
- BV West JV
- Blue Valley JV
- BV North JV
- BV Northwest JV
Varsity Boys
- BV Southwest
- BV West
- Blue Valley
- St Thomas Aquinas
- BV Northwest
All of the results can be viewed here.