By MAYAN PAZ
Tiger Media Network
Just before spring break, the Division II Festival took place in Indianapolis. Several sports hosted their national championship competition in a single venue, as indoor track and field, swimming, and wrestling, marked the end of their season together. For Fort Hays State, three athletes represented the school in the track and field competition and two in wrestling. Among those two, it was senior wrestler Tereus Henry who reached the national final with a second-place finish, claiming his second career All-American award.
Henry, competing in the 197lbs weight class, won three matches in the knockout stage, including a 4-2 win over long-time conference rival Jackson Kinsella from Nebraska Kearney before losing 5-1 to UIndy’s Derek Blubaugh in the final. After finishing third nationally two seasons ago, this is the highest mark in Henry’s career, and he managed to do it in his final season as a Tiger.
“It was a cool experience,” Henry said. “[It] would have been nice to go out on top. But, with it being my last national tournament, I just made sure to take it all in and just be grateful. Because honestly, I didn’t even know if I’d make it here when I went into the season. So I just did a good job taking all that in and just living in the moment.”
Originally from El-Paso, Texas, Henry said the only thing he could think about before the tournament was to make weights and not get disqualified, but focused on being present in advance of his matches.
“I am always excited to wrestle for my matches. I always like to lock in and focus on being present in the moment,” he said. “My first match is a little scary. I honestly thought I was going to lose until the third period, that guy was really tough, and then I got a last-period takedown. In the second match, I was wrestling somebody that I’d wrestled before. He beat me in the same round last year, so I was kind of looking to get that back.”
After winning his third match, Henry was able to celebrate solidifying his All-American status. Day two of the national meet included the semifinals and finals, which was a different feeling than day one for Henry.
“The second day, I was pretty nervous. Obviously, at the semifinals, that’s a huge stage in the national tournament. But I just try to keep calm, and stay present in the moment. I like to listen to music before my matches, so I’ll just bump some good music,” he said. The semifinal match was the only match where I wasn’t losing going into the third all weekend. So that match was pretty cool. I don’t even know what happened in that match. I remember just coming out from that, getting my hand raised to celebrate with my coaches.”
The Tigers finished the season with an overall record of 5-6 in duals, and after the tournament, head coach Erik Wince summarized the season.
“The season was good. We thought we had some guys that could make some runs, and a couple of guys underperformed, and a couple of guys overperformed at the regional tournament,” he said. “We had Matt Rodriguez, qualifying for the first time, and Drew Bell, getting on the podium in regionals, so that was big. And Henry is capping his career off of that because he’ll graduate after the summer. Henry going to Nationals and finishing second was huge. So it was a kind of up and down season for us, but ended on a pretty high note.”
Henry will conclude his time in Hays after winning his All-American title and said that it has been a special place and journey for him.
“It’s been a lot of learning. I think one of the hardest things going from being the top guy in high school to coming back down and being, you know, one of the worst as a freshman, and getting your butt kicked every day,” he said. “But honestly, I embraced that journey. It kind of made me fall in love with wrestling. I was just getting better, having to climb and work towards being the best in the room. I did not anticipate being here this long with the COVID year, but I’m glad. It was a good experience, lots of learning, especially these last two years.”