Three wrestlers finished on the podium Saturday, Feb. 15, placing in the top six at the 4A state wrestling meet.

Seven wrestlers qualified for the meet after placing in the top four at regionals. In the girls’ bracket, junior Elise Coleman won her first match, but lost her second to drop down into the consolation bracket. Coleman won her third match 7-1 but lost her fourth match by one point to Liberty’s Aleysha Duran to bow out of the tournament.

“Elise unfortunately had a disappointing tournament and it’s to be expected after having only six matches this year with injuries,” coach Brad Bresnehen said.

Five of the six boys made it to the second day of competition with every one losing one match to drop into the consolation bracket. On Saturday morning, freshman Noah Martinez’s tournament ended after facing Vista Ridge’s Michael Duvall, the same wrestler who beat him at district and regionals. The other freshman competing, Dylan Rowling, won his first match Saturday, only to lose his second and finish one match short of reaching the podium.

“It was fun,” Rowling said. “The competition levels were real different to what it had been for the rest of the season because everyone wanted to win and they were really good.”

Senior Micah Schonfeld won his first two matches Friday in the 126 weight bracket. He lost his third match to Amarillo’s Taygen Smith, dropping into the consolation bracket. Schonfeld won his next match, a rematch with Chapin’s Dalton Styer, who he beat in the first round. Schonfeld pinned Styer to move into the third place match.

In his final match, Schonfeld faced Vista Ridge’s Matt Halloran who Schonfeld has wrestled numerous times during the season. Schonfeld lost the match, finishing fourth in state.

“I felt like I could’ve done a lot better, but fourth place is nothing to be ashamed of,” Schonfeld said. “So I’m sad, but at the same time I’m really thrilled to have the opportunity to place fourth at state.”

Senior Evan Coleman came from behind in his final match to finish fifth in state. Coleman, who wrestled in the 170 weight class, dropped into the consolation bracket after losing his second match Friday. But Coleman won both of his early matches Saturday to reach the top 6. Coleman then lost a close 3-2 decision to Boswell’s Dustin Martinez to wrestle in the fifth place match.

In that match, Coleman faced Amarillo’s Tyler Johnson, who beat Coleman 7-2 earlier in the tournament. In the final period with less than aminute left, Coleman was down by two points. Coleman gave up a near fall to be down 4-0, but quickly reversed Johnson to his back in the final 10 seconds and got a near fall to tie up the match as time expired. In overtime, Coleman got a take down in the first 15 seconds to win the match.

“I felt pretty good,” Coleman said. “I was a little disappointed in a fifth place finish but I was happy I got to get my revenge over the Amarillo kid.”

As Coleman’s match was entering overtime, senior Jesse O’Rourke’s final match was in the final period on the next mat. In the 182 weight class, O’Rourke lost his first round match, but two more wins guaranteed him a spot on the podium. Early in his consolation semis match, O’Rourke was pinned by Palo Duro’s Jorge Meza, sending the senior to the fifth place match. In the match, he faced Prosper’s Conner Shinners, a wrestler who pinned O’Rourke earlier in the season at Dual State.

Down 2-0 in the third period with less than a minute left, O’Rourke got a take down and a near fall to score five points and held on to win the match 5-4 and finish fifth in state.

“I was happy with the way that I placed,” O’Rourke said. “It could’ve been better, but fifth in state in Texas – it’s a pretty big state.”

The three seniors who medaled at state have been on the team since their freshman year.

“I was very happy and excited for the guys,” Bresnehen said. “It was nice watching them grow from first year freshmen four years ago to getting on the podium at state their senior year. It was kind of a bittersweet ending to their career – I’ll definitely miss the guys a lot.”