Sallisaw, Vian girls primed for Class 5A Regional Tournament
Both the Sallisaw Lady Diamonds and Vian Lady Wolverines wrestlers will try to earn trips to the Class 5A State Tournament, which will be Feb. 22- 24 at Oklahoma City’s Jim Norick State Fair Arena, at the Class 5A Regional Tournament, which will begin at 10 a. m. Tuesday at Okmulgee, with Dewar being the host school.
The top four finishers in each weight class will qualify for state.
“We’re looking pretty good, but we’re a little bit banged up,” Sallisaw girls coach Darrel Hume said. “It’s been a rough season. We’re getting healed up, and we’re going to be ready to go. We’ll have a seeding meeting Monday night, and we’ll know where we’re sitting after the seeding meeting. Hopefully, we’ll get some good draws. We’re looking forward to it. We’ve been in here ( the wrestling room) drilling, and we’re finishing touches up and fix some things we need to fix. We’re working on those finer points right now where we need to get touched up.”
“If we all show up and wrestle, I think anything is possible,” Vian girls coach Garett Willis said. “I for sure see one or two ( qualifying for state), but I don’t see any reason why we can’t get all of them in ( to state). That would be a big deal.”
For the first time since high school girls wrestling became an Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association ( OSSAA) sport, there’s essentially a large school ( Class 6A) and small school ( Class 5A) regional, which will make things a little easier on the Lady Diamonds and the Lady Wolverines.
“There’s still 37 teams — that’s not too small,” Hume said. “It ( a small school regional) will make a huge difference. In our last duals ( homecoming dual vs. Stilwell and Morris), we had a full line- up. That’s very rare for a small school like ours, but we’ve got some injuries, so we might not have a full line- up when we go. We’ll see where we are when we’re healed.”
“That’s pretty big to us,” Willis said. “We’re just a little club. We can’t compete with the larger schools, whether it’s the resources or the amount of kids they have. We barely have enough to practice. I think ( having the smaller school division) helps. I also think some of those small schools produce some top tier wrestlers who could win it in the big school division. Does it ( having a small school division) help us — absolutely.”
Last year, the Lady Diamonds had just one state qualifier, this year’s lone senior Hannah Lightfoot — who was third at state last year. Hume is hoping for not just Lightfoot returning to state, but several Lady Diamonds joining her in OKC.
“I sure hope so,” he said. “I have one senior, Hannah — a returning state qualifier — but all the rest of them are sophomores and freshmen. It would be pretty awesome to have sophomore and freshman qualifiers, but it’s an uphill battle for them. They have less experience, but some of them have a great opportunity to get there ( to state), so I’m liking our chances.”
Willis is hoping for that rare feat for his lone senior, 135- pounder Avery Richey, who will be seeking a four- peat as a state qualifier for her entire varsity career.
“She won it ( state title) as a sophomore,” he said. “Last year was an off year. If everything goes right, she should get to be a three- time placer, and a possible two- time champ. We just have to go wrestle that day ( Tuesday at the class 5A Regional Tournament). It would be a big deal. Not all kids get to qualify ( for state) all four years.”
Vian will have four other wrestlers representing the Wolverines at Tuesday’s Class 5A Regional Tournament — Cadence Barnhill at 110 pounds, Aubrey Gant at 115, Carissa Prock at 125 and Carmen Rautenberg at 130. Barnhill is a transfer who returned to Vian after spending last semester at Sallisaw.
“She’s a Vian kid, went to Sallisaw for the first semester and moved back after Christmas time,” Willis said. “We got her back after Christmas.”
