Perry heavyweight stuns Class 4A field
By Brent Maycock The Capital-Journal
February 26, 2008
SALINA — It killed Alex Hackathorn not to wrestle last year.
So the Perry-Lecompton heavyweight is making up for lost time. In a big way.
Hackathorn began Friday's Class 4A state meet with an upset of the No. 2-ranked wrestler in the state and rode the momentum all the way to a berth in tonight's championship match at Salina's Bicentennial Center. With a 2-1 decision against Andale's B.J. Finney, Hackathorn completed his tremendous run and earned a shot at No. 1 Bobby Doxon of Goodland (37-1) for the heavyweight crown.
"I'm not going to say I'm not surprised," said Hackathorn, who wasn't even ranked entering state, despite a 34-4 record that is now 37-4. "My whole life, I've been working for a goal, and that's to be a state champion. I met that goal when I was in eighth grade in Kids, but that didn't mean as much as this does to me right now.
"Sitting back and seeing other guys move forward while I had to stay still was really hard. Being able to come back the way I have and be in the state finals like I have, that means the world to me."
Hackathorn's surprising run, in which he knocked off No. 2 Spencer Hilley and No. 3 Finney, capped a wild day that saw several title favorites fall victim to upsets. Six No. 1 ranked wrestlers were upset, including Santa Fe Trail's Jake Kober, who failed to reach the 215-pound semifinals after winning the weight class a year ago.
One of the No. 1s that did survive was Royal Valley's Alex Rupnick at 189 pounds. A sixth-place finisher a year ago, Rupnick was dominating on Friday, particularly in the semifinals where he manhandled Santa Fe Trail's Chris Ewing in a 17-2 technical fall victory.
In tonight's finals, Rupnick (33-2) will take on Clay Center's Joel Marrs (37-4) in a rematch of last week's regional final. Rupnick won that match 3-2.
"I just have to go after him really hard and not let up," Rupnick said. "I think it will be pretty close this time, too. He's going to want revenge, but I want to beat him again, too."
Jefferson West put a pair in the semifinals, but Cass Steele dropped a 10-4 decision to Andale's Darin Stroot at 103 pounds and Dylan Mumaw suffered his first loss of the season with a 2-1 defeat by Abilene's Nick Peterson at 135 pounds.
Baldwin's Kevin Callahan was the only other area wrestler to make the finals, doing so for the third straight year with a second-period pin of Tonganoxie's Matt Brock in their 130-pound semifinal.
In a day ripe with upsets, Hackathorn got his right away. A third-place finisher at regionals last week, Hackathorn had to face Hilley right off the bat and made quick work of the Indian, pinning him with 23 seconds left in the first period.
"Nobody expected me to come out and do that," Hackathorn said. "I'm an underdog and I always have been."
He was leading Ottawa's Sam Blecha before winning by injury default in the quarterfinals. Against Finney, Hackathorn pushed the action, getting an early stalling call against Finney that proved to be big in the end. Both wrestlers managed escapes in the second and third periods, but Hackathorn's aggression produced a second calling stall on Finney with 44 seconds left that gave him the 2-1 victory.
"A win's a win, I don't care how it comes," said Hackathorn, who reached the finals despite a sore shoulder.
Rupnick didn't let any of his matches come down to anything that close. After pinning Abilene's Taylor Wuthnow in the first round, he took an 8-0 major decision against Goodland's Fernando Martinez in the quarterfinals. That pit him against Ewing, who's been as hot as any wrestler in the class.
Ewing caught Rupnick with an early headlock and threw him. But Rupnick was able to roll through it to get the takedown and back points, and that set the Panther senior on his way.
"I knew he had a good headlock and I was worried about him throwing that," said Rupnick, who became the Panthers' first finalist since Joe Douglass in 2002. "As soon as he threw it, I got kind of nervous. But he didn't stop rolling and I was able to spin out of it."
Kober figured to be in the finals between Rupnick and Hackathorn after winning a year ago. But after a quick pin in his first match, Kober spent most of his quarterfinal match trailing Colby's Nick Kriss and wound up losing 4-3.
"It's a tough kid and we knew coming in that would be a heck of a match in the second round — No. 1 and 2 in the state," Trail coach Regan Erickson said. "Jake just didn't wrestle his best."
Brent Maycock can be reached at (785) 295-5662 and brent.maycock@cjonline.com.
