STEVENSVILLE — Postseason for Kent County High School’s wrestlers begins tomorrow at the Bayside Conference championships.
From here on out for the Trojans, who have only one senior and are expected to fill only eight of the 14 weight classes in Saturday’s coed tournament, the emphasis is more on individual success rather than team success.
The regional and state tournaments follow the conference tournament on successive weekends.
Kent Island High School is hosting the one-day, all-day Bayside tournament.
The Trojans’ tentative lineup is newcomer Sabrina Tee (105) and sophomore Rhi Ashley-Pinder (120) in the girls tournament.
Entered in the coed tournament are JJ Hinefelt (113), Landon Merritt (126), Noah Iacona (138), James Owens (144), Scottie Ford (150), Ethan Clark (157), Aidan Butler (165) and Avon Hubbard (285).
Two-time state tournament qualifier Ford was the conference champ last year at 138 pounds. He has lost only once this year, in the finals of the Easton High School Invitational in January.
Clark, the Trojans’ lone senior is 31-2. Both of his losses came in tournament finals.
KCHS closed out its dual-match season Feb. 14 with a 66-17 loss at top-seeded Havre de Grace in the opening round of the Class 1A East Region duals. Due to injuries and off-the-mat challenges, the Trojans traveled with only five wrestlers. Bumping up a weight class, Iacona (144) and Clark (165) won their respective bouts by pin and Ford (150) won by technical fall.
The Trojans finished 3-11.
“It was a bumpy road with the many different experience levels on the team and trying to balance a team out of them,” head coach Chris Yiannakis told The Evening Enterprise in an email.
Next year, he said, “should we retain all of the current wrestlers, we will have a strong foundation to move forward on.”