By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
In a year of state runs and titles, the Southeast of Saline wrestling team added more hardware to the Trojan trophy case over the weekend, with not one, but two individuals claiming the crown in their respective weight class.
Freshman Roman Tuttle (120) and junior Brody Chambers (285) each closed out fantastic campaigns with a first-place finish, while junior Killian Vaughan (165) and sophomore Annabelle Soell (140) took fourth and fifth on the podium respectively.
“The four wrestlers we qualified for state are hammers,” SES head wrestling coach Chuck Schremmer said. “They don’t want to lose, they don’t like to lose and I hope we can get them to make the rest of our team a little more like them.”
For this year’s Trojan team, the turning point came early, with a challenging cross-class meet at Newton.
In that tournament, Roman Tuttle would suffer a frustrating loss, but one that would set the tone for the rest of his near-perfect season.
“Coming in, you hear about the year Roman had and his win in the Super 32s in Kansas City and you think a kid like that could do well,” Schremmer said. “After he lost at Newton I don’t think he ever wanted to lose again.”
Wanting to win every match for the rest of the season is one thing, but doing it is quite another. Despite the odds, Tuttle did just that, closing out his freshman campaign with a 43-1 record, including a dominant 13-2 walloping of the two-time defending champ on his way to a state title of his own.
While Tuttle was, in many ways, the surprise of the tournament, Brody Chambers was anything but.
“In many ways, this felt like a state championship or bust year for Brody,” Schremmer said. “He won a huge match at that Newton tournament and I think that opened him to the idea that he could compete with the upper-echelon guys. As soon as he realized that he never looked back.”
After his sixth-place finish a season ago, Chambers climbed the 285 ladder to claim a state title by the slimmest of margins.
In the closing seconds of the title-deciding match, Chambers found himself down by a point in a bad position but managed to earn an escape in the closing seconds to pull ahead and claim the victory.
“Last year if someone got on Brody and put a power-half on him there were a few times where he’d roll over but he really grew and he was a lot tougher on bottom than he was last year,” he said. “He got his escapes when he could this year and that’s what ultimately allowed him to win state.”
Tuttle and Chambers weren’t the only Trojans who posted strong finishes at state, as Killian Vaughan returned to the podium with a fourth-place finish to cap off a 37-7 season.
“Killian placed sixth as a freshman but he didn’t place at all last year,” Schremmer said. “He came in wanting to get back to that position and finishing fourth for him was a big deal. He knew who he’d be wrestling for third and fourth and even though he missed it last year he expected to be there.”
On the girl’s side, Annabelle Soell finished her 35-15 season strong with a sixth-place finish.
“Anabelle took a lot of losses this year but she wrestled a lot of strong girls and she didn’t lose to anyone at or below her caliber,” he said. “She had a tough semifinal match and a break didn’t go her way but she fought back.”
While the hardware is nice, this result also shows the strength of Southeast’s wrestling program, something Coach Schremmer and his team have built piece by piece over the last several years.
“We took 13 boys to regionals this year, there have been years where I haven’t had 13 kids on my team,” he said. “We’re losing three seniors and we’re going to be gaining close to five eighth graders so the program is in a good place right now.”
As for the four wrestlers who went to state, SES will return all four for next year’s campaign, giving Chambers and Tuttle an opportunity to defend their crowns from a hungry group of challengers.
“This put a big target on these kids for last year but to be honest, they’re okay with that and I like that,” Schremmer said. “Everybody’s going to want a shot at these guys next year to see how good they can be and that’s going to make things hard for them next season but I know they’ll be up to the challenge.”