HAYS – Hoxie seniors Drew Bretz and Derek Johnson couldn’t have handpicked better slots for Saturday’s Class 3-2-1A championship draw at Gross Memorial Coliseum. 

Bretz was eager to kick things off, while Johnson was more than comfortable wrestling the last match of the tournament in his bid for a fourth straight championship. 

“It worked out well because Bretz wanted to go first. He set the tone,” Johnson said. 

Indeed, Bretz got Hoxie rolling by securing the 165-pound championship in the opening match of the finals. 

Hoxie’s Ian Giancola, Carson Ochs, Gavin Schippers and Dayton Bell would each take their turns carrying the torch with state titles of their own before handing it over to Johnson as the closer.

There was no better way to cap a state tournament performance for the ages.

“I kind of wanted to be the exclamation point, you might say, to an amazing tournament,” Johnson said. 

Johnson’s victory gave Hoxie its sixth state champion of the tournament, securing his four-peat with a 17-0 technical fall against Chaparral’s Joseph Ord  in the 157-pound final. 

Now three-time reigning champs, Hoxie smashed the Class 3-2-1A record for margin of victory that it set last year (97 points), racking up an all-class state tournament record 260 points to clear second-place Norton by a staggering 159 points.

Hoxie went 6-2 in the finals and 9-2 in medal matches. 

“We had goals coming into this tournament, and we exceeded those goals greatly,” Bretz said. “Such an astounding day for everybody.”

“We had almost as perfect of a tournament as we were going to get,” Johnson said. 

Schippers delivered the most dramatic moment of the day in a thrilling 285 against Sabetha’s Joshua Grimm. 

Schippers earned an escape to knot the match up at 1 late in the third period, but injured his ankle near the edge of the mat and was in severe pain. 

“I got up with the escape and I turned around and planted, and I heard a pop,” Schippers said. “As soon as I put pressure on it, the pain started going through my leg.”

Schippers took his recovery time and Hoxie coach Mike Porsch quickly taped the ankle up, though Porsch said the tape did “absolutely no good.”

No matter, because adrenaline soon took over for Schippers. 

“I didn’t feel it after about three seconds of being on the mat,” he said. “I was more focused on the match than I was my ankle at that point in time.”

After a scoreless sudden victory period in overtime, Grimm (38-8) got an escape in the first session of the tiebreak session to take a 2-1 lead. 

Schippers was unable to get an initial escape on the bottom, and Grimm looked to have the match all but won, controlling Schippers on top with under five seconds left. 

But the Hoxie junior slipped out from under Grimm and took his back just before time expired for two points on a reversal to earn a 3-2 decision as the Hoxie crowd erupted in jubilation. 

“I saw there was a little bit of time left and I realized I had to do something,” Schippers said. “I just shook and got him off and got the reversal.”

“Heavyweights get slippery,” Porsch said. “He probably just got his elbow tucked enough to come through there. That kid was trying really hard to keep him down and he just kept wrestling. He didn’t quit and just put his head down.”
 

The win capped Schippers’ meteoric rise in the last few weeks of the season. He finished a junior season with a 31-14 record after entering the tournament ranked fifth. 

“I got well conditioned,” Schippers said. “Mike and I worked out every morning and every evening. We were just in that wrestling room grinding. I’d say I definitely got control of my underhooks midway through the season and I started figuring it out. 

“I’m very surprised. I did not think I would be here at the beginning of the season.”

Porsch said everything clicked at the right time for Schippers. 

“He started wrestling really good at the league tournament,” he said. “He had some good matches and started believing in himself, understanding that he could do what we’ve been telling him he could do and just staying in positions where he wrestled really strong. He just doubled down and worked hard.”
 

 
Giancola won his championship in a similar exhilarating fashion, using a reversal with just under 10 seconds left to take a 6-4 decision over Logan’s Courtois in a battle of freshmen for the 113-pound title. 

“I looked up at the clock and I had nine seconds left,” Giancola said. “I was pretty nervous, but I knew all I had to do was score. Just kind of gave it my all. Just went for it.”

“We always preach that you’ve got to wrestle until the very, very end,” Porsch said. “We had a lot of kids that did that. When you have a lot of guys doing that, it makes it easier for the other guys to believe and just keep wrestling. Just some gritty, tough, exciting matches. I’ve got to think these were some of the more exciting matches I’ve seen in a while.”

Giancola, ranked No. 3, went through a tough road to his title, beating returning state champion Chase Johnson (37-4) from Minneapolis in the quarterfinal with a 5-1 decision. He took a 5-2 decision against Norton’s Derek Clydesdale in the semis before outlasting Courtois (39-3). 

“I was pretty nervous coming in,” Giancola said. “I was most nervous for my first match, just getting that first one of the way, and from then on out, it was just wrestling. Just having fun and doing all I can to win.”
 

Giancola (37-3) said the daily competition with Hoxie’s strong stable of wrestlers helped prepare him for the moment. 

“Every day in the wrestling room you’re wrestling with someone who’s a state champ, state finalist,” Giancola said. “Every day everybody’s pushing us, and Mike is great at what he does. 

“Every day’s a grind. You’re never guaranteed to win in the room.”

Like Bretz and Johnson, 132-pounder Carson Ochs cemented a perfect season. 

But it didn’t come easy. 

In a rematch of last week’s regional final against Hoisington’s Josiah Ball, Ochs said he thought Ball (30-5) was controlling the match early. 

“The game plan didn’t go as planned,” Ochs said. “I wanted to get points on him early. I just kept wrestling his match. At the end, I decided to flip the switch.”

Trailing 1-0, Ochs secured a decisive takedown with around 20 seconds left and rode out Ball to become a first-time state champion after a runner-up showing the year before. 

“I was just staying heavy on his head, kept hand-fighting with him,” Ochs said. “Kept the pressure on him, finally found an opening and got the angle on him.”

“The match started out with the Ball kid dictating the pace, and we finally got to where we could score some points, and we did it,” Porsch said. “Like I told him, shooters shoot. You got to attack legs and get to them. He got one shot to do it and finished on it, that was really great to see.”
 

Ochs finished his junior season 38-0. 

“I tried to go out there and have as much fun as possible, not put too much pressure on myself,” Ochs said. 

After runner-up finishes the last year, Bell got to the top of the podium in his last attempt as a senior, claiming the 138-pound championship. 

“I can’t really explain the feeling. It’s breathtaking,” said Bell, who’s older brother Drew captured his third straight state championship last year as a senior. “You can’t really think straight. All you know is that you finally made it, you finally achieved your goal.”

“(State titles are) something that they’re all working for so hard. To get it this year, that’s really special. Those are the things that really make you feel good as a coach,” Porsch said of Bell. 
 

Bell (41-2) fought off Sabetha’s Colin Menold (43-4) for a 4-2 decision in the title match. 

“I was just trying to keep control,” Bell said. “I knew he would try to throw me, so I was just trying to stay away from going upper body with him. Just trying to stay low, get to shots and control him whenever I can.”

Bretz, a state champion in 2021, earned redemption after being upset in the semifinals last year. He secured a 4-2 decision over Rawlins County’s Drew Withington after riding out Withington in the third period. 

“I knew I was going to be first so I had to be ready to go after the Parade of Champions,” Bretz said. “I was just focused on coming out and getting to my stuff, controlling the match. I figured it was going to be a close score, but I knew as long as I did what I needed to get done I’d come out with the win.”

Bretz finished 40-0 to cap an outstanding career. 

“Drew had a very disappointing state tournament his freshman year, then won it, and then last year had some heartbreak but came back and finished really strong in third,” Porsch said. “To come through this year with the season he’s had, it’s been really good to see.”
 

It was most likely Bretz’s swansong in wrestling. He is headed to Kansas State to study mechanical engineering. 

“I really want to focus on academics,” Bretz said. “Obviously I would really like to compete in college wrestling, but I think academics is the better way to go for me.”

Johnson is one of 40 Kansas wrestlers all-time to win four boys state championships. Newton’s Nick Treaster also joined the list on Saturday. 

Johnson became the third Hoxie wrestler to accomplish the feat, joining Mat Gilliland and Dayton Porsch. 

He went 164-3 in his career. 
 

After getting his rand raised, Johnson looked up at the Hoxie crowd and held up four fingers on one hand for his fourth state championship and three on his other hand for the team's third consecutive title. 

“The whole community, it was so supportive ever since I started high school four years ago," Johnson said. “This year, my parents, my coaches, they just treated it the same way they would any other year, which is what they needed to do. I felt relaxed and confident and was ready to go out there and do what I was supposed to do.

“I put in a lot of time at Next Level Academy over the summer, competing in freestyle, folkstyle, Greco. Just wrestling constantly for the past two and a half years since I stopped playing football my sophomore year. (Gilliland) and Tristan (Porsch) have been a huge help.”

Johnson turned in a quintessential performance in the 157-title match to close his senior season at 43-0. 

“He controlled the match and kind of wrestled the same match he did at the regional final,” Porsch said. “He gave himself a chance at the end to get a fall and worked hard at it, but the kid really worked really hard to not to give it. 

“The only sad part is a lot of people had started to leave. Four-time state champs are rare. They’re really, really rare. But we still had a good crowd here to cheer on him.”

Johnson will continue his wrestling career at St. Could State, a strong NCAA Division II program. 

“I’m going to take my time to enjoy this moment,” he said. “I’m not sure when I’ll start getting ready for college. But now I’m just going to ride this high, take the rest of my senior year and enjoy it.”

Senior Wayne Shepard and sophomore Kash Schiltz each came up one match short of a state championship, but still delivered strong state tournaments for Hoxie. 

Shepard finished 30-9 after taking a 10-3 decision loss to Ellis’ Mason Younger in the 126-pound while Schiltz closed his sophomore campaign at 33-11, dropping an 8-2 decision to Beloit’s Brogan Monty in the 106 final. 

After disappointing losses on Day 1, senior Tate Weimer (120), sophomore Sam Watkins (175) and sophomore Duncan Bell all regrouped to take third place. 

“For those guys to come back and take third after things like that happen – like I tell them, that’s the hardest wrestling you’ll do,” Porsch said. “They finished like champions. They didn’t feel sorry for themselves. They wrestled hard. To see kids do that, that’s every bit as impressive as a kid winning a state title in my book.”

All 12 of Hoxie’s wrestlers contributed points, with 150-pounder Easton Nickelson also making the second day of the tourney. 

With the season now over, Porsch said the magnitude of what Hoxie accomplished this season will hit him even more with time to reflect. 

“We had a photo shoot (before the season) for Kansas Pregame and I loaded up the boys that were in it,” Porsch said. “We rode to Salina and we talked a lot. It was just me and them in a van. 

“We knew we had a good team coming in, there was no doubt about it. We started kind of challenging each other. Then it just kind of steamrolled and we started putting lots of guys in finals of tournaments, and they’re like, ‘Oh, this is fun.’”

When the team passed Gross Coliseum on the way home from regionals last weekend, Porsch told his wrestlers to envision success at the state tournament. 

“For them to believe that they could do it, it’s a testament to those kids to keep that faith all season long,” Porsch said.