The Wuthnow name carries a lot of weight in Abilene’s rich wrestling history, a long list of brothers combining for multiple state medals throughout their careers.
 
And Noah Wuthnow remembers watching most of them wrestle as the son of the oldest brother of the clan, Brendan – who actually wrestled in high school for Chapman.
 
“Whenever I was little, I was always watching my uncles wrestle,” Noah said. “I would be like, ‘When is it my turn to get out there?’ And now I’m here.”
 
Making his state debut as a freshman on Friday, Wuthnow didn’t let his first opportunity go by without doing his best to make a name for himself. Ranked No. 3 at 132 pounds going into the state tournament, Wuthnow is one win away from capturing a state championship after scoring one of the biggest upsets of the semifinals.
 
Taking on No. 1 Adam Bilby of Rose Hill, a three-time state placer, in the semifinals, Wuthnow wasn’t fazed at all by the big stage. He got the match’s first takedown and stayed in control of the entire match, taking a convincing 7-1 victory over the top-ranked Rocket to reach Saturday’s finals.
 
“I’ve been thinking about it a lot for the past couple years even,” Wuthnow said. “I knew I could do it.”
 
Now 37-6 on the season, Wuthnow will take on Buhler’s Sammy Hershberger (34-7) in Saturday’s title match with Hershberger pulling off his own upset with a 6-3 overtime win over No. 2 Owen Suttles of Winfield in his semifinal match.
 
The two met in the regional finals last week with Wuthnow taking a 4-2 win.
 
After cruising to a 13-2 major decision win to start his debut state tournament, Wuthnow found himself locked in a battle with Santa Fe Trail’s Blake Slavin in the second round. The match was scoreless through three periods before something clicked quickly in overtime and Wuthnow got the winning takedown for a 3-0 win.
 
“I don’t know if it should have been that close,” Wuthnow said. “I wrestled that kid when I was in seventh grade and he was a sophomore and I pinned him. So I think I should have done better than that this time.”
 
That set up the showdown with Bilby. And though he’d never faced the Rocket, he knew plenty about his foe.
 
“I watched all of his matches before that, and there wasn’t a single doubt in my head that I couldn’t beat him,” Wuthnow said. “All my coaches were saying first-period takedown, and that’s what I did.”
 
He also had some insight from teammate Murphy Randolph, who last year as a freshman had faced Bilby in the semifinals as well and came away with an overtime victory over the Rocket.
 
“Right before my match started, Murphy put his arm around me and was like, ‘First point you score, he’s going to break,’” Wuthnow said. “So that’s what I did.”
 
After getting the quick takedown to start the match, Wuthnow fought off Bilby’s counters until getting another takedown in the third period to seal the victory.
 
Now he’s one win away from becoming just the second Wuthnow to win a state title with uncle, Taylor, winning one in 2010. A title on Saturday also opens the door for him to chase a four-peat, which has only been accomplished by Jake Kriegbaum in Abilene history.

Wuthnow’s win somewhat salvaged what was an otherwise disappointing semifinal round for the Cowboys. Abilene put four in the semifinals but Wuthnow was the lone winner as Keyen Taplin fell 4-0 in his 106 semifinal with Andale’s Luke Martin, Randolph lost 7-3 to Winfield’s Talon Suttles in his 138 semifinal and Joseph Welsh lost 17-8 to Rose Hill’s Thunder Page in the 157 semifinals.
 

 
SMOKY VALLEY’S GARDNER FOLLOWS PLAN, PULLS OFF UPSET AT 215
 
In knowing that he was going to have to get past Rose Hill’s Cole Rogers if he wanted to win the Class 4A 215-pound state championship match, Smoky Valley’s Parker Gardner did his homework.
 
In particular, he used some common ground as a measuring stick.
 
“There was a kid I wrestled, Carter Green, and (Rogers) wrestled him as well,” Gardner said of Douglass’ standout sophomore. “I saw how Green matched up with him and how I matched up with (Green) and I just knew I could do it.”
 
Not that he considered himself equal to Green, per say. Both of his losses this season have come to Green in their only meetings.
 
“Carter has something that’s way more technical than what I have,” Gardner said. “But I just have something that just makes me want to go get it.”
 
Whatever it is Gardner has in him, it came out in Friday’s 215-pound semifinal match with Rogers, who had been ranked No. 1 all season at the weight class. Gardner came out on the attack and stunned Rogers with a five-point move in the first period and that gave him all the cushion he needed as he upset the Rocket standout with a 6-2 decision victory.
 
Going into Saturday’s finals, Gardner is indeed Green’s equal with both wrestling for state championships. Gardner (32-2) will take on Louisburg’s Ashton Moore (41-2) for the Class 4A crown while Green (38-1) will take on Council Grove’s Ace Monihen (39-3) for the Class 3-2-1A title.
 
Gardner said his plan was to come out the aggressor against Rogers, who had posted a pair of major decisions on his way to the semifinals. Part of that strategy was if Rogers did a slide-by or any movement to the side of Gardner, the Viking would go after a double-leg takedown.
 
That didn’t present itself, but another opening did and Gardner took advantage.
 
“It was all a blur, but all I remember was I felt an opening and went to my right arm and grabbed it and was able to get a single leg,” Gardner said of the takedown that also took Rogers right to his back. “It felt so good. That lift felt like a paper-weight and was so nice. And that slam, you can feel it through your entire body and you love it.”
 
The move gave Gardner the only points he needed to win the match, but he never kept pushing and never gave Rogers an opening to work a counter move. He stayed just enough on the attack to force a stalling call on Rogers and simply countered everything Rogers tried, allowing only one escape point in the match.
 
“I tried to keep on looking for shots and it got harder to do because he got used to what I was doing,” he said. “We had the thought we could beat him today and we got it. It feels great and that just means I’m one step closer to getting what I want and that’s getting first.”
 

 
ROSE HILL IN FULL COMMAND OF TEAM RACE
 
Not everything went according to script for Rose Hill on the first day of the Class 4A state championships as the Rockets began defense of the team championship they won a year ago.
 
But more than enough went right to allow the Rockets to put a stranglehold on this year’s team title.
 
All 12 of Rose Hill’s state qualifiers posted victories in their opening-round matches and nine added wins in the second round as well. The Rockets finished the first day of the tournament with six state finalists and racked up 172 points to hold a 68-point lead on second-place Andale, which put four in Saturday’s finals.
 
Four of Rose Hill’s six finalists were hardly surprises. Samson Whitted (106), Johnny Leck (144) and Damon Ingram (150) easily returned to the finals after capturing individual state championships for the Rockets a year ago. Whitted pinned Tongnoxie’s Rowdey Starcher in the first period of his semifinal match, while Leck took an 11-3 major decision over Concordia’s Drew Sterrett in his semifinal and Ingram won by injury default over Wamego’s Knox Karnowski.
 
And Sebastian Bentley wasn’t much of a surprise finalist either, returning to the finals for the second straight year after pulling out a 4-2 win over Girard’s Storm Rieck in his 126-pound semifinal.
 
But the Rockets did enjoy some mild surprises as Trenton Richwine, who didn’t wrestle a year ago, cruised into the 113-pound finals with three straight pin wins, including a second-period pin of Frontenac’s Chance Wilderman in the semifinals. Later in the round, freshman Thunder Page knocked off No. 2-ranked Joseph Welsh of Abilene with a decisive 17-8 win in their 157-pound semifinal.
 

 
About the only damper on the day for Rose Hill was seeing two more Rockets favored to reach the finals get upset in the semifinals. Adam Bilby suffered a 7-1 loss to Abilene freshman Noah Wuthnow in the 132-pound semifinals while Cole Rogers fell 6-2 to Smoky Valley’s Parker Gardner in the 215 semifinals after each had come into the meet ranked No. 1 at their respective weight.
 
Tucker Saferite also made the semifinals at 120 for the Rockets, but took a 16-4 major decision loss to Andale’s Judd Eck.
 
Eck was one of four finalists for Andale, which captured the 2023 team championship before Rose Hill won it last year. He’ll be joined in the finals by Luke Martin (106), Ethan Eck (165) and Isaiah Wison (190). Martin took a 4-0 win over Abilene’s Keyen Taplin in his semifinal match while Eck and Wilson each pinned their semifinal opponent in the second period, backing up their No. 1 rankings at their weights.
 
Paola is a distant third in the team standings with 77 points and the Panthers got a pair of finalists in Bryson Rockers (126) and Brock Johnson (138) with Johnson staying undefeated on the season and positioning himself for a third straight state title.
 
Augusta, Fort Scott and Buhler each came away with a pair of finalists each.
 

OTHER SEMIFINAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Buhler brothers Sammy and Cruz Hershberger will both wrestle for titles on Saturday with Cruz making the finals for the second straight year. Ranked No. 2 at 144 after taking second at that weight a year ago, Cruz pulled out a pair of tight decisions in his final two matches of Friday, including a 6-3 win in the semifinals over Paola’s Hagen Blanck. But that was nothing compared to the win Sammy got in his 132-pound semifinal match when he got a takedown late in overtime for a 6-3 victory over Winfield’s Owen Suttles, who had knocked off returning state champion Kaiden Powell of Paola in the second round. Ranked just No. 6 in 132 rankings coming in, Sammy will face Abilene freshman Noah Wuthnow in the finals after Wuthnow took out No. 1 Adam Bilby of Rose Hill in the other semifinal.
• Five of the seven undefeated wrestlers in the Class 4A field remained that way with two headed for a showdown for a state championship. At 285 pounds, Augusta’s Willy Jon Morales (32-0) and Jefferson West’s Osiris Unruh (36-0) set up the lone title match of unbeatens as Morales won 5-1 in his semifinal match with Concordia’s Tracer Murdock and Unruh topped Fort Scott’s Jaden Garcia 4-1. The other unbeatens left are Paola’s Brock Johnson (41-0) and Pratt’s Taye Wilson (47-0), who each are seeking their third straight state championships, and Rose Hill’s Damon Ingram (23-0), who is looking for his second title. Hayden’s Jude Krentz saw his perfect season end with a 19-3 technical fall loss to Columbus’ Mason O’Banion in the 175 semifinals and Independence’s Keith Sanders suffered his first loss in the opening round at 138.
• Only three No. 1-ranked wrestlers failed to reach the finals. In addition to Rose Hill’s Adam Bilby and Cole Rogers falling in the semifinals, Holton’s Lucas Batz, No. 1 at 120, was upset by Augusta’s Brayden Luinstra with a 5-3 decision in the semifinals.