The path to the 126-pound title at last Saturday’s Rossville couldn’t have been any tougher for Tanner Sleichter.
 
But the Santa Fe Trail senior wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
 
“I was excited,” Sleichter said of a bracket that also featured Class 3-2-1A No. 1 Jaxson Vice of Maur Hill and Class 3-2-1A No. 2 Chase Courtois of West Franklin. “You always want to go to tournaments looking for tough competition and I was going to get it there. Getting both of those guys, that’s a tough tournament and tough matches. But you go there to get better and see good competition.”
 
Ranked sixth at 126 pounds in Class 4A, Sleichter was more than up to the challenge. He knocked off Vice 9-6 in the semifinals in a match where he didn’t give up a takedown. Sleichter rode the momentum of that victory to a dominating 7-1 win over Courtois in the finals to secure the tourney title.
 
The tourney title moved Sleichter to 18-2 on the season and should serve as a big confidence boost as he goes after a state title this winter.
 
“I was confident going in,” Sleichter said. “That whole week leading up to the tournament I had good practices, just moving good on my feet. One thing I was doing was being more patient on my feet and not rushing shots. My coaches worked with me focusing on doing shots on my feet and being a little more selective on my feet, setting up my shots.”
 

 
Sleichter opened the tourney with a 15-3 major decision over Sabetha’s Jackson Jacobs to set up a semifinal showdown with Vice. After some early feeling out, Sleichter’s patience paid off and he got a takedown with 35 seconds left in the first period for a 3-0 lead.
 
But going into the third period, Sleichter trailed 4-3, having given up four penalty points, three in the second period. But starting the third period in the top position, Sleichter maneuvered Vice to his back for a four-point near fall and after giving up a reversal that cut his lead to 7-6, Sleichter got a reversal of his own with three seconds left to seal the 9-6 victory.
 
It was Vice’s first loss of the season.
 
“I didn’t wrestle that good in the second period, but was able to get those back points that helped me out a lot,” Sleichter said. “I just had to dog it out.”
 
In the finals against Courtois, who entered with just one loss, Sleichter again came out strong with a first-period takedown. But this time, he avoided the penalty points that plagued him in his match with Vice and took a 4-0 lead into the third period. After Courtois escaped with 18 seconds left, Sleichter got a takedown in the final seconds to secure the 7-1 win and tourney title.
 
“I kind of dominated him on my feet,” Sleichter said. “I controlled the match and my confidence level is definitely up.”
 
Coming out of the Christmas break, Sleichter said his confidence level wasn’t necessarily at a high. Just prior to the break he had suffered his second loss of the season, falling to Clay Center’s Thayne Pfizenmaier in the semifinals of the Abilene Invitational on 
Dec. 20.
 
Hit in the head during the match, Sleichter had to medically default for the loss. But at the time, he also was down 7-1 to the Tiger, who is ranked No. 5 in 4A.
 
Sleichter’s only other loss was one he can take plenty of confidence from. It came to Colby’s Ryder Dempewolf at the Colby Invitational in the 120-pound finals. The showdown was a 1-2 battle with Dempewolf – a two-time reigning 4A state champion (both titles at 113) -- prevailing 5-4.
 
“It was a good match,” Sleichter said. “I gave up a late takedown in the second period after being up and that lost me the match, but I wrestled pretty good and I feel like I’m wrestling pretty good on my feet right now.”
 
Sleichter placed fifth at state at 120 pounds last year after taking fourth at 106 pounds at state as a sophomore. He was a regional champion his freshman year at 106.
 
Having moved up to 126 just before Christmas after being ranked No. 2 at 120 to start the season, Sleichter is hoping to make some noise at state in his final season. 
 
“Winning state, that was the goal last year and I fell short,” he said. “I didn’t really wrestle very well at state last year. So winning state is always the goal and hopefully I can finish at the top this year.”
 
Charger coach Trenton Robb said if Sleichter can bottle his performance at Rossville for the rest of the season, his goal should be within reach.
 
“He is very poised and a fierce competitor,” Robb said. “That was on full display in his matches last weekend and really throughout the entire season. It is impressive to see the way Tanner approaches high-level matchups and I believe that will help propel him to success down the stretch.”
 
Sleichter will get another strong test at this week’s Bobcat Invitational at Basehor-Linwood with his bracket featuring a handful of ranked wrestlers in 6A, 5A and 4A.
 

 
OTHER BOYS WRESTLING STANDOUTS

• West Franklin’s Logan Courtois extended his match winning streak to 70 straight victories with the title at the Rossville Invitational. Courtois, who last loss at state his sophomore season, has captured titles at the Anderson County, Emporia and Rossville Invitationals this season. Freshman brother Waylon, meanwhile, is off to an undefeated start to his high school career, winning tourney titles at the same three tournaments. In his 21-0 start, Waylon has 20 wins via pin or technical fall.
• Anderson County’s Braxton Barnes and Zach Shaffer each captured titles at the Louisburg Invitational. Barnes won the title at 106 pounds while Schaffer was the 157-pound champion.
• After missing all of December, Jefferson West’s Osiris Unruh – last year’s Class 4A state runner-up at 285 pounds – returned in dominating fashion at the Herington Invitational. Unruh pinned all four of his opponents in the first period on his way to the 285 title.
• Shawnee Heights won the team title at the Wichita North Invitational on Jan. 3 and followed with a runner-up finish at its home tournament last weekend, taking second to Junction City by a mere half point. Dallas Owens (138) and Brody Brown (150) were individual champions for the T-Birds at their home meet while Carter Kamanda (144), Evan Johnson (175) and Reid Niedfeldt (132) were champions at North, where the T-Birds won 18.5 points over Kapaun Mt. Carmel.
• Junction City had seven finalists in capturing the team title at Heights, getting titles from Colden Blockcolsky at 106 pounds and Cody Owens at 165 pounds.

 

 

• Marysville’s Keagan Warders record his 100th career victory at the Beatrice (Neb.) Invitational last weekend. The milestone victory came on Warders’ way to capturing the 150-pound title.
• Hayden’s Jude Krentz and Caleb Menke each remained undefeated on the season with titles at the Shawnee Heights Invitational. Krentz pinned his first two opponents and then won by a 17-1 technical fall decision in the final to win at 190 pounds and improve to 15-0 while Menke had four pins on his way to the title at 175, improving to 16-0.
• Silver Lake had four champions at the Burlington Invitational as the Eagles captured the team title with 223 points, 60.5 ahead of runner-up Caney Valley. Bringing home individual titles for the Eagles were Garret Holmes (138), Jayden Waterer (157), Kayden Clelland (175) and Carter Spreer (285).
• Rock Creek’s Wade Rottinghaus (190) and Burlington’s Tate Stahl (132) also were champions at Burlington.
• Manhattan finished runner-up as a team at the Dodge City Invitational, scoring 182 points to finish just 7.5 points behind Andale for the title. Cameron Coonrod was the lone individual champion for the Indians, winning at 144 pounds with a 10-3 win over Hoxie’s Chase Meyer in the finals. Max Evans-Pryor (175) and Kadin Dibbini (215) were runner-up finishers and 11 Indians finished in the top eight.
• Killian Vaughan and Brody Chambers each captured titles at the Ellsworth Invitational to help Southeast of Saline to a xxxth-place finish. Vaughan won his title at 165 pounds and Chambers was the 285 champion, each pinning their way to their titles.
• Lyons finished runner-up at Ellsworth as a team on the strength of five finalists, including a pair of champions. Marius Lee won the title at 120 and Jace Grizzle was the champion at 150 with Grizzle, No. 1 in 3-2-1A, pinning No. 5 Tate Balthazor of Hill City in the first period in the finals.
• Brayton Peters won a title for Minneapolis at Ellsworth, taking the title at 144 pounds with pins in all five of his matches.
• Beloit’s Brogan Monty improved to 19-1 with the 138-pound title at the JR Durham Invitational at Norton, pinning Class 3-2-1A No. 2 Bradley Doorbos of Council Grove in the finals. Council Grove had five finalists at the tourney with Leo DeDonder (126) and Tyler Hutchinson (215) capturing titles and Doornbos, Nate Siemears (132) and Easton Stohs (165) taking second.
• Atchison County captured the team title at the Rossville Invitational, scoring 239 points to finish 234.5 points ahead of Wamego. The Tigers had four champions – Rance Vessar (157), Kain Koontz (165), Max Bottorff (175) and Elijah Webb (190). Wamego had a trio of champions with Knox Karnowski (150), Talon Conrad (215) and Josh Flanigan (285) taking titles.
• Other individual champions at Rossville included Burlingame’s Logan Leandro (132), Riley County’s Tanner Rhoton (113) and Sabetha’s Lincoln Menold (138).
• Abilene narrowly missed out on the team title at the Salina South Invitational, scoring 189.5 points to finish just 4.5 points behind Colby for the title. The Cowboys dominated the finals, however, coming away with six individual champions as Keyen Taplin (106), Korbin Blacketer (126), Noah Wuthnow (138), Murphy Randolph (150), Dayven Cuba (157) and Pierce Casteel (190) all won titles.
• Concordia’s Drake Blochlinger won the 165 title at the Salina South Invitational.

 
 
GIRLS WRESTLING STANDOUTS

• Junction City’s Bree Villanueva was named the outstanding wrestler at the Salina South Invitational and also captured the title at the Wichita North Invitational, improving to 17-0 overall. Villanueva pinned her way to the titles at both tournaments and was joined as a champion at Wichita North by Elaina Twitty (140) and Elizabeth Edgerton-Diaz (130) as the Blue Jays finished second as a team to Shawnee Heights. Teammates Shalina Hicks and Ka’Ori Herring and also won a titles at Salina with Hicks winning at 190 pounds and Herring at 235 pounds as Junction City took second as a team.
• Chase County’s Lahna Passmore pinned or tech falled all of her opponents on the way to the 115-pound title at the Charles McMillen Invitational at Herington. Passmore improved to 14-1 on the season and is ranked No. 2 in Class 3-2-1A.
• Shawnee Heights captured the team titles at both the Wichita North Invitational on Jan. 3 and the T-Birds’ home Invitational on Jan. 10. Cianna Graves was a champion at both tournaments, pinning all four foes at 155 pounds at Heights and all three opponents at North. Olive Jones was Heights’ other individual champion at North, winning at 135, and she and Graves were joined as champions at Heights’ tourney by Bianca Juarez (110), Brinnley Morris (115), Audrey Hinkly (125), Olivia Stevens (145) and Brooklyn Binkley (190).
• Emme Blanco became the eighth Washburn Rural girl to reach 100 career victories, going 5-0 to win the 145-pound title at the Seaman Invitational. Blanco was named the tournament’s outstanding wrestler and led Rural to the team title as well with the Junior Blues scoring 344 points to beat runner-up Hays by 91 points. Blanco was joined as an individual champion by teammates Ashlyn Johnson (110), Lacey Middleton (125), Madi Blanco (140), Elia Smith (170), Lily Davis (190) and Emma Mehl (235).
• Emporia picked up three individual champions at Seaman as Sienna Spaulding won at 105, Kensley Medrano at 120 and Araceli Aleman at 135.
• Abilene had a trio of champions at the Salina South Invitational with twin sisters Josie (100) and Jade Wilson (105) staying undefeated on the season. They were joined by Iliana Garcia (155) as a champion.
• Wamego captured the team title at the Rossville Invitational, scoring 173.5 points to beat runner-up Santa Fe Trail by 15 points. The Red Raiders had three champions with Nevaeh Beatty (110), Rachel Barber (115) and Leolyn Karnowski (155) all taking titles and Peyton Brazzle (100) taking second.
• Santa Fe Trail and Maur Hill each had two champions at Rossville with Kennedy Portlock winning at 100 and Gabrielle Suchi winning at 235 for the Chargers and Emma Vice winning at 125 and Hollie Finneran at 140 for the Ravens. 
• Other individual champions at Rossville included Nemaha Central’s Renae Keim (105), Riley County’s Kinsey Loecker (120), West Franklin’s Mya Crabtree (135), Rossville’s Madelyn Wonnell (145), Sabetha’s Lola O’Neil (170) and Doniphan West’s Layla Kuhnert (190).
• Wellsville edged Fort Scott by 9.5 points for the team title at the Burlington Invitational. The Eagles only had one individual champion as Olive Dubois won at 125, but put seven in the top three and had three runner-up finishers.
• Silver Lake picked up three champions at Burlington with Kamiryn Clark winning at 100, McKenna Harris at 135 and MaKayla Connor at 155. Other individual champions at Burlington included Iola’s Addilyn Wacker (130), Rock Creek’s Megan Ryan (140) and Holton’s Marley Gilliland (190).
• Manhattan took the team title at the Dodge City Invitational, scoring 202 points to win by 34.5 points over Gardner Edgerton. The Indians had 14 top-six finishers and got titles from Alayna Slifer (135), Sophia Hoeme (140) and Tierra Young (145).