El Dorado’s boys wrestling team will have a quartet of qualifiers for this week’s state meet.
The Wildcats will have three wrestlers seeded fourth with one more earning a No. 3 seed.
Junior Richard Diaz is seeded fourth in the 120-pound weight class, while junior Chase Shults is the fourth seed in the 138-pound division and sophomore Winston Williams will be the No. 4 seed in the 190-pound class. Junior Evan Criss is the No. 3 seed in the 175-pound class.
El Dorado nearly topped the number of seeded wrestlers they had last year for boys and girls, but had two wrestlers finish fifth to finish one behind the total of nine from a year ago.
“I thought we might finish a little bit better in regional, but I definitely expected those four to be the four guys that made it,” El Dorado coach Alex Townsend said.
“We had a couple that were close. We had one finish fifth and he was able to challenge for fourth, but he lost his challenge match. We had another one finish fifth who couldn’t challenge because the fourth-place guy had already beaten him earlier in the day.
“I thought we might have a chance to get a couple of others in. We came close, but couldn’t quite do it.”
Diaz qualifying for state gives EHS two wrestlers who made it in their first year of competing in the sport with Destinee Smith on the girls side qualifying at 130.
“He’s a kid that it’s his first year wrestling ever,” Townsend said of Diaz. “It’s a very impressive feat to be able to place at regional and qualify for state with this being your first year. That shows the type of kid he is, how coachable he is, how hard he works. It’s huge for him.”
Townsend said he is eager to see what Shults can do this week against the best in the state.
“He’s one of our team captains, one of our hardest workers, one of our best kids as a person,” Townsend said.
“I’m excited to see what he can do this year at state.”
Criss is the lone wrestler on the boys team to qualify for the state meet for the second straight year.
“He is one of the best athletes on the team,” Townsend said. “If he has a great offseason, I think he can have a special senior year.”
Townsend is excited to see what the future holds for Williams.
“He’s the only sophomore that made it, and he’s on the light end for his weight class,” Townsend said. “Some of the guys he’s wrestling are 10 pounds heavier than he is. It just shows the type of athlete he is too, and the type of strength that he has, even being a little undersized.
“If he can get to the top end of his weight class, I will be super excited to see what he is able to do as well. He’s one of our hardest workers and best kids too.”
For Townsend, a bigger factor is that all four of them will be back next year.
“All four of them are underclassmen, so we’ll have all four of these kids back next year, which is huge for the program,” Townsend said.
“We’re expecting to have a great offseason and have a really, really special year next year.”