Republic’s wrestling team took only three wrestlers to state in Columbia this year — but they made it count. Hunter Pyle and Julian Richardson both finished their weekend on the medal podium. Pyle finished third at 195 pounds and Richardson was fourth at 220 pounds.
For Pyle, it was a rebound from last year’s performance at state, when he was eliminated early.
“Last year, I the #1 seed and that kind of brought me down, and I lost my next match. I don’t really remember much,” he says. “But coming into this year I was like ‘I’m going to medal. I don’t care if it’s place, but I’m going to medal. There was a less-than-likely chance that I would be #1, but I wanted to go for it.”
All three Tiger wrestlers, including sophomore Michael Taylor, won their opening matches. Pyle says getting off to a fast start made all the difference from last year.
“I think it was pretty important because if I lost that first one my spirits would have been down,” he says. “We were excited going into . We all had great kids the second round–me and Michael had the #1 seed. We were excited and ready, we were going to kick some butt.”
All three lost in the second round, and though Taylor was eliminated in his next match, Pyle and Richardson kept winning when they had to. Pyle says after losing to the eventual state champion, Jacob Boyd of Smithville, it was an easy draw the rest of the way.
“My coaches … told me that it was a cake-walk after that. I had the kid I beat to take third at districts, and then some kid nobody knew, and then the Neosho kid again who beat me 3-2 at districts,” Pyle says.
In the third-place match against Zachary Plummer of Neosho, Pyle won 5-2. He was determined to avenge his district loss.
“I was not going to lose again,” Pyle says. “When I wrestled him at districts, I froze up and sat there for a long time, but at state I was like ‘This is the match to win.'”
Pyle says his taste of success at state will motivate him to work even harder in the off-season.
“I’m going to work a lot on moving and actually taking people down,” he says. “I’m going to a few big tournaments: one in North Dakota, one in Virginia.”
For Richardson, 2017 was the first time at the state tournament, and he made the most of it.
“Going into it, I was really excited. I hadn’t been there ever before, and neither had my brother (2016 graduate C.J. Richardson), so I was really happy to be able to go,” he says. “I knew these kids were good. They’d made it too, and had fought just as hard as I had.
Richardson opened with a win over senior Clayton Mordecai of Kearney, setting him up for a successful tournament.
“The coaches told me about . I wasn’t supposed to be able to beat him. That was the prediction going into it,” Richardson says. “We knew what he liked to do. We knew what he was like on his feet. That’s what we really wanted to focus on. Really they just wanted me to stop his takedowns. I was really defensive that match. Most of the tournament I was really defensive.”
Richardson won the opener with a pin in the third round. It put him in a good mindset heading into Day 2.
“That sets the tone for the rest of the tournament. You win and get to go home and celebrate with your teammates. If you lose, you’re like, ‘Wow, now I have to drag out another match. We’re going to be here late. Coaches are already mad at me, everything is just weighing on you.'”
After a second-round loss, Richardson rebounded to win three straight.
“The coaches didn’t come down to hard on me,” he says. “They just picked me up and moved on. The next kid was easy. I was feeling good. I was just worried about the next match really. I was happy to just keep going on, because that’s what we’re there for.”
Even though Richardson was the underdog going into his first match, he says the tough competition in the COC — especially perennial power Neosho — made him confident he could make the medal stand.
“I knew it was entirely possible. I’m not a bad wrestler,” he says. “I know what I can do if I try. That’s what I focused on–finishing as high as I could.”
Richardson’s trip to the podium was a long one, but worth it.
“It means everything to me,” he says. “The summer was not a good one. I got badly injured and they didn’t even know if I’d be able to wrestle, so to be able to come back here and go to state and win the top four, it’s absolutely everything.”
(Photos by Jared Lankford)
