Greeley's Wrestlers Compete in Eastern States

(Editor's Note: Below is an account of the event from Horace Greeley wrestling Coach Mike DeBellis)

Senior captains Kirby Atlas and Scott Wymbs, along with senior Brent Lobien and junior Mitchell Klein all earned spots into the prestigious Eastern States Wrestling Tournament held this past Friday and Saturday at Sullivan Community College.  The tournament is highly regarded as the best wrestling tournament in the state, consisting of 110 teams and over 50 participants in the each weight class.  The Greeley wrestlers were not overwhelmed by the magnitude of the event. They went out and wrestled to win.  Each match in the tournament was a highly contested match. 

120-pounder Kirby Atlas went 2-2 on the weekend.  Kirby had the deepest weight class in the tournament. Kirby had a great couple of days and learned a great deal about how to wrestle the best kids in the state. 

Mitchell Klein, our 145-pounder, went 1-2 on the weekend. Mitchell wrestled some great competition and only lost by a one-point decision to advance into the second day. Mitchell is improving every day and will be a force to be reckoned with as the post-season tournaments come our way. 

Brent Lobien, our 285-pounder (actually 233), wrestled the biggest and strongest guys in the tournament. Brent is fast and very athletic which pretty much kept him alive.  Brent made it to the round of 16 before getting knocked out of the tournament.  He lost 5-3 in the quarter finals to returning Section 1 champ David Varian from Yorktown.  It was a great pre-match to the potential Section 1 final this year. 

Scott Wymbs placed 8th in the tournament.   Scott made it into the quarter final round before meeting up with State Runner-Up Reggie Williams from Johnson City.  Scott got caught early in the match and could not recover his losses against Williams.  Scott proceeded to win his next match to put him into the top eight.  Scott earned his 114th win over the weekend just two shy of the Horace Greeley all-time wins leader Greg Einfrank who had 116 wins. 

The experience to wrestle in a tournament of this size and level of competition is an experience that these men will draw from in the big situations that will present themselves in the next couple of weeks.  Greeley has one tournament left on the schedule this weekend in Beacon.  We also have a home match against league rivals Port Chester at home on Thursday at 4:15.  We hope to see you at the next home match.  It is shaping up to be a great dual meet. Port Chester is tough and we line up really nice to see some high quality close matches.  If you have never been to a high school wrestling match, this will be a good one to catch.