EudoraNews.com

Once again, the Eudora Cardinals had several wrestlers advance to the consolation semifinal bracket. But Saturday at the Paola Tournament, they won most of them.

Eudora had seven wrestlers place and the team finished the tournament in third-place overall.

“We really were in the same point we’ve been at getting a lot of guys to the consolation semis and one match away from winning,” coach Jason Tharp said. “And we just won them this tournament. So we got a lot of guys in there. We don’t have a lot of guys who are going to be No. 1 seeds and walking through the bracket every week. So we have to rely on coming through the back side and getting in for third and fourth, and we’ve done a good job of that. We’ve got to the consolation semis week after week, but we haven’t been winning those matches. And this week we finally put it together and won several of those matches.”

Boomer Mays finished first in the 215-pound weight class and Cody Salzman (112) placed second. Third-place winners for the Cardinals were Thomas McLees (119), Tim Wright (125), Tyler Crowe (152) and Spencer Board (135). And Darren Nabus placed fourth at 145.

The victories have Tharp encouraged about the final five weeks of the season.

“It’s a big step forward,” Tharp said. “Definitely since Christmas we’ve seen the improvement week-to-week.”

Eudora will compete Saturday in the Baldwin Invitational.

“It’s a new tournament for us,” Tharp said. “It’ll be a really good one Abilene is there, Oak Park Missouri is there, and Baldwin has improved this year.”