Carroll wrestlers continue historically successful postseason

It was a good weekend for the Carroll boys wrestling team, which finished second overall at the regional tournament and qualified six athletes for the state meet.

Coach Joe Hathaway was selected as the Regional Coach of the Meet and he said that he was extremely pleased with the effort his team put forth.

“Regionals went really, really well for us,” Hathaway said. “It was good to see them come out and compete the way they did. It was one of those tournaments where it is a battle of attrition and kind of tests the work they’ve put in throughout the year, so it was a very strong performance and I was proud of them.”

Adam Lindburg won the 170 pound weight class, while Jack Duval was second in the 160 pound division, Clay Vincent finished third at 113 pounds, Nolin Wheeler took fourth place at 106, Jacob Doddridge was fourth at 220 and Lucas Tribble finished fourth at heavyweight to advance to the state meet.

In addition, Zach Francis finished fifth at 182 pounds, Jake Johnson was fifth at 195, and Cameron Haddock placed sixth at the competition in the 138 pound division.

Carroll scored 163.5 points at the regional meet.

The second-place finish at region is the best showing in the program’s history and six wrestlers is the most Carroll has ever sent to the state competition.

“Outside of Allen and Arlington Martin, there were only two other schools that qualified more athletes for state than we did,” Hathaway said. “Coming out of our region, with the competition we have in this region, that’s pretty good.”

Hathaway said that the goal for state this year was get a trophy, or a top three finish, but said more important for him is that his guys go out and wrestle how they are capable of wrestling.

“We just want to go out and compete,” Hathaway said. “We train all year and our schedule is probably one of the toughest in the state. It’s all geared around preparing them for competition like this, and that way they are geared up for this competition level. We want them to go out there and lay it on the line.”

The state wrestling championships will be held Friday and Saturday at the Berry Center in Cypress.

This story was originally published February 15, 2016 at 3:43 PM with the headline "Carroll wrestlers continue historically successful postseason."