The Junction City Blue Jays had six champions, two runner ups and a 4th place finisher at this years regional tournament at Wichita Northeast Magnet High School.

Junction City will be sending nine wrestlers to state which is down from last year when the Blue Jays took ten wrestlers.”I was hoping that we could have gotten more guys through, I’m kind of sad for the guys that didn’t make it but I’m real happy for the guys that did make it,” explained Head Coach Bob Laster.

The six Blue Jay Champions were Max Bazan at 106 lbs., Downey Wood at 138 lbs., Jake Bazan at 145 lbs., Jeryl Denton at 152 lbs., Aryus Jones at 160 lbs., and J’Quan Robinson at 182 lbs.. Both Gabe Padilla at 126 lbs. and Xavier DeGuzman at 170 lbs. finished in 2nd place, and Tanner Bogenhagen finished in 4th place.

Overall the Blue Jays finished in 3rd place as a team with 175 points, behind Derby who finished 2nd with 181 points and Manhattan who was this years regional champions with 183 points.

Next week will be a short week for the Blue Jays as they will get to practice at home for three days, Monday through Wednesday, before heading down early to Park City on Thursday where they will practice at Hartman Arena, the host site for the state wrestling tournament.

“I kind of like doing that just to kind of lower the anxiety levels of some of the kids who haven’t been there and just kind of get them to see what the facility looks like.”

The two day state tournament will be Friday and Saturday next week at Hartman Arena in Park City. You will be able to hear live updates throughout the day both day’s on the “Talk of JC” 1420 AM KJCK.