Seward's Fiala caps unbeaten season

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By the Lincoln Journal Star

Thumb through Mark Fiala’s goal book, and you won’t have to turn many pages to determine the success of his junior season.

No. 1, win a state championship.

Check.

No. 2, go unbeaten and win state.

Check.

“Do that, and there isn’t anyone who can say you weren’t the best,” Fiala said.

The Seward 152-pounder certainly was the best there was in Class B this season. After ousting top-ranked Jake Cardenas of Omaha Skutt in Friday’s semifinals, Fiala turned around and dominate his match with Nicholas Spears of Omaha Gross in the final.

Fiala won 15-5 to cap a 44-0 season. Not bad considering he had never before even taken home a medal for state.

“Last year, going 2-2 and not placing at state, that motivated me to get better,” Fiala said. “This is great.”

Fiala became the third unbeaten champion in Seward history, joining Josh Hayek in 2000 and Andrew Schlueter from 1998.

Lincoln East’s Etherton is second

Drew Etherton shook his head and said, “I just wrestled to not lose and that cost me. He (RaVaughn Perkins) was good and I couldn’t get much going on him and it was just like that.”

The Lincoln East senior finished second at 135 pounds after earning three consecutive third-place medals. He finished his high school career with the most wins ever, posting a 172-10 record over four years. He also holds the record for most wins in a season — 46 in 2006.

Perkins, who finished his sophomore season at Omaha North with a 21-0 record, won the championship match 16-6.

“I got to the finals, finally,” Etherton said. “That’s something to be proud of and I’ve got a lot of great memories of wrestling at East.”

Skutt’s Sackett wins fourth title

Tyler Sackett of Omaha Skutt won his fourth consecutive state title when he took the 130-pound Class B crown Saturday. Only 13 other wrestlers in state history have accomplished the feat.

“It means as much to win now as it did my first time,” he said. “The parade of champions felt the same and I don’t think much changed in the way I approached wrestling.”

Sackett will attend Navy this fall. He hopes to join the wrestling team there.

Taylor first girl to earn state medal

Brittney Taylor, a freshman from Omaha North, finished fifth at 103 pounds to become the first girl in state history to earn a medal at the state meet. Taylor won her first-round match, then lost in the quarterfinals. But she scored a decision and two pins, including one  in 1:55 against Marvin Barlow of Omaha Burke in the fifth-place match.

Wormturns in another title victory

When the season started, David City junior Travis Worm merely hoped to match his accomplishments of a year ago.

As the season began to unfold and the conquests began to mount, so too did his list of goals.

“My first goal was to just win another championship,” Worm said. “As the season went on, finishing undefeated became part of the plan.”

Worm’s championship match against Centennial’s Breckin Coffey got off to a bit of a bumpy start when the Bronco junior took him to the mat for a takedown and an early 2-0 lead.

Shortly thereafter, however, Worm got a reversal and was off to the races in a 9-4 win.

“This is awesome. Just awesome,” Worm said or another gold medal and a 35-0 record. “I don’t know what else to say.”

Bluejays’ Mink defends crown

Andy Mink has only tasted defeat one time this year, so the fact the Ashland-Greenwood senior defended his 215-pound state title   with a 9-5 win against Stephen Sunderman of Lutheran High Northeast didn’t come as that big of as surprise.

What seemed to have the Bluejay senior at a loss for words, however, was the fact he’d just made school history.

Mink has lost just twice over the past two years and his only defeat this year came to undefeated Class B 215-pound champion  Kevin Barrett of Boys Town.

With his win Saturday, Mink became the first wrestler in Ashland-Greenwood history to win two state championships.

“It’s pretty cool, I guess,” Mink said of his accomplishment. “They (the two titles) were both pretty hard to get so it’s hard to compare one to the other.”