S-E-M has Three make State Tournament

Looking back a year ago the S-E-M Wrestling team sent one wrestler to State. Flash forward to this season, and a young group from a year ago grew tremendously and sent three wrestlers to state and had one state medalist in Brendon Hall.

“We had a very young group of wrestlers last year that had little to no varsity wrestling experience, and to see this group make strides throughout the season like they were able to do, makes it really exciting for what they can do next season,” S-E-M

Coach Jake Padrnos said.

The state qualifiers for S-E-M were Aaron Hernandez, Brendon Hall, and Reece Jones. What is most impressive about what the Mustangs were able to accomplish this year was the fact that each of these wrestlers won at least one match at the Class D State Meet.

“It was good to see that each of the wrestlers were able to come away with a win at the State Wrestling Championships this year,” Padrnos said. “We are returning two of the qualifiers for next year, it will be exciting to see what they will be able to accomplish next season.”

Hall who was the lone state qualifier last season for the Mustangs, built off that previous experience this year at state. He went 2-0 to start the State Tournament and ended up reaching the semifinals at 285 pounds. After dropping his next two matches, he rebounded and pinned Kayden Stubbs of Maxwell to take fifth place. With one year left, Hall will look to improve on that finish next year.

“It was exciting to see

The 2020-2021 S-E-M Wrestling Team from Bottom Row Left are Aaron Hernandez. Second Row: Darren Schroeder, Ethan Atkins, Clark Padrnos, and Navarre Plagmann. Thrid Row: Reece Jones, Brendon Hall, and Ashton Nichols.

Brendon come home with a medal from his second state tournament appearance,” Padrnos said. “We saw probably his best tournament of the season this past week, by beating

a really good Burwell wrestler to make it to the semifinals to earn a medal.”

With two of the three state qualifiers returning for the Mustangs, as well as several other wrestlers who made the heartbreak round at Districts, S-E-M has the building blocks to be very successful in the years to come.

Congratulations Winter area teams on very succesful seasons. WE at the chief look forward to continuing to celebrate your sucesses during the winter Sports Season!