Rakers, Zobrist will represent Highland at State Wrestling Meet

After two days of wrestling last weekend, the Highland Bulldogs finished with two qualifiers for the Class 2A state meet in Champaign this weekend.

Senior Tyson Rakers and junior Ashton Zobrist will visit the State Farm Center on the University of Illinois campus in Champaign on Thursday.

The duo were half of four wrestlers that Highland sent to the Class 4A sectional at Mahomet-Seymour High School last weekend.

Highland coach Shorty Ohren was glad to see them get through a tough sectional meet last Saturday.

“They wrestled well and even the guys that got knocked out and the more you advance the harder the competition gets, so yeah I thought they wrestled well,” Ohren said.

Rakers made it to the championship bout in the 150-pound class on Saturday and narrowly missed winning the championship after falling to Jacksonville’s Joe Reif in a 3-2 decision.

“He was up 2-1 and then they got a takedown on Tyson and then he fell 3-2 and that gave us a bad draw for state,” Ohren said. “It looked like he was a little bit conservative and I think it bit him in the butt a little bit.”

Zobrist qualified for state at 215 pounds thanks to a strong showing in the third-place match. Zobrist took down Jhymear Smith-Henson of Mt. Vernon with a 3-1 decision to take third place in the 215-pond division.

“I thought it was a tough match,” Ohren said. “Probably the toughest he’s had because at 215 they’re bigger and stronger and he’s wrestled 190 all year.”

Highland’s other two entries, Thomas Mitchell at 175 pounds, and Ethan Greenwald at 190 pounds got bounced into the wrestle-back rounds and were unable to come back and make the cut for state.

Despite Mitchell and Greenwald not advancing, Ohren was very satisfied with the overall group showing at sectionals.

“I was pleased with all four of the boys and they gave it everything they had no matter how they felt and I appreciate them putting forth that effort,” Ohren said.

Rakers and Zobrist will look to place in the Class 2A meet this weekend and Ohren said they will need to be at their best each match.

“You’ve got to take one match at a time now,” Ohren said. “That’s all we can do. Win that first match and go from there.”