Pirates win Western Slope League

Cody Olivas

Sports Writer

OLATHE -- Olathe High’s wrestling team has had a lot of different faces in its lineup throughout the season, but who are these guys?

Paul Ratliff, Dylan Markley, Zach Stansberry, Luke Hunter, Jesse Rivera, Aaron Neely . . . is this the junior varsity dual?

Why aren’t Bryson Gray, Jaime Goza, Curtis McCormick, Dane Axtell, Lyle Vannest, Wes Yarnell and Tyler Hawk wrestling against Cedaredge?

It’s the Pirates’ last home dual of the season and they’re only two wins away from winning the Western Slope League again, so who are these guys wearing blue singlets and are pinning all these Bruins?

“Between sickness and injuries, that was the best lineup we had,” Olathe’s head coach Harvey Starbuck said. “I told the kids, semi-jokingly, that we haven’t had the same lineup two weeks in a row, but this is ridiculous.”

The Pirates might have had a lot of its junior varsity wrestlers competing, but they certainly wrestled like a varsity squad.

OHS dominated Cedaredge, 66-12, Friday and rallied to beat Hotchkiss, 53-21, Saturday to finish undefeated in the Western Slope League and win the title for the third year in a row.

“The kids battled hard and the younger ones stepped it up, it was good,” Starbuck said. “They have an enthusiasm that’s not there sometimes because they have an opportunity and wanted to make the most of it.”

Taking advantage of the opportunity to wrestle on varsity, Ratliff (119), Markley (125), Stansberry(135) and Neely (285) pinned their Cedaredge opponents.

Hunter bumped up to 140 pounds and beat Chaunce Lindley by a 13-3 major decision.

Jesse Rivera (152) had Luis Molina on his back at the end of the first and second periods and won by a 15-0 technical fall.

Jason Pridy bumped up to 130 pounds for the Pirates, but was pinned after he tried to take Nolan Kissner back down to the mat.

The Pirates who have been wrestling varsity recently and didn’t have the skin-funk were also dominate. Jose Medina (103) pinned Marty Peterson in one minute.

Cody Burch (145) cut off his mo-hawk but still looked mean, pinning Martin Alejandre in 55 seconds.

Chris Diaz (160) tilted Ernesto Acosta and kept him on his back, pinning him in 1:40. Marvin Rivera (171) pinned Jason Anderson in 1:50 and Casey Bollinger (112) won 6-1. Kyle Martinez (189) also won by forfeit.

Against Hotchkiss, the Pirates found themselves trailing 21-3 after the Bulldogs got pins at 215’s and heavyweight and won by a technical fall and major decision at 112’s and 119’s.

After that, however, the Pirates came roaring back and won the rest of the night’s matches to defend their WSL title.

Markley beat “one of their better” players, Dylan Rupe, by a technical fall to get the ball rolling for OHS at 125 pounds.

After that, Stansberry won, Hunter pinned his opponent, Burch won by forfeit and then Jesse Rivera pinned Cody Richards, who is ranked eighth in the state.

Hotchkiss avoided Diaz and bumped their 160-pounder up to 171’s, but Marvin Rivera pinned him anyway.

In the dual’s last weight, Martinez won by another forfeit.

“We won’t rest on this before regionals, but the kids are pretty excited,” Starbuck said. “Plugging in those other kids and still wrestling strong was encouraging.”

The Pirates with skin-funk, ring worm and impetigo, have been wrestling with “Casper,” their shadow and other opponents they won’t infect to keep their form.

The coach expects to have his starting roster, which is ranked third in Class 3A, back by the regional championships this weekend in Montrose.