By Dewey Terrill
JC Post
Take two wrestling rivals, talented teams, a loud crowd, head coaches that are father and son, and a close dual and you had all the ingredients for a big time at the Shenk Gym Thursday night.
Junction City defeated Manhattan in their wrestling dual 36-35.
Blue Jay coach Tyler Gonzalez said it was a big win. "That was big, that was big, and that was big for my boys, that was big for this town, that was big for our wrestling team."
Tyler credited the toughness and grit of his team during the match. "Our kids showed some grit, just some fight. Things didn't go their way but they didn't get frustrated. "
For the first time Tyler and his father, Robert Gonzales coached against one another. Tyler said once we did introductions for the varsity match and all that I started to realize that that was my dad in the opposite corner, but I quickly once that first whistle blew forgot about that."
Tyler noted that he appreciated his dad. "Obviously he taught me has taught me a lot. Taught me how to be a man, be a coach, be an athlete, all of that. And he's obviously a legendary coach in our sport and our state, a lot of people know him so I'm just really grateful."
Robert Gonzalez noted a couple of losses by state ranked Blaisen Bammes and former state qualifier Tucker Brunner were key losses for Manhattan in the dual. "They got bonus points and we just couldn't catch them." Robert added, "I think our kids were trying way too hard, trying to get a high percentage move and Junction City stayed the course."
On wrestling against his son Robert Gonzalez fought back emotion as he discussed the difficulty. " I want them ( Junction City ) to be successful but not at the expense of our program."Robert said he told his son he was proud, real proud of him. "I'm happy that there was a winner named Gonzalez, I'm proud that there was a winner Gonzalez, I'm sad because our program lost, and we've got to somehow, short window time bounce back and do a better job."
Junction City will wrestle in the Basehor-Linwood Invitational in the Kansas City area Friday and Saturday while Manhattan will compete in the Newton Tournament of Champions. Tyler Gonzalez noted that the starting time for the tournament at Basehor-Linwood has been moved back to early afternoon in the one or two o'clock time frame. The winter weather forecast had an impact.
The individual winners in the weight classes in Thursday night's dual for Junction City included Zach Petrusky at 113 pounds, Zane Thornton 132, Cameron Beasley 138, Elias Robinson 170, , James Hancock 182 and Isaiah Zinkan 220. For Manhattan they included Jantzen Borge 106, Easton Taylor 120, Tate Sauder 126, Adrian Kaus 145, Daron Island-Jones 160, Talquie Houston 195 and Damian Llalio at 285 pounds.
During an intermission in the varsity match former Blue Jay wrestling coaches were remembered including Robert Laster, Lamont Godsey and the late R. Ben Bennett. Highlights of their accomplishments in the wrestling program were outlined for the large crowd that arrived at the Shenk Gym to take in the match, the first dual match between Junction City and Manhattan in several years.