Kellerman pulls off perfect finish

LHS senior wins second straight title with pin in finals

? Nolan Kellerman stood 15 feet in the air, quickly ascending the seven vertical rows to give his grandmother a hug and kiss.

He was on top of the wrestling world again. And this time, he had energy to enjoy it.

“It still hasn’t hit me yet,” Kellerman said. “I should still be wrestling right now.”

The 171-pound senior didn’t give himself time to be nervous against Garden City’s Bryan Irsik in the finals Saturday, pinning him 97 seconds in to take his second straight Class 6A state title.

Kellerman completed his wrestling career with his 64th consecutive win, going unbeaten over his last two seasons.

“I’m glad it ended like that,” said Kellerman, who has decided to not wrestle in college next season. “Last year, I won it with zero seconds left, and this time I had it in the first period. I got the best of both worlds.”

After taking a 2-0 lead 47 seconds in, Kellerman looked as if he might be on the ropes early. Irsik (40-6) scored a point with an escape and nearly registered a takedown.

Kellerman at first tried to struggle his way out of bounds, but quickly went into attack mode when the Garden City senior fell off balance.

“Once I saw it, I didn’t know how much time was left,” Kellerman said, “so I just squeezed as hard as I could to get that pin.”

Kellerman’s teammate and best friend Brendan Halpin held his own against 39-0 Boaz Beard, trailing 2-0 most of the match before falling 4-0.

The 152-pounder, who finished his tournament with a 3-1 record and a second-place medal, said he owed much of his wrestling success to Kellerman.

“That’s why we became such good friends,” Halpin said. “I wouldn’t have been as good as I am if I hadn’t wrestled with Nolan.”

Led by the two seniors, Lawrence High finished sixth overall in the team standings with 89.5 points.

Free State, meanwhile, placed a trio in the top five with strong efforts in the consolation bracket.

K.J. Siebert pulled some magic to win both his matches and take third.

The senior avoided a late takedown to defeat Blue Valley Northwest’s Daniel Dejong, 2-1, then faced an early 7-0 hole against Blue Valley’s Hunter Madl.

“I knew I had to get a lot of points real quick and just kept on going,” Siebert said. “I knew I was in good enough shape to do it and I just I had to go to work.”

The senior did just that, scoring the next 10 points to take the lead before earning a disqualification victory.

Jesse Hardy also wrestled well after a tough loss in Friday’s second round, going 3-1 to earn fourth place.

“I knew I had to win all these matches to place,” Hardy said. “My sophomore year I lost in the quarterfinals, so I kind of knew what I had to go through.”

The senior’s only loss came to Junction City’s Chris Bertucci – the same wrestler who knocked him out of the championship bracket the day before.

Marc Somers posted a 3-1 record at 130 to place fifth.

Lawrence High finished the day with five grapplers earning medals. Brandon Goodwin won three of his four matches to take fifth, while Zach Hertzel (135) and C.J. Williams (215) added sixth-place showings.

Now that his wrestling days are done, Kellerman said he planned to take in activities that were less stressful on his body – such as becoming a manager for the LHS baseball team.

Still, the championship match that was supposed to be the “icing on the cake” turned out to be a perfect ending to a perfect season.

“That’s some good icing,” Kellerman said with a smile. “That’s some wedding-cake icing.”