photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Lawrence's Anabella Ackerman gets atop Emporia's Chloe Steele during a dual against Emporia at Lawrence High School on Tuesday, February 4, 2025.

The Lawrence High School wrestling team wrapped up its regular season for both its boys and girls teams with home duals on Tuesday. The girls had two duals against Emporia High School and Louisburg High School, while the boys only wrestled against Louisburg.

The girls included a moment to honor their seniors Avery Sutton and Reann Rodriguez. Both have played large parts in the Lions program becoming a full team instead of a six-person squad in coach Carl Springer’s first year.

Emporia won the dual 60-24. Two Lawrence wrestlers, Goldy Stephens (215) and Rodriguez (125) won with pins around the one-minute mark of their matches. The two other wins for the Lions came in unopposed weight classes.

The team’s second dual against Louisburg ended in a 42-24 win for the Lions. In that dual, three Lions won with pins. Louisburg had three wins as well, but the Lions secured the point win with more unopposed bouts.

Anabella Ackerman, Sutton and Juliana Hout won their bouts with pins. On senior night, the two LHS seniors got pins.

Between the two girls duals was the boys dual against Louisburg, in which the Lions lost 48-24.

The Wildcats won the 106-pound bout and the 113-pound bout with pins. They got another six points with an unopposed win in the 120-pound bout.

Lawrence junior Lou Elsten got the Lions’ first win with a pin in the final 10 seconds of the first period. The Wildcats won the next bout before Lawrence won the three after. Logan Sheldon won the 138-pound bout in a 4-3 decision, and Jose Sanabria-Haskie won the 144-pound bout in an overtime match. He won the tiebreaker 15-14 to score three points for the Lions. Dominic Phommaseng won the 150-pound bout with a pin at the one-minute mark.

The Lions got their final two wins in the 175-pound bout and the 190-pound bout. Reece Meyer won in a sudden victory 4-1, and Jadin Harrell won in an overtime match with a 3-2 tiebreaker.

Louisburg won the final two matches, the heavyweight being unopposed.

Lawrence coach Patrick Noughton said that the team is developing well at this point in the season. The Lions have a young roster that has spent a lot of their season developing. The Sunflower League meet is important for the Lions, as the teams are mostly the same as the ones that the Lions will see in the regional tournament.

Springer is similarly happy with how the Lawrence girls team is progressing. A few first-time wrestlers have had impressive seasons, one being Yamirra Woods. Springer said that she almost almost had a win in her first match but was put in a position that she hadn’t been in before. The match was a learning experience. Going forward, she’ll have an idea of what to do when put in that position again.

Springer said he’s starting to see newer wrestlers finish and succeed with moves that they lost with earlier. It’s a testament to their commitment to getting better and practicing the fundamentals, and it’ll make a big difference during the postseason tournaments.

The girls wrestling Sunflower League tournament will take place Friday at Shawnee Mission West High School. The boys’ tournament will start the following day, also at Shawnee Mission West.