The 'Eagle Times' Student Newspaper

Senior Wrestlers End Their High School Careers

by Ricky Boaldin

February 11, 2008

The year of 2007 has come and gone and now it is the year of 2008. 2008 marks the end of four senior wrestlers' careers. These wrestlers are Collin Hase-119, Joey Boaldin-140, Colby Killinger-152, and Jason Mellies. These wreslers have had outstanding wrestling careers here at Silver Lake and some of them plan on continuing their wrestling into their college years. Collin Hase has had a remarkable season so far with 20+ wins and only 2 losses. He plans to take first at state and end his senior year with a bang.

"I think I will take first at state. I have already beaten most of the hardest kids in my bracket, so it should be pretty easy," said Hase.

Joey Boaldin wrestles at 140 for Silver Lake. His record so far is 16-9 and he plans to do even better the rest of his senior season.

"Right now my goal is to take first at regionals and place at least 6th at state. I believe that if I work hard I can do it," said Boaldin.

Joey also thinks that his wrestling now will be a strong basis for the rest of his life outside of high school.

"I believe wrestling has helped me a lot these past years. It has taught me a lot about responsibility and I also feel a sense of unity or "family", which is our word this year, along with the rest of the seniors. We are just leaving our legacy for the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors to continue after we're gone," said Boaldin.

Colby Killinger wrestles at 152 and remembers when he was a freshman in his past wrestling years in high school.

"I remember being so mad in junior varsity when I didn't win a match. Now, I'm varsity and it's upsetting when I lose, but it isn't that bad," said Killinger.

His record so far is better than his previous one from last season. His favorite remembrance was when he was down 14-0 in one of his matches and he turned and pinned the guy.

"...one more point and I would have been T-falled..." said Killinger.

If you are T-falled, it means your opponent has received a 15 point lead on you. This automatically ends the match. Colby's goals are to take first at regionals and place at state. He has qualified for state before, but this year he wants to leave a legacy so people will remember him by taking anywhere from 1st to 4th this year at state.

Jason Mellies wrestles at 189 for SLHS. He has had his ups and downs this year, but has managed to place at almost every tournament so far. His favorite tournament this year was the Basehor Tournament.

"I took fourth at Basehor, but that isn't why it was my favorite tournament. I think it was mainly because of the Chapman Cheerleaders. (laughs) No, I'm just kidding. It was when I beat that state placer. That was pretty cool," said Mellies.

Head Coach Harry Lamar believes that this group is better and worse in some of aspects as compared to the other wrestling groups of the past.

"This group has a sense of leadership unlike other groups before them. When someone loses a match Collin Hase is always in their face and when someone wins a match, the seniors are there to congratulate them," said Lamar.

The only weakness Lamar sees at this point of the season is the intensity level of the team.

"I believe that we're not as good as we should be for state yet. If we keep picking up the intensity in practice then we might have the best group yet," said Lamar.

The team has very few tournaments left before state. They plan to work hard to meet their goals, one being to have every varsity person make it to state and hopefully have every wrestler place.