After a hard fought season, sophomores Luke Barger, Jacob Goodin and Lane Warner and freshman Henry Rokusek attended the State wrestling meet at the Park City Hartman Arena on Friday, Feb. 23. Of the four, Warner is the only one who has attended State wrestling in the past.

“I had a little more experience,” Warner said. “I knew what it was like going in, and so it was different in that sense, but it was still a tough competition.”

Rokusek was the only freshman to qualify this year, and he made it to State in a unique way.

“I got lucky. [I] won by a forfeit in Regionals, but I think I deserved to get there,” Rokusek said. “I’ll probably wrestle all four years.”

Head coach Shannon Sawner thinks that bringing underclassmen to State is great practice for them.

“I think it’s a great experience for them, there’s a little bit of a learning curve, sometimes they can be a little overwhelmed their first time there but I think they handled it pretty well,” Sawner said.

Unfortunately, all of the boys from DHS ended up facing strong competitors in their first round at State.

“All four guys, the first round, had to wrestle the eventual State champ [in their weight class] so that was a pretty rough round for us, but you know that’s how it goes,” Sawner said.
“We’re just excited to have them back next year, I think we’ll have a little more experience obviously by the end of next year, and we’ve got four guys that have already made the trip so we’re hoping they’ll go back again next year and maybe bring back some Hardware next time.”

Warner is also looking ahead to next season where he can hopefully make it to State for a third time.
“It was a good season and hopefully next year we’ll have a better season,” Warner said. “[I] hope more freshmen come out so we can get a bigger team and qualify more kids next year.”