By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
ENID – After a three year absence, Yukon was looking to make some “noise” in the class 6A Dual State Championships.
It didn’t quite go the way the Millers expected to.
No 4 ranked Broken Arrow won 11 of the 14 matches and used bonus points to hand the No. 6 ranked Millers a 59-12 dual loss Saturday at the Stride Bank Center in Enid.
All four of the first round duals were one-sided affairs. Mustang, who beat Choctaw in the opening round, topped Edmond North in the semifinals, then beat Bixby in the finals.
The Millers were close early on in their match after Dillon Ryan was his match at 113-pounds to make it a 6-3 lead for Broken Arrow. The next time the Millers put points on the board was a182-pounds and trailed 48-3.
“We knew how tough Broken Arrow was coming in and that we would have to wrestle our best and we just didn’t,” Miller head coach Joe Scheider said. “It was just some basics, though. That teamed trained hard and I guess they prepared better than we did.
“We did have two great weeks of wrestling, it was awesome,” he said. “Our guys got that much better. Not just two weeks from state, but we had some guys that did not get out of regionals. They got two weeks before state and two weeks after state to get ready for this.
“Sorry to see those five, six guys that are seniors leaving us, but we have a great group coming up. We saw what we have in the high school with the young guys and what we have in the junior high and we are going to make good things for at least the next four years at dual state.”
After Jackson Bodine got pinned with 17 seconds left in the 106-pound match, Ryan put the first points on the board for the Millers with a 4-2 decision over Kaleb Collins at 113.
Ryan trailed 2-0 in the third period and starting in the top position, turned Collins to his back for a two-point nearfall to tie the match. Ryan scored a second two-point nearfall late in the match to earn the win.
“Dillon wrestled his backside off,” Schneider said. “I’m super proud of Dillon, he was down by two and gets two different nearfalls in the last 20 seconds to win the match. He is a scrapper.
Broken Arrow regained the advantage at 120 after Parker Witcraft scored a 12-3 major decision over Jonah Hanscom.
The two had met in the quarters of the state tournament two weeks ago and Witcraft won by a technical fall.
“Jonah got tech falled by that guy in the state tournament two weeks ago and made a five point improvement and almost had that guy a couple of times. That was a guy Cooper Mahaffey had trouble with and I’m glad that Jonah has another year. That guy (Witcraft) does too and we will see him again next year.”
From there, Broken Arrow won the next eight in a row to open a 48-6 lead.
The Millers snapped the streak at 182-pounds with Columbus winning a 14-10 decision over Michael Cook.
Columbus controlled the match with three first period takedowns, 6-2, but saw Cook came back to make it 8-6 late in the second.
Columbus had three more takedowns before Cook used a reverse and got a nearfall in the closing seconds to close to 14-10.
The Millers final points came at heavyweight where Lane Parks received a forfeit.
“I was proud of Columbus for going an getting that guy,” Schneider said. “We almost did a few things wrong there and made some silly mistakes, but we did get the match win and that is a good way for him to end his career.”
