Kevin Kuhn’s St. Louis wrestling team has had quite a season.
The squad advanced to the team regionals with an 18-4 record.
St. Louis won its district and then took a regional victory over Byron 53-28. In the final, it fell 45-33 to Carson City-Crystal. St. Louis also won the TVC West title. In his seven years, Kuhn’s teams have won two conference and two district titles.
“It was a team that snuck up on me,” Kuhn said. “I didn’t think they’d be as good as they have been. We lost couple of kids to off-season, one to bowling and one to a transfer. I didn’t know how that would affect us. Once we had kids come in and drop weight and fill up the lineup better, we turned into a pretty good dual team. There are no superstars. They’re pretty solid.”
St. Louis has age in its upper weights. The 189-pounder Logan Wilson “has had a tremendous year,” Kuhn noted.
“He won the district title, the first tournament he’s won in his career,” Kuhn said. “He’s having a great year. He really committed himself to the sport in the off-season.”
Senior Trevor Gruetz at 215 “consistently wins matches for us,” said Kuhn. He also said that Jacob Lonergan at heavyweight won the district and is a very committed wrestler. “Those big guys up there have carried us. It’s nice to have a few hammers on top. We’re solid in the middle. We’re young down low, but I’ve had some freshmen that have stepped up and won some matches.”
St. Louis qualified nine wrestlers from the district. The Sharks had two talented juniors with Jackson Miller at 130 and Jed Abbott at 135.
“Both of those two kids were regional qualifiers last year as sophomores,” Kuhn said.
Kuhn, an eighth grade teacher at St. Louis who replaced Bob Threloff as wrestling coach, is hopeful about the future. “We’re going to lose quite a bit,” he said. “We’re graduating five starters this year and will only have two juniors next year. We will have our work cut out for us in the off-season to have another season like we did this year. I do have quite a bit in the middle school right now. I’ll start getting kids that have been in our youth program. The program is doing well, considering where it was when I started. It’s coming.”