Sones Is Season Pins Champion, Meridian Record Holder

The credit to the athlete’s success that they’re able to create comes from many things. The bottom line of competition inevitability falls to the shoulders of the athlete executing in the moments that spell victory or defeat. For Meridian sophomore Kyan Sones, it was season of making up on lost time. From missing the entirety of his freshman season due to a shoulder injury, his second year was an impressive and impressionable run for the coming years. Not only being crowned the Season Pins Champion, Sones set the record for pins in a season at Meridian while leading all classes in the State of Nebraska with 46 pins on the year.This achievement would also set a new Fairbury Journal-News Season Pins Champion record as well with the previous holder being Cole Spahr of Tri County with 37 pins.When asked about the season as a whole Kyan was adamant he had learned from the year of sitting out and wanted to make up for the loss of his first year to compete saying, “I was honestly disappointed in not being able to wrestle my freshman year. I just wanted to make up for that and had a really good sophomore year. I spent my freshman year going to tournaments, and I knew what to expect with this year. My coaches helped me see the good and bad for my teammates and why things worked in some matches. I knew I was going to come in ready.” When it came to the state tournament run, a solid outing in his first appearance as a state wrestling qualifier as Sones was able to grab third place in the 285-pound division. The experience, for most can be an overwhelming moment, but for Kyan it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle.Ever reserved and a resilient mind, to Sones it was no different than any other tournament as he spoke about state wrestling saying, “A lot of people say it’s a scary experience, but you just got to go in there act like it’s nothing and you’re wrestling as you would anywhere else.That’s what I did and I was pinned my way through the tournament to end up getting third. It’s credit to my coaches having me prepared as I was, and thank the weight room because helped me get stronger to put guys on their back and pin them. The next goal is to compete in the finals next year and I plan on being back on the podium.” An impressive sophomore year, Sones tendencies in a match was and is unlike most heavyweights as Head coach for boys Meridian Wrestling Coach Chris Placek was able to speak on saying, “We knew coming in he was ready and going to be good. Kyan’s wrestled in places like Tulsa and just all over for different tournaments. So we knew what were expecting to work on.Conditioning to get him into another level of in shape, being that he didn’t wrestle his freshman year. We knew there were going to be errors, learning to correct bad habbits or mistakes that may have worked in little league, but weren’t going to transfer to high school as it’s the big boys now.“Plus he was going to be wrestling plenty of seniors as a sophomore so that was going to be a learning curve. Good thing is that he’s strong enough and kept with them to do a great job for us. He does not wrestle like a typical heavyweight. Heavyweights, they lean and dance around for a bit, but he just goes in to take care of business right away.The way he does that, it takes them off guard and as soon as he shoots in on them they’re on their back and it’s over. They’ve got no time to react and as soon he gets the clamps down on them he’s plenty to strong that they won’t be getting away. The next step is breaking habits that hurt him this year and got him exposed. Work on the conditioning, and honestly the sky is the limit.”

Roslyn Wilson

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