PREVIEW: Beatrice wrestling leaning on confidence, experience at state tournament

BEATRICE, Neb. - Another year, another successful Beatrice wrestling season.

But for the 10 wrestlers heading to Omaha for the state tournament, the year is far from over. Seven boys and their girls will represent Beatrice when the state tournament kicks off on Thursday. Sophomore Merrick Johnson returns to state for the second time.. A major key? Confidence.

“I think having confidence going in is really a good thing,” Johnson said. “If you get out of that and on the back side, stuff starts going down hill. You just got to remind yourself there’s not much left and to fight through it.”

Meanwhile, senior Gavin Vanover is a state tournament veteran, making it each of his four years at Beatrice. Something he’ll lean on for experience.

“It helps a lot,” Vanover said. “First time I walked out there as a freshman, it was very intimidating. Just to be able to keep your head clear, wrestler how you want to wrestle, it’s really important.”

In addition to the seven boys Beatrices sends, they also send three girls, including junior Morgan Maschmann. She’s seen the sport of girls wrestling grow since she entered three years ago.

“It’s grown tremendously,” Maschmann said. “That firs year I went, there were only three qualifiers from each district, now we’re up to four. We now have subdistricts too, now there’s talk about two state tournaments next year, what are they going to do with tickets, so you can see the numbers growth, but also, it’s just grown in popularity.”

The state tournament begins Thursday at the CHI Health Center in Omaha. Local updates on southeast Nebraska wrestlers can be heard on Ol Red 99.5 and KWBE.