Hey, who from Kansas has won a folkstyle national championship in high school wrestling?

Depends on what you call a folkstyle national championship. Several guys have won national championships. Rodrick, Douglas and Merhinger. Pete Merhinger of Kinsley was in fact the first Olympic Champion in U.S.A. history in the mid twenties. He is in the wrestling hall of fame. Several high schoolers have won the national championship of folkstyle held at the end of each season. Ware won one as did Coleman of Manhatten who was awfully good. Lighter of Garden City Juco and Falkender of Colby Juco were national champions in junior college and there were several more of those who's names escape me right now (age). Been a lot of them though.

I believe Stan Faulkender placed 3rd at juco nationals for Colby CC. The same information from the Colby CC athletic director shows Rory Cahoj (I believe he was from St. Francis) in 1980 as being the first NJCAA national champ for Colby CC.

I believe Todd Drake was 128-1-1 in high school. I'm not sure when the tie occured, but his only loss was to Billy Ross (Derby coach) from Ark City at the Newton Tour. 4x state champ and I believe it was his Sr. season at UCO when he was a national champion.

Les;
Yep you were right about Falkender and Cahoi (I never spell that right) I should have remembered him he beat one of my wrestlers half to death his senior year. What a great leg wrestler he was. Best Turker I have ever seen in this state. He may have placed pretty high at U of Nebraska Omaha too, I don't remember that. He had a teammate at Sainty named Kelly Ginger that was really smooth too. A person could start in on all the great ones at St. Francis and not ever get done with them. I got hammered by some of them. Walters comes to mind. All those Cooks and Kellers and Bandels. There is a long and illustrious list of those critters. That was a pretty powerful time in Kansas Wrestling. It grieves me sometimes that they are forgotten about. Bob Brown of Oberlin and I coached together for many years. He and his Brother Bill were tough too. Bob just got inducted into the coaches hall of fame.

Les;
A funny story about Rory. I was sitting by Stan at the state meet in Beloit one year and I said that Cahoji (that spelling again) reminded me of someone. Stan laughed and said "he ought to, I wrestled him in his backyard all his life". It dawned on me then who it was that he reminded me of.

My nominations would go to Eric Akin, Dave Canfield from Concordia, Lance Wilson from Blue Valley & Eddie Seaton from Bonner Springs.

I wondered if anybody would mention Todd Layton. Didn't want to bring him up myself for fear of being branded biased..

Probably not the best ever, but needs to be on the list somwhere. 4 timers are rare, and D-1 all-american nothing to sneeze at.

Tod Layton definitely is on my top five list. Two great wrestlers I can think of are Lyle Geyer,Leoti, who won a few state championships and pinned his way through High School Nationals and I believe earned D2 all american honors.. Bobby Lashley,Juncion City, who was a state champ,high school All American, Three time NAIA National Champion, and is currently ranked in the top five in the United States at 211 pounds and also recently advanced further in the Kiev Grand Prix than Cael Sanderson.. Look out for this great Kansas Wrestler!!!!!

what do you think about Brent Refetig from wellsville he is 3x state champ and the year he wasnt he was runner up and lost 1-0

I'll have to agree with Mike Juby in his response. I htink his is the most acurate out of everyone considering the topic was the best wrestler in the states history. The topic wasn't who was a hard worker - concerning matt dukes, or anything else like that. Persoanlly I think that it would be inaccurate to nominate anyone who wasn't a four time state champion becuase obviously you lost during your career at some point. Overall I'd give it to either Bo Maynes or Zach Roberson basically becuase they were never beaten. I will gove props to a few more just becuase of thier accomplishment. Scott Coleman from Manhattan was awsome, so was Jeff Boyle from Norton. Ware from Ark City, Maybe even Phizenmaier from Clay Center.

My vote goes to Myron Roderick of Winfield. He not only was a national champ, Coached a bunch of national champs at Okie state, created the Oklahoma State wrestling camps that john smith runs today,but was the first president of the u.s wrestling federation, which became usa wrestling. he helped found the cadet system that we know today, that produced Melvin Douglas and all his kind that came through the usawrestling system. Most of the people mentioned here were at least in part the product of usa wrestling. USA wrestling is at least in a large part the product of Myron Roderick and us federatiion.

It is funny how Temore (sp) Terry's name shows on all the threads about greatest wrestlers. Did you forget that he bumped up a weight class his senior year to avoid Brent Doonan of Kapaun????? Temore was good but not like you make him out to be.

Temore was every bit as good as they and I say he was. He swept Cadets, and was simply a badass. He bumped up to avoid Brent Doonan? Are you kidding?

I'm not old enough to know the best wrestler in the history of Kansas, but I think one of the best wrestlers out there right now, and that might make the new history would be Tanner Gardner. You gotta lov'em

What about Brett Munson from Ark City? He may not be the best but he's pretty good.

I believe Temor Terry had a broken leg and missed most of his senior year, but came back just in time to win state. I really doubt that he was dodging anybody!!!

BigPin and Matt,

Did you ask him?? I can personlly say I did. I talked to him the weekend after the state tourney in a hotel room at the Holiday Inn in Topeka Kansas after watching McPherson win state in basketball. Ohh by the way, there was alot more than I that was there and they were as shocked as you. I am not here to fabricate stories.

what about shawn silvis from augusta....hes good....and jeremy long from santa fe trail

Zach Roberson went 154-0. That says it all right there.