Karst leads Panthers with 3-2 record

Going to the 26th Annual NHSCA High School National Wrestling Championships and having success there are two different things — unless, perhaps, you’re a Powell High School wrestler.

Four current PHS wrestlers and one incoming freshman competed at the national tournament on March 27-29, with all five grapplers earning at least one win at the Virginia Beach Convention Center in Virginia Beach, Va.

The national competition was broken down into weight classes across five divisions — middle school and freshmen through seniors — and most of the brackets featured nearly 100 competitors or more from across the U.S.

“It was the biggest and toughest tournament I’ve ever been to,” said PHS head wrestling coach Nate Urbach, who coached the PHS wrestlers during the tournament. “I learned a ton watching my guys wrestle ... I learned a ton watching other kids wrestle. All of our guys came back with some new ideas of things to improve on.”

Three current or former PHS Class 3A state champions made the trip with Urbach, including juniors Nic Urbach (coach Urbach’s son), Chance Karst and Kye Catlin. Karst, who won state titles in 2014 and last season, paced the Panthers’ representitives with a 3-2 record in the 132-pound bracket. He cruised to victories in his first three bouts before losing in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Israel Saavedra (of California) and again in the consolation bracket.

Catlin (145 pounds), who has captured state titles in his first three prep seasons, and Urbach (138), who won a title as a sophomore but fell short in the title match in February, found national competition to be a bit tougher.

“It was just nuts,” Catlin said of the competition. “To see hundreds of guys with legitimate Division I college aspirations, that was pretty awesome. Just to compete there was great.

“And I definitely learned a lot of things about myself as a wrestler, and I found some things I need to work on heading into next season.”

“I expected it to be tough ... but I’ve never seen that level in high school,” coach Urbach added. “It looked like college kids out there.”

Catlin finished 1-2, as did Nic Urbach. Sophomore Ty Dearcorn won his first two matches before finishing 2-2 at 170 pounds, while current Powell Middle School eighth grader Reese Karst (Chance Karst’s younger brother) experienced the same results in the 127-pound bracket of the middle school division.

Coach Urbach, who coached PHS to a fourth-straight state championship last season, was at the national tournament for the first time and said the success his wrestlers had among hundreds of national competitors was a good sign for the building process for next season.

“It’s all a process ... I figure next year is here. The new season starts March 1 (the day after the 3A state tournament),” Urbach said. “I just wanted to see if the kids could compete, and they all did. Of the kids in there, I think we gave up one technical fall, which means we pretty much wrestled with everybody ... we wrestled full matches with everybody.”