There’s no denying the great success that head coach Jason Kirtley and his Panorama Panther wrestling team sustained during the 2016-17 campaign. After all, they did send a program high 8 wrestlers on to the district tournament with 5 wrestlers punching their tickets to the state tournament, and to top it all off, a program best 3 place winners.

Raccoon Valley Radio caught up with coach Kirtley as he went through the performances of his state wrestlers.

“We would have loved to have all five place obviously but Dalton came in sick and did the best he could and Daniel had number eight on his back and just couldn’t finish it but the three that did place they did what they had to do. They didn’t care about the rankings or the records or anything, they just went in and did what they had to in order to take a medal home,” stated coach Kirtley.

The three place winners for Panorama included George Appelseth taking 6th place in the 132 lb weight class, 152 lb Tyler Van Houten who snagged a 5-3 decision win to take 7th, and all rounded out with Gunnar Grunsted (170 lbs) earning Panorama’s highest place with a 5th place finish in overtime.