‘Ice water in his veins’: Andale completes improbable comeback to win team state title

“I knew going into that match that all I had to do was go out there and wrestle like I have all season and I would be able to win,” Serratos said. “Everything else, I tried not to think about.”

If Andale could pick any wrestler to be out there with all of that on the line, it would be Serratos. And he showed why when he came through with a third-period takedown to win a 3-1 decision over Weber in the second-to-last match of the night.

Andale’s cheering section erupted as Serratos secured his place in Andale history, becoming a three-time state champion and delivering the Indians their fourth team state title by the narrowest of margins — 115½ points to 113 points — over Chanute, the defending team champions.

“Hector has ice water running in his veins,” Andale coach Doug Eck said. “No offense to Devon, who is a great wrestler, but I don’t know if Hector was going to be denied there.”

It was such an emotional outburst from Andale because its outlook was so bleak for much of the previous hour. The Indians had done well to get points from Colton Miller (third at 106), Ian Aouad (third at 152), A.J. Furnish (fourth at 132) and Riley Marx (fifth at 195), they still trailed Chanute by 1½ points entering the championship matches with five Chanute wrestlers in the finals compared to just three from Andale.

Before any of Andale’s three wrestlers took the mat, the team’s fate almost seemed sealed when Chanute won two of its first three titles matches to extend its lead to 9½ points. Andale would have to win all three of its matches and hope both of Chanute’s No. 1 all-class wrestlers lost.

“We thought Chanute had it in the bag,” Serratos said. “We thought we were going to go home as the runner-up or something.”

As the first Andale wrestler to face the must-win situation, senior Cayden Winter said he felt the nerves before his 220 title match against Louisburg’s Alec Younggren — his biggest challenger to an undefeated senior season and his first state title.

“My stomach was starting to tighten up real bad on me,” Winter said. “I was getting kind of nervous, but my teammates just talked to me and they were giving me encouragement to just go do what I do.”

That’s exactly what Winter did, as he completed his 22-0 season with a 9-5 decision in the finals. That’s when the improbable started to happen.

“Cayden is just fun to watch,” Eck said. “You think you’re watching a lightweight match when he wrestles. He’s so quick on his feet. He only weighs 205, so he’s an under-sized 220, but he just put it on people this year. He wasn’t going to be denied, either.”

Abilene’s Tucker Cell handed No. 1 all-class Kolton Misener of Chanute his first loss of the season at 113 by pinning him in the first period. That restored Andale’s ability to control its fate, as the next match, at 120, featured Chanute’s No. 1 all-class, undefeated senior Trent Clements against Andale freshman Owen Eck. The coach’s son wrestled his best match of the season to hand Clements his first loss in a thorough 4-0 decision.

“Having your son win a state title is pretty special, but the celebration was pretty short,” Doug Eck said. “We had one more match that could lock things up. And boy, did the crowd get its money’s worth.”

It’s not often that a team state title comes down to one of the final matches of the tournament. It’s practically unheard of for that match to feature a pair of two-time state champions to decide it.

“When you get two great wrestlers like that, you just don’t know what’s going to happen,” Winter said. “There were a lot of nerves, but Hector, man, he just executes. He seems like he’s two or three moves ahead of everybody else.”

When Serratos pulled off the victory it capped an intense and improbable comeback for a team that was desperate to win a team title for a coach who had coached many of them since they were little boys. They wanted to give Eck, in his first season as head coach of the Andale program, a memory he will remember forever.

“Chanute, jiminy Christmas, hats off to them. They’ve got a great team and they’re class acts over there,” Eck said. “I feel bad for them because I know their kids work hard and they deserved it too. Two and a half points ain’t a lot, but I’m proud of the boys because we work hard too and those kids deserved it. It’s such a good feeling, especially when you go through some adversity like we did.”