Every season, the St. Pius X wrestling team hosts the Warriors dual that features a handful of out-of-state teams in the Midwest.
This year, Marceline, Jesup (Iowa), Blue Valley Southwest (Kansas) and Effingham Atchison County (Kansas) joined the dual tournament to compete against the two-time defending state champion Warriors.
St. Pius showed it is still an elite team last Saturday. It took first place as it won 53-27 over Effingham Atchison County, defeated Marceline 55-18, edged Jesup 39-30 and coasted past Blue Valley Southwest 60-24.
Marceline finished 0-4 and took fifth place.
“I thought we competed well,” St. Pius X head coach Kirk Gross said. “We held out a couple of kids out and we had a couple of (junior varsity) kids step in and do a good job for us. Those guys were able to stay off their backs, so we were really pleased.
“This is a really good tournament to have over the holidays because it helps with team bonding. We wrestled really well. We were really pleased.”
Junior Landon McDowell (157 pounds) has adapted well to competing for the Warriors. He pinned three of his opponents in the first round and also earned a 18-0 tech fall win over Atchison County’s Rance Vessar to finish the day 4-0 and was a big part of his team taking first.
“I thought I wrestled pretty good,” McDowell said. “I just have to work on getting to my offense a little bit more. I wrestled pretty clean throughout the day. I was able to get to my shots.”
McDowell said he’s enjoyed his first few months with the Warriors and was happy with his decision to transfer.
“It’s been great. I have had a lot of great training partners since I have come here,” McDowell said. “It was a great decision to come here. I have been training with (graduates) Gable Gross and Noah Gonzalez.”
Sophomore Luke Cline (138) is looking to take the next step in his high school career. He finished third at the state tournament last year and is a contender for a state championship this season even after the Warriors bumped up from Class 3 to 4.
On Saturday, he dominated. He pinned all four of his opponents to end his day unbeaten.
“It was great to work my offense and score some points against some different teams today,” Cline said. “I hit the cleanest firemen (carries) of my life. It was a great day. I was able to get to my armbars and butchers on top for my pins.”
Other Warriors to finish the tournament with a 4-0 record were Alex Hall (106), Dalton McDaniel (113), Cruz Enderle (120), and Jordan Bell (126). Kyler Kuhn (285) was also unbeaten as he finished 3-0.
“I thought our young kids did really well,” Gross said. “I thought Cruz Enderle did really well. Dalton McDaniel has had a couple of really good duals lately. We beat Jesup who have a couple of nationally ranked kids. Up and down the lineup, we did well.
“We graduated six all-world seniors last year and we are a young team. We are still trying to find out our identity. We’ve been working on that during the Christmas break. It was nice to see what we did today. It pulled us together.”