The Lee’s Summit North wrestling program has been trying to build a girls team the past few years.
In 2023-24, the Broncos had two girls in the program. Last season, that number was bumped up to five.
This season, North now has 12 girls on the team which gives them a shot to win a tournament. The Broncos did just that last Saturday at the fifth annual Queen of the Hive Tournament at Kansas City Center High School.
They got bracket wins from sophomore Bridgette Philpott (105 pounds) and junior Grace Cronk (110) to win the team tournament title with 200.5 points. Ruskin finished in second place with 189.5 points and Fort Osage was third with 159.5.
“This is the first tournament we have ever won,” North veteran head girls wrestling coach Glenn Berry said. “Three of our girls didn’t come today because we were worried about mat count. We are proud of how our young girls performed.”
Philpott was in a small round-robin bracket in the 105-pound weight class and pinned both of her opponents in the first round to take first place.
“I think I did a lot better today than I have been doing,” Philpott said. “I have been setting up my shots and have been following through with them instead of just stopping. I have been driving all the way to the mat. I also think smart and technical during scrambles.”
Cronk had three pins and two decision wins of 7-1 and 11-3 to win her weight class. In her final match against Center’s Jayde Minor, she used a defensive style of wrestling to counter attacks from Minor to turn them into her own takedowns to win 11-3.
“I felt like I did a great job of grabbing their ankle and running them over,’ Cronk said. “My technique was pretty good. I have been trying to work on new things.”
Below is a summary of the winners of the other weight brackets not already mentioned:
100: University Academy senior Jumi Wilson finished her round-robin bracket 3-0, with her last match ending in a 5-4 win over Ruskin freshman JOurney Harris as she took first place.
115: Truman senior Molly Saak improved to 1705 on the season by going 5-0 in her round-robin bracket. She had four pins and a forfeit to earn her spot atop the podium.
120: Raytown junior Ulalia Butler took her round-robin division and won both of her matches by tech fall to finish in first place.
125: University Academy Dominicq Ellis freshman went 3-0 in her round-robin bracket and had pins in all her matches to capture her division.
130: Kansas City East junior Pearl Brown-Rank won both of her matches in her round–robin bracket. She had pins in less than a minute in both of them to take first place.
135: Fort Osage sophomore Lexie Steffens pinned all of her opponents in her round-robin formatted bracket to earn a division win.
140: Fort Osage junior Layla Dunlap won both of her matches in the first period by pin to take first place in her bracket.
145: Ruskin junior Jimena Benavides pinned all three of her opponents as she cruised to a bracket win.
155: Kansas City Center sophomore Airona Ealy sophomore went 3-0 in the pool round and won her two bracket matches by pin to take first place.
170: Raytown senior Leuia Va Iatala won by fall in both of her matches in the round-robin bracket and captured first.
190: Truman senior Majisty Harrison had a tough match against Ruskin’s Shannon Garrison, but came out on top 6-4. She got pins in her other four matches and that was good enough for her to earn first place.
235: Fort Osage’s Kiara Harvey-Matney went 4-0 in the pool round of her division to set up a championship match against Van Horn’s Avery Burnett. She fell behind 5-2 but got a reversal and a pin to take first place.
