Michael Smith
In one of the last freestyle tournaments in the Kansas City metro area until the fall, St. Michael The Archangel Catholic High School hosted its third annual Kumite Championships last Saturday.
The tournament provided yet another opportunity for local wrestlers and a few from out of the state to get some work in before the big tournaments begin such at Southern Plains Regional Tournament and the U.S. Marine Corps Cadet & Junior National Championships.
The event featured two separate tournaments – one for the Greco-Roman style and the other for freestyle. There were divisions for middle, elementary.
Below MissouriWrestling.com breaks down the each weight class from each tournament at the high school level:
Greco
113: St. Michael freshman Parker Lutz, earned a 10-1 tech fall win in the semifinals to set up a championship match and advanced to take on Martin Luther Academy’s Luke Cline, and won 7-4 to earn the first-place prize of a tournament T-shirt.
“I am not a big Greco guy,” Lutz said. “I just went out there and had some fun. The outcome came as it did.”
120-126: St. Michael freshman Austin Stevic showed that he is someone who could burst out in the Missouri wrestling scene in the near feature. He went 3-0 in his bracket, winning two matches by tech fall and one by injury forfeit as he took first.
“I felt like I was wrestling well,” Stevic said. “I was wrestling really loose. I got my mindset right this summer.
132-138: St. Michael junior Lucas Barry had little trouble winning his weight division as he didn’t surrender a single point in his round-robin bracket, taking two wins by tech fall and one by forfeit as he won his division.
“I don’t usually wrestle Greco, but I thought I did pretty well from what I know of it,” Barry said. “I tried to hit lat drops. That always works for me.”
145-152: Mehlville’s Robert McGuire didn’t have any threat of losing any matches in his bracket as he dominated, getting two pins in 1 minutes, 9 seconds and 36 seconds to earn first place.
“It felt good,” McGuire said. “It was my first Greco match and tournament. I was using underhooks and double unders.”
160: Tanner Faulker went 1-1 in his round-robin bracket to take second place. He one win came against Olathe West’s Tyler Bragg. He won that match by pin.
170-182: St. Michael junior Lucas Estes defeated St. Pius X’s Kavan Slater by tech fall two times to win his bracket.
“It was just one other guys I got to wrestle sadly,” Estes said. “After my first match, I knew I had some things I needed to work on. In the second match, I made some adjustments and everything worked out pretty well.”
Girls Freestyle
100: Platte County’s Adrianna Ciccarelli didn’t spend much time on the mat. She had two matches against teammate Zoey Wenzel and won both by pin in 13 and 43 seconds, respectively.
113: Lafayette County’s Kyana Huseynov wrestled against her sister Kyamila and won by a 16-6 tech fall and she won her other match by a 10-0 tech fall as she won a T-shirt for taking first place.
“I feel like I could have done a lot better,” Huseynov said. “I have kind of been in my own head recently, honestly.”
127-138: Excelsior Springs’ Alyssa Betts won her semifinals match 9-6 against Parkville’s Lucia Henriquez to make it to the finals against Olathe’s Kaylan Hitchcock. Betts fell by fall as she earned second place.
152-180: Breanne Gibbs of Moberly, who won state in freestyle tournament in April, continued her strong 2023 campaign as she went 3-0 in their round-robin bracket as she pinned all three of her opponents all within 1 minute and 6 seconds as she took her bracket.
233: Nevada’s Drew Leer pinned Gallatin’s Moriah Parker twice to take first in her division. She dominated despite just picking wrestling back up after coming back from competing for her school’s track and field squad.
“I felt like I did pretty good for one of my few matches coming back,” Leer said. “I started off pretty shaky but I felt like I did well in my last match.”
Boys Freestyle
106-113: Luke Cline is just a seventh grader and he was competing against high school’s or Saturday. He not only held his own against older competitors, he won as he took first after getting a pin in the quarterfinals, winning by tech fall in the semifinals and winning 12-7 against Gallatin’s Eli Sperry in the finals.
“I wrestled good. I was taking all my shots and I was elevating my opponent and getting them to the floor,” Cline said. “From there, I was able to get to my turns.”
120-126: Platte County’s Caden Hulett is looking ahead to Fargo Nationals in July but he had business to take care of Saturday. He won by a 14-4 tech fall in the quarterfinals before beating Stevic 11-0 in the finals to take first.
“I felt like I wrestled OK today,” Hulett said. “I feel like sometimes it’s hard to stay inspired after state and with Fargo being so far away. I just have to keep pushing and getting better.
132-138: Barry completed the tournament sweep by going 3-0 in his freestyle bracket. He won all three of his matches by a 10-0 tech fall margin, including his championship match with Kirksville’s Kale Davis.
145-152: Maguire finished off his perfect day by winning his freestyle bracket, as well. He won 8-6 against Moberly’s Landon Morris and took his other bouy by a 12-0 tech fall to finish in first.
160: Lafayette County’s Isaiah Myers took second place after he went 2-1. Both of his wins came by a 1-0-tech fall margin but he fell to Jacob McGarill of Shenandoah, Iowa in the finals by pin.
170: Slater got redemption after taking second in the Greco bracket. He went 3-0 in the freestyle division and was triumphant by tech fall in two of his bouts and he was victorious in one because of an injury forfeit as he earned a first-place T-shirt.
“In freestyle, I feel like I did pretty good,” Slater said. “I feel like I could have tried hard and went to more practices.
182: Estes completed a tournament sweep as well. He won a tiebreaker 8-8 in the semifinals with Gallatin’s Rodell Perry and he took down Gage Fallaw of Moberly in the championship match to take first.
220-285: Platte County’s Jake Fernandez earned a 10-0 tech fall win over Moberly’s Rhett Wilborn and he defeated Lafayette County’s Caden Munson 8-3 to take his round-robin bracket.
“I thought I wrestled OK,” Fernandez said. “I maybe didn’t wrestle my best for parts of those matches.”10
