Michael Smith
Two-time state champion Liberty is always a team to look out for in the Missouri high school wrestling world, but there is another team in the city that could make some noise.
The Liberty North Eagles returned all five of their state qualifiers from last season and showed they could make a run at a strong season during the Grain Valley Invitational Saturday.
North dominated with 283 points, 74.5 points ahead of second-place Fort Osage. Van Horn was third with 188.5 points and Grain Valley was fourth with 184.5.
“I thought up and down the lineup, we did pretty well,” North coach Lance Moore said. “We had a guy fill in for us and did a great job. We haven’t made it yet. We want to peak in February and that’s our goal.”
Three of North’s five returning state qualifiers won their brackets Saturday, including Michael Domino (113), Dylan Alft (145) and Trevor Thorn (182).
Domino, ranked No. 2 in the Class 4 MissouriWrestling.com poll in his weight class, is coming off a fourth-place finish from state last season and he’s aiming for a championship this time around. He’s gotten off to a good start while working his way toward that goal as he finished his round-robin style brackett 5-0, all by pin.
Last season he wrestled at 106 but will bump up to 113 for this season.
“I was trying to make the cut to 106, but it’s not going to happen, I am too big,” Domino said. “I just have to face the facts, and wrestle at 113 and dominate where I can. The goal is to win it (at state).”
Alft won his first state medal last year and will look to take another step forward for his senior season. The No. 6-ranked wrestler at 145 pounds went 5-0 in his bracket and won the championship match by pin against Lucas Estes of St. Michael The Archangel Catholic.
“That was a butcher series cradle,” Alft said of his pin of Estes. “I got the barbwire and collected his wrist and hooked my arm for the pin.
“I just plan on leaving it all out on the mat. There’s a bunch of good guys out there, you don’t know how it’s going to end.”
Thorn got his first taste of the state tournament last year, and he not only wants to make it back, he wants to place this time around. He went 5-0 in his bracket and beat Springfield Glendale’s Colman Ebisch 4-3 after a 3-point near fall in the third period put him ahead for good.
“Sometimes it gives me an advantage and sometimes it’s a curse,” said the 6-foot-3, No. 6-ranked Thorn about his height. “Sometimes it gives a big target to hit. I took the stall calls at the end (against Ebisch) to do what I needed to do to win.”
Nathan Sola (170) was the other North wrestler to win and he will try to make his first state tournament this season. He ended his day with a 4-1 win against Lee’s Summit West’s Ruben Miller.
“This is the first year I’ve won this tournament,” Sola said. “It feels good to get the win this year. I just worked well on neutral and I knew (Miller) wasn’t as good, so I just took advantage of that.”
Aside from the individual winners, the Eagles had several other wrestlers make big contributions toward the team win.
Other Liberty wrestlers to place in the top four are returning state qualifier James Lovelady (120, second), Drew Perry (126, third), Kaden Sullivan (132, fourth), Lucas Titus (138, second), Preston Beran (152, fourth), Mason Bowen (195, second), Jacob Stockard (220, third) and Elmotie Williams (285, second).
Below is a summary of the rest of the weight classes:
106: Van Horn Tristan Page could be a wrestler to watch for the 2021-22 season as he made it look easy in his bracket following a pin of Odessa’s Landon Scarborough in 1 minute in the title bout.
“I felt like I could have done better, my third match wasn’t my best,” Page said. “I feel like I can keep getting better.”
120: Fort Osage freshman Colby Gray is another wrestler to look out for this season. He defeated defending state champion Lucas Berry of St. Michael 8-1 and returning state qualifier Lovelady 9-6, while going 5-0 to win his round-robin bracket.
“I’ve just been working hard in the room and came out here and it paid off,” Gray said.
126: Grain Valley junior Dru Azcona is a two-time state qualifier who participated in many offseason tournaments in 2021. His extra work paid off as he got four pins and capped off his first-place finish with a 7-0 victory against Fort Osage’s Rylan Mansfield.
“I try to encourage my guys to get out there during the summer and get into freestyle and Greco,” Azcona said. “That’s what gets you to that top point above everyone else.”
132: St. Michael’s Drew Stanfield is gunning for a state title this season after getting third last season. He looked sharp on Saturday as he cruised through his bracket and capped it off with an injury-forfeit win over Fort Osage’s Dylan Reed after building a 15-1 lead.
“I stayed offensive the whole time and that’s something I have been working on a lot,” Stanfield said.
138: It’s something that Van Horn sophomore Darius Page is all too familiar with. He won his weight class at the same tournament that his brother, Tristan won at 106 and Darius took this bracket as he got a second-period pin against Titus in the finals.
“We have been doing this since we were younger,” Darius Page said. “We feel good about it. We will do it in the next one.”
152: The finals of this weight class featured a clash of two of the top wrestlers in the Kansas City area when Grain Valley’s Tanner Barker, who was ranked in the top six for most of last season, took on former state champion Shon Badder of Odessa.
Barker went down 2-0, but rebounded by scoring four points in the third period to claim a 6-4 victory and first place.
“I wrestled him before and he had the same game plan and didn’t really switch it up,” Baker said of Badder. “I just kept snap faking and he was getting tired of it. I just pressured and he broke.”
160: Odessa graduate Bryce Palmer won a state championship last year as a senior. His little brother Zane wants to do the same thing.
He got off to a good start in his pursuit of that goal by winning his bracket Saturday, capped with a 3-1 win against Josiah Oliver of Sedalia Smith-Cotton.
“I thought I wrestled pretty well. There is always room to improve, but I am happy to take first for sure,” Zane Palmer said.
195: Sedalia Smith-Cotton senior Everett Wood had a loss earlier in the day, but rebounded to win his last two including a 3-1 victory against Liberty North’s Mason Bowen that gave him first place.
“I am a very good athlete and I am willing to do what it takes to win,” Wood said. “I work pretty hard and I wrestle our heavyweights. It was mostly will power.”
220: Van Horn senior David Lewis looked like one of the strongest if not the strongest guy in his weight class as he used his raw power to get a couple of takedowns in his championship match with Fort Osage’s Gavin Gallman. He took a 15-6 major decision to earn first place.
“I have wrestled for four years now and I wrestled him before, he’s a good opponent,” Lewis said of Gallman. “Each time I saw an opening, I tried to capitalize on it the best I could.”
285: Fort Osage senior Stevie Gabb was ranked in the top three all year last year leading up to the postseason. He ended up not making it to state but is looking for redemption this year.
He won his first tournament bracket of the season after pinning Williams in 39 seconds.
“Whenever I started, he hit me hard on the neck and pissed me off,” Gabb said. “We got into an upper body battle and I came out on top, put him in a headlock and pinned him.”
