Can Pleasant Hill win a third consecutive Class 2 state championship?

If Saturday’s Lydia’s Lights Invitational at Blue Springs South High School is any indication, the answer is a clear yes. 

The Roosters were the clear favorites to win the tournament and they did just that as it scored 380.5 points to take first place. Lee’s Summit North was second with 355 and Columbia Hickman was third with 346.

Wrestler Interviews:

• Columbia Hickman’s Andrew Weisner (106)
• Columbia Hickman’s Hank Benter (113)
• Lee’s Summit North’s Charlie Dykes (120)
• Columbia Hickman’s Hayden Benter (126)
• Platte County’s Shane Leary (132)
• Pleasant Hill’s Troy Gustin (138)
• Pleasant Hill’s Sam Ewing (144)
• Francis Howell North’s Trystan Blenis (157)
• Lee’s Summit’s Jackson Jones (165)
• Columbia Battle’s Austen Wetzel (190)
• Columbia Hickman’s Cole Harrell (175)
• Blue Springs South’s Callen Smithpeter (285)

“I don’t think our team is quite as strong as the last two years, but we are all determined and have our heads down, working,” Pleasant Hill junior Troy Gustin said.

Gustin (138) was one of those winners for Pleasant Hill. The No. 4-ranked junior went 7-0 in the tournament and ended his journey with a pin in 3:41 against Cabot Arkansas’ Christopher Dye in the championship round.

“I started off a little slow,” Gustin said. “I was just trying to get a feel for my opponents instead of just going after them. I took longer to beat some kids that I should have beat quicker and I gassed myself out last night a little bit.”

Three-time state champion Sam Ewing didn’t appear to be gassed in his finals match as he took on Lee’s Summit junior Michael Foley in the finals, whom he pinned in 54 seconds. In all seven of his matches, the No. 1-ranked Ewing pinned all his opponents in the first period.

“I feel like it great,” Ewing said of his tournament. “I wrestled good and my cardio was good. Coming off the Kansas City Stampede and the Winnetonka Tournament, the competition is not quite as hard here but it’s a good little tournament right before district.” 

Other Roosters to win their divisions were Garrett Lyons (150), who pinned Lee’s Summit’s Noah Miller in the second round of the semifinals and won by fall against Cabot, Arkansas’ Noah Sample in the finals. Jacob Hanes (215), ranked No. 1, pulled off an upset victory against defending state champion Jake Fernandez of Platte County in a 3-2 decision.