Michael Smith
The Raymore-Peculiar boys team may have made a case to crack the top 10 of the MissouriWrestling.com Class 4 team poll.
On Wednesday, they defeated No. 10-ranked Grain Valley 45-28 and dismantled Chrisman 69-3 to sweep the tri dual.
Grain Valley won the other dual against Chrisman 66-18.
The Panthers were dominant as they had seven wrestlers to finished the tri dual with a 2-0 mark. Pierce Hazen (285) maybe had the most dominant showing as he pinned both Chrisman’s Logan Perrin and Grain Valley’s Braden Thomas.
“I used mostly half (nelsons),” Hazen said. “A lot of the times, once you get the heavyweight on their back, they aren’t getting up. You just have to keep fighting until you get two (points).”
Dawson Bales (150) had an equally strong showing as Hazen as he had pins over Grain Valley’s Caine Nelson and Chrisman’s Ethan Huckabey.
“I did good with my legs today and I had some good turns with my power half,” Bales said.
The other Panthers to finish 2-0 were Gavin Birkett (165), Parker Varner (106), Bryce Gatlin (157), Evan Gatlin (138) and Patrick Martin (190).
The Eagles had six wrestlers who ended the day unbeaten.
Sophomore Zac Bleess (120), ranked No. 2, was one those who did. He pinned Chrisman’s Alex Hutson in the first period with a cradle and controlled a match with Ray-Pec’s Kamdon VonHolton from start to finish to win 11-4.
He said he was not pleased with the way he wrestled despite finishing the day unbeaten.
“I didn’t really wrestle my best today,” Bleess said. “My goal this week is to really focus on the basics and make sure I am wrestling to my potential. I frankly didn’t do good enough today.”
Junior Colston Parks (113) is having the best season of his career thus far as he has a 18-3 record and it looking for his first trip to state. He pinned Ray-Pec’s Brayden Behning in 54 seconds and put away Chrisman’s Cameron Russell in the first period by fall…
