Cody Thorn
Liberty North defeated conference rival Lee’s Summit North for the Lee’s Summit North Invitational title, while Class 2 Cameron provided a test for many schools as well during the two-day event held Dec. 17-18.
Those three schools made up the top three in the standings and each had seven wrestlers place in the first- or third-place matches.
Liberty North won the team title with 190 ½ points, while Lee’s Summit North (171), Cameron (169) and Ray-Pec (147 ½) made up the top four.
Cameron had the most champions with four, one more than Liberty North.
The Dragons secured most of their titles early with wins from Dylan Pratt (106), Tanner Riley (126) and Brecken Gates (138) before Paul Viena (195) added the fourth late.
Pratt secured a 4-2 win over Odessa’s Landon Scarbrough in the finals, the only one of his five wins in the tournament that wasn’t a fall. Pratt is now 15-0 on the year.
Riley opened with pins in three of his four pool matches but got a pair of close wins to secure his championship. Riley (15-1) won 5-4 over Gable Gross of Odessa in the semifinals and then got a 2-0 win over Oak Park’s Jamison Tunstill in the finals.
“It was definitely tough, I had to come out and wrestle my heart out and gave it all I could and that is exactly what I did,” said Riley, ranked No. 2 at 126 by MissouriWrestling.com. “This weekend, I just pushed the pace and stayed in it.”
Gates, a returning state medalist – sixth at 138 last year – was trailing 2-1 late in the second against Pittsburg’s Corbin McIntier in the finals. Over the final 40 seconds though, an escape, takedown and near fall to make it 6-2. The final was 6-4 after a reversal by McIntier in the third.
“It feels good; I go into every match and I trust in the Lord and he takes care of me, win or lose, I give my best effort,” said Gates, now 15-2, of the win in the finals. “I have supreme faith in him, he will take care of me. He takes care of me every time. He is my strength, not me, it is him. It feels good. I give all credit to him and thanks to the Lord. He does it all.”
Gates picked up four wins by fall, one major decision and a 6-2 decision over Maize South’s Kaden Garvalena, 6-2, in the semifinals.
Viena (15-1 overall) went 5-1 in the tournament and ended with a pin over Jaquan Augustin of Pittsburg, Kansas, in 3:56. That was his fourth pin of the event and capped a five-match win streak after losing in his first match, 4-1, to Eric Berlin of Maize South (Kan.).
Chase Short (145) and Kenton Gates (152) each placed third for Cameron, while Caleb Hursch (113) took fourth, ending on a medical forfeit. Short and Kenton Gates were both 3-2.
Liberty North
The Eagles had three champions and five in the finals, then five others competed in the third-place matches.
Michael Domino (113), James Lovelady (120) and Dylan Alft (145) all won titles for the Eagles.
Domino (10-0) got a medical forfeit win and then three first-period pins, the fastest was a 44 second win over Ray-Pec’s Kyle Nagy for the returning state medalist.
Lovelady had the most points earned in matches with 83, far ahead of Lee’s Summit North’s Trey Robinson. Lovelady would get a takedown, let the opponents up and then get more takedowns.
That is what Lovelady (12-1) did in the finals against Odessa’s Baden Rucker, winning 9-2. Lovelady had three pins, two major decisions – 11-0 and 12-2 – and a 16-1 tech fall during his 7-0 run.
“It is good to see different teams and get different competition and see different moves, work on things,” said Lovelady, a state qualifier at 113 last year. “I think I was at my best at neutral. I had a lot of takedowns.”
Alft went 5-0 and closed with two major decisions over Oak Park’s Jacob Wooten (8-0) in the semifinals and then 10-2 over Robinson of Lee’s Summit North in the finals. His other wins were two pins and a 19-3 tech fall win.
Rex Miller (170) and Trevor Thorn (182) were runners-up for Liberty North.
Miller went 4-2 and both losses came to Matt Smith of Pittsburg, Kan., who beat him by a fall in pool play and then by a 15-0 tech fall in the finals. Thorn had the fastest tech fall win of the entire tournament with a 17-2 win over Pittsburg’s Stone Perry, 17-2. Thorn (12-1) saw his undefeated streak end with a loss to Oak Park’s Paul Hernandez in the final by a pin in the third period.
Jacob Stockard (220) placed third with a 4-2 mark. He ended with a pin over teammate Carter Price, wrestling for Liberty North No. 2, in 1:19.
Drew Perry (126), Kaden Sullivan (132) and Elmotie Williams (285) each went 3-3 and placed fourth.
Lee’s Summit North
Ryan McNeel won the lone championship for the host Broncos by taking the 132-pound title, going 5-0. He secured four wins by fall, including a semifinal win over Liberty North’s Sullivan (1:23) and over Odessa’s Jase Todd (1:08) in the finals. McNeel is now 8-1 on the year.
Charlie Dykes (113), Robinson (145), Hank Natali (220) and Trevor Taylor (285) all took second.
Dykes (7-1) went 3-1 with the only loss to Liberty North’s Domino. Robinson (9-1) won his first five matches before falling to Alft in the finals. Robinson scored the most points in any match in the tournament with a 20-10 win over Oak Park’s Wooten.
Natali and Taylor each won five in a row before falling to Turner’s Gabriel Cornett in the finals and Oak Grove’s Caleb Groff, respectively.
Seth Hooper (138) posted a 5-2 mark and took third place. Drew Gray (182) was 4-3 and took fourth.
Other brackets
Odessa’s Shon Badder, ranked No. 6 at 152 in Class 2, posted a 6-0 mark on the way to the title. In the finals, he dispatched Maize South’s Carter Nguyen by a pin at 4:53. Badder had pins in all of his matches.
He needed only 27 seconds to pin Oak Park’s Brent Compton in the semifinals.
“It was good competition here but it was more of a practice tournament, to go out there and get back to do whatI know what to do,” said Badder, now 16-1. “I definitely got stuff to work on, butI feel pretty confident. I have been pushing in the practice room and I gotta do what needs to be done.”
Ray-Pec’s Kanen Huff claimed the 160-pound title over Odessa’s Zane Palmer with a pin at 1:08. Huff extended his win streak and is now 11-0 on the year, while the setback was the first for Palmer, now 15-1.
Hernandez, who defeated Liberty North’s Thorn in the 182 finals, improved to 14-0.
A third-place finisher at 170 last year, Hernandez had pins in five of his six matches.
“He was really tough,” Hernandez said of the match against Thorn, which he won by a pin with two seconds left but led 8-2. “I wrestled him last year and I think he really looked into the match. He watched me and he did a good job of defending my style. Toward the end, I got more out there and securing the pin felt good.”
Groff entered the tournament with a 2-0 record and won six, getting quick pins from the start. He stuck Lee’s Summit North’s Ashton Baker in 17 seconds and then St. Joseph Central’s Jonas Perez in 37 seconds. In the semifinals, Groff – a state runner-up last year – pinned teammate Garrett Hudspeth in 44 seconds. Then he pinned Lee’s Summit North’s Taylor in 1:56 in the finals.
