High school wrestling season in Kansas City is officially underway and the first tournament of the year took place Saturday.
Many girls wrestlers had their first chance to get involved in tournament competition in a few months as the 2024-25 season kicked off with the Fest in The Nest girls wrestling tournament at Staley High School.
One hundred forty-five wrestlers were spread out among 30 weight divisions composed of round-robin brackets. This tournament was one of the first Missouri State High School Activities Association Tournament sanctioned events that featured the new point system that mirrors NCAA college rules. Take downs were worth three points and near falls were worth as many as four points, which is one point more each than last season.
Team scores weren’t kept in this tournament and each individual winner of each bracket won a medal.
Below is the breakdown of each weight division;
100A: Lee’s Summit North Bridgette Philpott won all three of her matches by pin in 1 minutes and 40 seconds or less as the cruised to win her bracket.
100B: Ruskin’s Darionna Williams pinned all three of her opponents in less than a minute as she dominated her bracket and took first place.
105: Kansas City East’s Carla Vervantes was in a three-person bracket and she won easily in both of her matches, getting pins in 1:02 and 30 seconds as she earned a medal by winning her division.
110: Platte County’s Bella Dean had little trouble winning her bracket as she had a 16-0 tech fall victory and three pins as the cruised to a bracket championship.
115: Belton’s Africa Fabian ran roughshod over her opponents, pinning all of them on her way to a first-place finish.
120A: Belton’s Abigail Hayespinned all three of her opponents as she rolled to a bracket victory.
120B: Belton’s Makenzie Miller said being one of the shorter wrestlers in her bracket gave her an advantage. It certainly appeared that way as she got to her shots which set her up to get pins in all three of her matches as she took first place.
“I think I got better each match,” Miller said. “I think when I was going in for my shots, I am good at it because I am shorter. I can go down low and get the legs.”
120C: Liberty North’s Breana North noted there were things she needed to improve on following her three matches. Even so, she was still able to pin all three of her opponents to earn a medal.
“I need to work on my shots and get to my penetration step,” Wu said.
125A: The coaches of Lawson don’t normally advise Braylie Cox to go for headlocks. But they allowed her to in her final match of the day against Platte County’s Leighton McGauhy and it resulted in a pin in 39 seconds. Cox won three matches by pin and one by forfeit as she took first place.