Two younger teams matched up in Suburban Gold Conference action as Lee’s Summit North took on Blue Springs South Tuesday at Blue Springs South High School.
The Jaguars only had four seniors out of the 14 in the lineup, while North didn’t have any seniors in the lineup.
Those factors led to competitive dual as six matches were decided by six points or less. The difference came when South junior Brayden Greenfield overcame an early 3-0 deficit and ended up pinning North sophomore DeAndre’ Harrell in the second period of the 175-pound bout.
The Broncos also surrendered 18 points due to forfeits at the end of the dual as South’s Alex Utican (190), Jayce Miller (215) and Dom Bruce (285) all won by forfeit to give the Jaguars a 42-24 victory.
“We are super young, we have a lot of freshmen on our team,” said Wilmes, who is one of the leaders and best wrestlers for South. “We’re looking to build them. We have some seniors that are working hard. And we have Dom, who is great.”
Wilmes (157) aided his team in winning by helping it get six team points when he got a quick reversal and hooked a cradle for a pin 8 seconds into the second period against North freshman Ben Wirth.
“I was planning on standing up (after getting up from bottom), but I just kept wrestling and I saw the cradle open,” Wilmes said.
Jaguar senior Peter Gutierrez (138) was one of those on his team that did not have a close match. His bout with North junior Miles Milton was tied 0-0 at the end of the first period. In the second, Gutierrez got an escape and takedown and he cruised from there to win 11-1.
“I am doing better than I did at the beginning of the season,” Gutierrez said. “I am glad that I have got this far. I know I can do better, and I am working on getting better for districts.”
South freshman Cruz Schoenberger (106) had a tight match with Bronco sophomore Cash Hammons. Schoenberger didn’t surrender a single point and won 5-0.
“I was a little nervous before the match, but got the job done,” Schoenberger said. “I was able to stop his shots and get my own.”
South freshman Xander Minton (132) helped his team earn five team points as he earned 17-2 tech fall victory over Josh Neustadter.
North junior Alex Wise (144) said he has been bouncing back and forth between the junior varsity and varsity teams, but he had his chance to show what he could do with the latter. He countered multiple shots from Gage Stuart and turned them into his own takedowns. He used a headlock takedown to get a fall in 4:59.
“He kept on trying to get to his glass doubles and those are easy to sprawl on,” Wise said. “Every time he did that, I said, ‘OK. I need to get to my sprawl and then go behind and get those points. Then I would cut him and he would try it again and I would do that over and over again.”
Freshman Christopher McDonald (165) helped the Broncos get another six team points as he dominated his match with Carter Roach and used a headlock takedown to get pin in 5:18.
“He went to underhooks so I went to my underhooks and I won the throw battle,” McDonald said. “That’s a little different than how I normally wrestle but ended up getting the win.
Other Broncos to pick up wins were freshman Knox Andrews (113), who defeated Cale Martin 9-3; Freshman Marcelllo Robinson (120), whose late takedown broke a 6-6 tie and he ended up beating Alec Mills 9-7; Sophomore Adam Paul (126), who had a late takedown in the third period which helped him top Bo Gilmore 12-9; and junior Kale Lepart, who overcame a 6-0 deficit and got a reversal with about 20 seconds left in regulation to edge Caleb Hart 9-8.
