At the Lee’s Summit Holiday Tournament, it was Blue Springs walking away with the team championship, defeating 24 other schools.
Blue Springs won the boys wrestling meet with 271.5 points, while Liberty North (237) and Millard West (223) finished second and third, respectively. Lee’s Summit placed fourth with 220.5 points.
The Wildcats were led by a lone champion and four more top-four finishes. Jaxson McIntyre won the 170-pound weight class by winning all six of his matches and two bye rounds. McIntyre defeated Liberty North’s Nathan Sola by tech fall, 18-3, in the championship match.
Dom Howlett and Brock Sullivan each placed second at 220 and 285, respectively. Howlett went 7-0 before losing in sudden victory to Lucas Oitker of Park Hill South in the title match. Sullivan also went 7-0 until losing by decision, 5-0, to Oak Grove’s Caleb Groff in the first-place match.
Aleksei Wojtkiewicz placed third at 106 for Blue Springs. Wojtkiewicz won his first six matches before losing in the semifinals, 6-5. In the third-place match, Wojtkiewicz pinned Caden Gallet of Basehor-Linwood in 2 minutes and 39 seconds.
Liberty North was led by a pair of champions and three additional top-three wrestlers. Joseph Knight won the 138 title by going 8-0. Knight beat Lee’s Summit’s Michael Foley by decision, 9-6, in the championship match. Dylan Alft brought home the 145 championship. Alft defeated Francis Howell’s Cooper Corley by major decision, 12-2, in the title match.
Nathan Sola finished runner-up at 170. He went 7-0 before losing to McIntyre. At 120 pounds, James Lovelady placed third, going 7-1, only losing the semifinal match by decision, 4-2. Jacob Stockard placed third at 220, going 6-2 at the tournament. Stockard lost his round four match and semifinal, but ended the tournament with a win by medical forfeit in the third-place match.
4th Annual Ladycat Classic
At Basehor-Linwood, the Washburn Rural girls wrestling team flexed its muscle once again, winning a 29-team tournament.
Washburn Rural scored 295 team points, defeating second-placed Dodge City by 74 points. Rounding out the top five were Emporia (184), Olathe North (180.5) and Baldwin (167.5).
It was three weight class champions that helped Washburn Rural dominate the tournament. They were Addison Broxterman (120 pounds), Alexis Fredrickson (132) and Jaliah Johnson (155). Broxterman and Fredrickson won their championship matches by fall, while Johnson won by decision, 10-4.
Olathe North went home with two champions and two more top-three finishes. Elizabeth Ruggles won the 191-pound weight class by winning all five of her matches – four of which were by fall. Hailey Conley was the 235 champion after winning all five of her matches.
Kaylan Hitchcock finished second at 115. She won her first four matches by fall before losing in the championship match, 1-0, to Gardner-Edgerton’s Lilly Kepler. At 109, Catherine Duong went 3-0 before losing by decision, 11-7, but bounced back with a third-round pin over Emporia’s Evelin Geronimo in the third-place match.
Baldwin finished as the top smaller school behind two runner-up and a third-place finishes. Audrey Darnell placed second at 138. She went 4-0 before losing by fall in the title match to Free State’s Madyson Gray. Elee Pittman finished runner-up at 191. Pittman also went 4-0 before also losing by fall in the first-place match to Ruggles. Madi Hargett placed third, finishing the tournament 4-1 with her lone loss coming in the championship bracket by fall.
– story by Jimmy Gillispie
KC Preps 