By Riley Bean
rbean@ky3.com
Neosho, MO – As per usual, the Neosho Wildcats earned a win in their 29th annual wrestling tournament on Saturday.
The team finished with 253.5 team points behind five gold medal winners, four silver medalists and four bronze medalists. Lebanon finished in second as a team with 153 points, followed by Farmington (147.5), Rolla (141), Willard (140), McDonald County (105), Branson (93.5) and Carl Junction (91).
(Jeremy Phillips giving instruction)
Neosho coach Jeremy Phillips was impressed with the competition level in this edition of the annual tournament.
“There were several state qualifiers, even state medalists in this tournament today,” Phillips said. “I was telling the kids, this is the 29th annual Neosho Tournament. I wrestled in four of them, and I’ve coached twelve of them now. So of those sixteen, this has been the toughest that I’ve ever been a part of. So I could say honestly that this is probably the toughest Neosho Tournament, competition wise, that we’ve ever had.”
“I think this tournament was a lot better this year than it has been in the past years,” said Willard’s Niko Chavez, the reigning Class 3 state champion at 138 pounds. “It was a really tough tournament honestly, and there were a lot of returning state medalists and state qualifiers, so I think Neosho did a great job of putting this on.”
Neosho had nine wrestlers make an appearance in championship matches on Saturday. Five of those nine wrestlers won their bouts, two lost to Rolla wrestlers, one lost to a Willard wrestler, and the 195-pound match featured two Neosho wrestlers – Johnny Meyer and JV wrestler Zane Persinger. Meyer beat his teammate in a 13-2 decision.
Meanwhile, Rolla’s Tristan Barr (132 pounds) and Coleman Brainard (138 pounds) both knocked off Neosho in title bouts on Saturday.
(Coleman Brainard sizing up his opponent Braxton Barnes)
Barr defeated Gannon Miller 6-2 and Brainard defeated Braxton Barnes 9-5 to help the Bulldogs earn fourth place overall.
“When you are competing against the talent level of Neosho, it’s exciting to be competing with them,” said Rolla head coach Marty Hauck. “And then to come out on top, that’s even more exciting. It gives us some momentum and hopefully it gives us enough momentum to carry throughout the year, and get a little more momentum right before districts and state. It was exciting and good wins for both of those young men.”
Rolla’s Gage Maxwell also made an appearance in a first-place match, but came up short against Niko Chavez, who now wrestles in the 152-pound weight class. Chavez beat Maxwell in a 6-5 decision, bringing his record to 5-0 on the year.
(Niko Chavez grappling with his opponent Gage Maxwell)
Chavez says he wants to work on widening the scoring gap against his opponents this season.
“[I’m focused on] just spreading my leads out when I’m wrestling,” said Chavez. “Score more points and try to get more points on the board, as opposed to last year in my state finals match. I had close matches throughout my state tournament last year and I want to try to make the point spread bigger.”
Chavez’s teammates Cameron Caldwell (182 pounds) and Christian Smart (220 pounds) also represented Willard in their respective championship matches. Caldwell beat Zachary Plummer from Neosho 2-1, while Smart lost to Adrian Hitchcock from Neosho 5-3.
Hitchcock won his first varsity gold medal in Saturday’s tournament, despite being a state runner-up in Class 3 at 220 pounds.
“That’s something I highlighted in [the locker room] when I talked to the team,” said Coach Phillips, “is the fact that yeah, [Hitchcock] has been in the state finals, but he’s never won a varsity gold medal. Obviously, this is just his first tournament as a junior, but that says something. I think there’s a good lesson for all our kids to learn from that.”
Neosho junior Joey Williams won the 170-pound title by beating Kitch Channel from Carl Junction 5-2 in the finals. Williams did this while wearing a menacing mask.
(Joey Williams tied up with his opponent Kitch Channel)
“I had septoplasty surgery,” he said. “It’s where they take a part of your septum out because it was deviated and I couldn’t breathe out of it. I think it was late October when the surgery happened. Then I had a week off and then practice. Then the first day of practice, I didn’t wear the mask, so what we think is I broke my nose. Just my luck.”
Coach Phillips and his team set daily, weekly and long-term goals. For this particular tournament, Williams and Hitchcock found a unique way to get motivated.
“[Hitchcock] had a goal to get forty take downs in this tournament,” Phillips said. “It was kind of fun. We had him and Joey [Williams] battling to see who was going to get it. He initially set thirty, and then when he set it to forty, I said, ‘I’ll buy you a steak dinner if you get forty.’ And then Joey said, ‘Well I’m going to go get it.’ And I said ‘Well, if you beat him then you get the steak dinner.’ And they were telling me how they were going to order it and all this, and then I think Hitchcock ended up with thirty-some take downs today. So he didn’t attain it, but that’s how we kind of have fun. We gotta set lofty goals that push us in challenges.”
The heavyweight bout ended in a flash as McDonald County’s Bronnie Kinser pinned Carl Junction’s Zeke Wall just 42 seconds into the 285-pound title match.
(Bronnie Kinser beating Zeke Wall by fall)
Kinser, though, has much higher aspirations.
“I was happy,” he said, “but I haven’t accomplished anything until the district tournament and the state tournament.”
