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By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The first-ever Central Ozark Conference girls wrestling championship quickly became a competition for second place on Friday night in Neosho.
And not just because Nixa had the most entries, but because of how well the Eagles were wrestling.
Ten of Nixa’s 12 wrestlers captured first-place finishes – and the other two claimed second, as the Eagles amassed 143 points to take home the title in convincing fashion.
“What a great experience coming down here and being part of the first ever Central Ozark Conference tournament,” Nixa coach Dustin Martin said. “We’ve talked about it a lot coming into the year. We knew it wouldn’t be a huge tournament with a lot of entries but how important it is to get the first conference tournament started and now all the teams in the conference can hopefully make it a point to try to be successful in the conference tournament.”
Nixa’s Ashlyn Eli, Kendall Young, Olivia Wilson, Brenya Crahan, Kelsey Watts, Taelor Dorr, Calyese Dupree, Jessie Nelson, Larissa Downs and Harmony Rust each won their weight classes.
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Eli, at 100 pounds, improved to 30-0 with both of her wins coming by fall in 33 seconds or less. At 115, Young improved to 14-7 with five falls. At 120, Wilson won four times by fall to hike her record to 14-13. Crahan, at 125, is now 25-1 after pinning both of her opponents. Watts evened her mark at 10-10 with two falls and a 7-3 decision at 130. At 149, Dorr improved to 13-9 with a fall in 26 seconds and an 11-3 major decision. At 159, Dupree moved to 31-3 with three falls. Nelson, at 174, went to 14-12 with three falls. At 194, Downs earned her 10th and 11th wins with two falls in 47 seconds or less, and Rust moved to 21-3 at 235 with two falls in 32 seconds or less.
Ava Frye was 2-1 at 135 while placing second, and Jozalynn Jones wrestled twice while placing second at 141.
“I really wasn’t 100 percent sure because I didn’t know exactly what this would look like and how many girls were there,” Martin said. “We entered 12 girls and we won 10 of the weight classes so I’m very happy with them. We had one girl at 174, Jessie Nelson, who was in a best of three and she lost her first match and had to come back and win the next two. We were really proud of her for that.”
Ozark wrestlers win two weight classes
Ozark, which had eight entries, scored 61 points to finish in second place. The Tigers were led by first-place finishes from Alivia Myers at 110 pounds and Clarice Wheeler at 135. Myers improved to 19-10 with two pins against Neosho’s Abby Manwiller, and Wheeler improved to 12-4 with three falls.
Adilyn Hoelzle finished second at 100, Victoria Dunn was fourth at 115, Maelynn Sundlie was second at 120, Angelika Tsaruk was second at 125, Sarah Crazier was second at 149 and Kaetryn Oliver was fourth at 159.
“Very pleased,” Ozark coach Tod Sundlie said. “It’s our first year with the girls and we’re just happy to get matches and go to tournaments as a team and have a good showing. We’ve taken second in a couple other tournaments. For this first year I’m real excited for them to hopefully create a little bit of a desire and passion for the sport. That’s a big goal of ours here at the end.”
Sundlie said Myers was “awesome” at 110 and said Wheeler won her second championship in as many weekends.
“It’s just fun to watch them grow and learn,” he said. “I think we beat some girls who had beat us in the past. We wrestled some girls tougher who really took it to us last time. Our improvement is fun to watch.”
Willard was the only other school with a champion. Ashlan Thompson won her two matches at 141 by fall to win the 141-pound bracket. Baillee Cash won four times while placing second at 115. Gina Sellers had a win at 159 while placing third. Haley Autterson won once at 174 while placing second. Emma Bickel won her first match at 235 and finished second. Annabell Hickey took third at 149.
Branson’s top finisher was Blaiklee Cagle (18-13), who placed second at 159. Sarah King was third at 130, Dakota Stinger was fifth at 120 and Fei Li Gilbert took sixth at 115.
Carl Junction’s Constance Graham won two matches at 120 and finished third. Bryanna McCabe was third at 125 and Mykah Strausbaugh was second at 194.
Joplin’s Ericka Washom (17-6) won twice at 130 en route to a third-place finish. Olivia Higdon was fourth at 135.
For Neosho, Jamie Patterson picked up two wins and placed fifth at 115. Skye Holmes won her last of the day to place fourth at 120, and Jilian Ramirez won once at 135 while placing third. Abby Manwiller was second at 110 and Erika Ramirez was third at 235.
Republic’s Madeleine Saul, in her first action this year, won two matches and placed third at 115.
Webb City’s Laney Tayler was fourth at 130.
Team scores
Nixa 143
Ozark 61
Willard 41
Branson 26
Joplin 18
Neosho 17
Republic 13
Carl Junction 7
Webb City 4
