By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Saturday’s Central Ozark Conference wrestling tournament was hosted by Neosho – the school that had won nine straight COC championships.
But it was Ozark that proved it was the best program in the conference this year.
Despite having just one individual champion, Ozark cruised to a 23-point win and left four other schools battling it out for second place. Head coach Tod Sundlie wasn’t even sure the last time the Tigers had earned a conference title.
“Coming into the tournament we knew we needed points from everybody, everybody needed to contribute,” he said. “Not real satisfied with that last round but the kids wrestled tough today. It’s been a long time since Ozark’s been able to pull off a conference championship so we’re glad to be able to finish on top today.
“Neosho’s been on a strong run,” Sundlie said. “They’ve raised the bar.”
The Tigers advanced six wrestlers to first-place matches in the evening but only Braxton Strict was able to get a win. Wrestling at 152 pounds, he pinned three opponents and then defeated Carthage’s Braxdon Tate by 10-1 major decision in the finals, improving to 38-3 along the way.
“He’s been such a leader,” Sundlie said. “Honestly just top to bottom I was pleased with fighting through the pools. I thought we started off kind of flat, won a lot of matches late and showed some heart and grounded it out.”
Damien Moseley (106), Caden Harrington (113), Keaton Hurst (120), Nolan Moeller (138) and Lucas Campbell (145) each earned second place in their weight classes. Everybody else placed, too. Daniel Laney was fourth at 126, Levi Maskrod was fourth at 132, Eric Shepard was fourth at 160, Kody Shepard was seventh at 170, Johnny Williams was third at 182, Peyton Greer was seventh at 195, Luke Hulse was fifth at 220 and Sean Collins was fifth at 285.
“We’ve got a lot of young wrestlers on our varsity team and we just needed them to grow and mature,” Sundlie said. “Middle of the season, around Christmastime, we started seeing some of those freshmen and sophomores turn some corners. They’ve been tough, they were stepping in there fighting from the very beginning. Middle of the season you start seeing improvement and growth. We also started getting a lot of contributions from JV kids with injuries on the roster. Like everybody we’ve got some guys who are just banged up right now and for other guys to slide in and score points is great for our program.”
Carl Junction wins battle for second place
Throughout the afternoon Carl Junction, Nixa, Neosho and Carthage were in contention for second place and they finished separated by just 21 points. It was Carl Junction, though, that pulled ahead in the end.
The Bulldogs had four individual champions, with Lukas Walker winning at 106, Sam Melton winning at 113, Chance Benford winning at 182 and Cayden Bollinger winning at 220.
“Overall we did pretty well,” Carl Junction coach Mike Frizzell said. “Coming in trying to get our bonus points. That’s where we’ve lived all season long in these tournaments. Bonus points count more and that’s helped us stay in the tournament. Chance came up big there in the finals at 182 and that just solidified the second place for us. It took a lot of pressure off Cayden.”
Walker improved to 28-3 with three wins by fall and a 6-2 decision over Ozark’s Damien Moseley in the finals. Melton, 27-4, had three wins by fall and two major decisions, including an 8-0 win against Ozark’s Caden Harrington in the finals.
Benford, 28-7, had two falls and an 11-10 win to get to the first-place match, where he pinned Joplin’s Brayden Thomas in 2:30. And Bollinger, 24-12, had two falls and three decisions; he won 3-2 over Willard’s Alex Nunez in the finals.
“All four are coming back next year so that makes us pretty excited for the program in the future,” Frizzell said.
Kameron Bennett was the only other Carl Junction wrestler to crack the top three and he placed third at 285.
“Coming in we wanted to place top three, top four at least,” Frizzell said. “The season we’ve had has been fairly successful but we’ve still got a lot of things we need to work on. Our middle weights are young but they’re up and coming. We’ll get back in the room and fix everything we need to fix.”
Nixa, Willard have multiple winners
Nixa’s third-place showing was highlighted by three winners. Zan Fugitt (37-1) took first at 120 with five falls, including a win in 2:26 over Ozark’s Keaton Hurst in the finals. Peyton Moore (28-4) won at 126 with three falls and a technical fall. He pinned Carthage’s Bradyn Tate in 59 seconds for first. Brennan Carey (25-8) won at 195 with two falls, a major decision and a 9-3 win against Branson’s Cade Grimm for first.
Aidan Ward took third at 132 and Charles Speake finished third at 220.
Neosho’s lone champion was Eli Zar, who made quick work of his opponents at 170. He had a technical fall, a major decision and two pins before winning 9-4 against Connor Sandridge in the finals. He improved to 25-9.
Hayden Crane also advanced to the finals at 132 but lost by fall to Branson’s Kyshin Isringhausen. Johnny Chrisco was third at 126, Nate Copeland was third at 138, Bostyn Patterson was third at 145, Trent Neece was third at 152 and Collyn Kivett was third at 160.
Carthage put five wrestlers in the first-place matches but only managed one win, by Eli Sneed at 138. Now 31-4, Sneed had three falls and then won 4-3 against Nolan Moeller of Ozark for first.
Bradyn Tate (126), Braxdon Tate (152), Davion King (160) and David Recinos (285) each earned second place, and Dylan Huntley (113) and Christian Brown (120) each placed third.
Willard’s top performers were Caleb Caldwell and Gary Walker, who took home titles at 145 and 160, respectively. Caldwell improved to 39-2 and had two falls, a 3-1 win and a 15-4 major decision over Ozark’s Lucas Campbell in the finals. Walker, 40-1, pinned his first three opponents, then won 6-2 before beating Carthage’s King 4-2 in the finals.
Alex Nunez took second at 220, Jase Motlagh was third at 170 and Brady Griffin was third at 195.
For Republic, Connor Sandridge finished second at 170 and Phillip George took third at 106.
Kyshin Isringhausen represented Branson with a first-place finish at 132, improving to 39-2 in the process. He pinned his first three opponents, picked up a technical fall and then pinned Neosho’s Hayden Crane in 46 seconds to clinch the weight class. Cade Grimm placed second at 195.
Joplin’s lone champion was Gunner Price at 285. Price, 21-6, had a fall and two decisions before winning 4-2 in the finals over David Recinos of Carthage. Brayden Thomas placed second at 182.
Webb City’s top three wrestlers finished in fourth place, with Brantley Carter wrestling at 152, Javon White wrestling at 195 and Buddy Belcher wrestling at 220.
Team scores
Ozark 178.5
Carl Junction 155.5
Nixa 149.5
Neosho 138.5
Carthage 134.5
Willard 117
Republic 91.5
Branson 84.5
Joplin 68
Webb City 60
