Lebanon girls wrestling claims third team state title in four years

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By Pat Dailey (For OzarkSportsZone.com)

COLUMBIA — Quincey Glendennning felt she and her Lebanon teammates set her up for success Saturday.

Well before Glendenning claimed the 130-pound championship at the Girls State Wrestling Championships, Lebanon clinched the team championship. The Lady Jackets finished with 133 points, outdistancing runner-up Nixa with 91 points and more than doubling up the rest of the field.

It’s Lebanon’s third state championship in four years.

“The coaches were like, ‘You don’t have any pressure going into (the final round), we’ve already won it and this is just a bonus,’” Glendenning said. “The most fun part about this has been the team. We had 11 girls come up here and participate. There was a lot of team bonding.”

Glendenning became Lebanon’s lone individual champ by pinning Rockwood Summit’s Madeline Haynes in :57.

“My mindset was, ‘Please God, please help me pin her.’ I wanted to finish it as quickly as I could,” Glendenning said. “I honestly didn’t expect it to go that quickly. When we wrestled earlier in the year, she beat me 2-0.”

Glendenning (42-2) capped her career with her second state championship. Her first title came as a freshman three years ago. In between, she endured two ACL surgeries and rehabbed her way into championship form.

“My sophomore year, I wrestled all season and was doing dual sports,” Glendenning said. “In basketball, a couple days before State we were at a basketball game and I went up for a layup and injured myself.

“I had to take about 10 months off,” she added. “I had never wrestled with a brace before, so I had to get used to that and get my body back in shape. I worked really hard to get my body back to how it was. I decided to focus on wrestling and came back my junior year and I got fifth (at State). That didn’t go how I wanted it to. I thought, ‘I want to be on top of that podium again.’”

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE TITLE MATCHES

Lady Chiefs’ first champion crowned

Wendy Riley-Washington made Kickapoo mat history by becoming the Lady Chiefs’ first state champion. She captured the 170 championship with a 5-3 victory versus Seneca’s Isabella Renfro.

“It’s everything I’ve ever worked for,” Riley-Washington said. “All my coaches have done everything in their power to make me a better athlete. The environment they have created at Kickapoo makes me want to go as far as I can to make them proud. I’ll forever represent Kickapoo.

“This is so unreal and is bringing tears to my eyes,” she added. “I can’t stop thanking my coaches. It all comes back to them. I would be lost without them. They have gotten me in the right direction to enhance my wrestling more than I ever could have imagined. I’m going to be crying all night.”

Riley-Washington (30-1) avenged her only loss on the season. She handed Renfro (36-2) her only two losses by taking two of their three matches. Last week at Districts, Renfro won by fall against Riley-Washington.

“I pinned her, then she pinned me,” Riley-Washington said. “The Seneca coaches made one amazing girl right there.”

Riley-Washington hobbled off the arena floor after the match, having aggravated a knee injury.

“I twisted my knee and it frequently pops out of place,” she said. “I’m used to it popping out of place at this point. But if I overextend it too much, I could have been done.”

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE THIRD & FIFTH PLACE MATCHES

Lady Eagles lay claim to two titles

Nixa’s Ashlyn Eli became a three-time state champion and teammate Brenya Crahan became a two-time champ.

Eli survived a third-period near-fall by Camdenton’s Abigail Fuglsang and pulled out a 7-6 victory in their 100 title tilt.

“I thought I was stuck. But I got out of it,” Eli said. “At Districts, she threw me on my back so I almost got pinned at Districts, too.”

A penalty point credited to Eli for Fuglsang employing a full-nelson was the difference. The illegal hold was called with :03 remaining in the match.

Both Eli (40-0) and Fuglsang (37-2) were in tears and exchanged hugs afterward.

“She’s a lot better than me,” Eli said when asked to compare herself three years ago to Fuglsang now as a freshman. “She works hard, so I hope she claims three State titles like I did.”

Crahan (37-1) is halfway to a grand slam with gold medals as a freshman last year and now as a sophomore. She repeated as a champ in dominant fashion, pinning Winnetonka’s Madison Leverknight in 1:26.

“I want to be a four-time champion,” Crahan said. “It’s going to take a lot of work in the (practice) room.”

Five other area wrestlers finish

Central’s Catherine Dutton was dealt her first loss on the season, as she bowed to Platte County’s KayLyn Munn 2-0 in the 194 final.

The nationally-ranked Dutton ends her junior year 27-1.

Cassville 115-pounder Annie Moore’s bid to repeat as a state champion was denied. Moore (51-3) lost 10-2 versus Park Hill’s Angelina Vargas in their title match.

Camdenton’s Clara Rathmann (29-7) was leading Fox’s Faith Spicer 9-3 when she was pinned at the 2:20 mark in the 235 title match.

Nixa freshman Calyese Dupree (42-4) was pinned in 1:07 by Fort Osage’s Haley Ward in the 159 championship match.

Lebanon 135-pounder Bailey Joiner (37-3) lost by fall in 2:33 against Parkway West’s Paige Wehmeister in the final round.

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