By Pat Dailey (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
No school statewide will want to pick up this season where it left off last season more than McDonald County.
The Mustangs closed out the Class 3 State Tournament in February with 215-pounder Sam Murphy and heavyweight Jayce Hitt winning state championships within minutes of each other.
“Sam and Jayce winning state titles was very exciting for our program and has definitely helped a school like McDonald County gain some respect,” Mustangs coach Josh Factor said. “We know this is just a stepping stone on where we would like to see this program be in the future.”
Factor will be able to speak from experience while keeping Murphy and Hitt motivated to make a run at a second gold medal. He can point to 2020 McDonald County grad and 2018 state champ Oscar Ortiz as a prime example of how repeating as a state champion is no guarantee.
“As for the chances of Murphy and Hitt repeating, it will be much tougher than winning their first state title because now they both have a target on their back,” Factor said. “Everyone will be gunning to knock them off. Is it possible for them to repeat? Absolutely. But it won’t come easy. They have to be more motivated to win a second state championship than they were to win their first.
“If it were that easy to repeat, then Oscar would have won state titles for us in 2019 and 2020, as well as 2018,” he added. “The great part about this sport is no matter how great the odds and expectations, there’s always someone out there that can prove these things to be false.”
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Murphy and Hitt were absolutely dominant, despite dealing with injuries last season. Murphy was 44-1 and Hitt 26-0.
“They are healthy for the moment, but we all know that can always change,” Factor said.
McDonald County also boasts returning state qualifiers in Eberson Perez, Robinson Yoshino and Malosi Sosef.
Perez was 17-16 at 106 as a freshman last season, Yoshino 21-21 at 113 as a freshman and Sosef 29-14 at 190 as a sophomore.
“(Not really sure where these guys will end up in terms of weight class projections (this season),” Factor said. “We will have to see how weight certifications go and then figure out where our team will be the strongest in terms of lineup.”
Others with varsity experience are Paden Vance (120 last season), Dominic Navin (126), Ayden Ball (132), Matthew Muhlebach (144), Brady Bogart (157), Alex Bogart (175) and Emitt Houston (190).
Factor wants the Mustangs to display more of a killer instinct to help rack up more team points at tournaments and possibly make a run at a state team title.
“Our entire team needs to get better,” Factor said. “If we are going to be a team that brings home hardware, we have to score bonus points and not be satisfied with just walking away with a win by decision in our matches. We need to get more of our wrestlers to compete in Columbia this February because clearly eight qualifiers was not enough to bring home hardware.”
On the girls side, the Lady Mustangs will set a milestone this season by having four-year letter winners for the first time in seniors Jaslyn Benhumea (115), Stacy Lopez-Apolinar (145), Gisel Aragon (170).
Last season, Lopez-Apolinar became the Lady Mustangs’ first Big Eight Conference Tournament championship.
The girls program has another milestone to chase after.
“We are looking to get our first state qualifier on our girls team,” Factor said.
