By Pat Dailey (For OzarkSportsZone.com)
BRANSON — Tony Stewart’s 100th career win and 175-pound championship highlighted Carl Junction’s runner-up finish to Jefferson City Helias Catholic at the Branson Tournament on Saturday.
The Carl Junction junior needed four wins to get to 100 and he got five. After reaching 100 victories with a semifinal win, Stewart pulled out a 3-2 triumph versus Bolivar’s Mason McCurry in their title tilt.
“I knew there was a chance to get it today,” Stewart said of his 100-win milestone. I wish it would have been (in the finals).”
Stewart suspects he and McCurry will become familiar rivals.
“I’ll see him again at districts and hopefully at state,” Stewart said. “Being one up on him gives me a confidence boost. But it also gives me a little target on my back for him to come looking for me. I’m ready to get back at it and wrestle him again. That dude is tough, I’ll give it to him. I’ve got a lot of respect for him and how he wrestles.”
After a state runner-up finish at 165 last season, Stewart naturally has his sights set on a gold medal.
“This year is probably the best I’ve done, and this has been a really good year for our team and our morale,” he said. “Hopefully, I make it back it to the state finals and leave first, instead of second.”
Carl Junction also received individual championships Saturday from Carter Foglesong at 113, Sam Melton at 132 and Max Matthews at 138.
Foglesong (27-1) won by technical fall 16-0 against Helias Catholic’s Parker Lock (16-7).
This has been a breakout year on several fronts for Foglesong.
“This is the year I finally got out of my head,” he said. “My coach asked me, ‘Carter, why are you in your head so much?’ I told him I didn’t know. We had some soul-searching to do. After that, I’ve been having a blast. I realized I’ve just got to go out and have fun and I will do better. As long as I wrestle like I know how, I can make it pretty far.”
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For Matthews (18-10), he collected his first tournament championship by blanking Branson’s Carson Ruda (14-10) 4-0 in their final matchup.
“It’s fun to win,” Matthews said. “This is a very tough sport. When you lose matches, it beats you down mentally. The sport also teaches you to recuperate and keep going no matter how awful things might be. This makes me feel way better.”
Melton (12-3) won by medical forfeit in the final against his Carl Junction teammate Camdon Kunkie (19-12).
In the team standings, Carl Junction’s 208.5 points were second to Helias Catholic’s 224.
Ozark’s Moseley wins showdown against Monett’s Hartline
Ozark’s Damien Moseley avenged a loss from two years ago to Monett’s Simon Hartline by edging Hartline 7-6 in their 120 title tilt.
“It’s always cool to beat someone you haven’t beat before,” Moseley said.
Moseley, a junior, is a two-time state placer, but this was his first Branson Tournament championship.
“I got pinned here last year by a kid I should have killed and my freshman year I lost twice,” he said. “I definitely wanted to win this.”
Ozark’s Johnny Williams (21-7) dropped a 9-5 decision to Helias Catholic’s Logan Montoya (27-0) in the 190 final.
Host Pirates have two champions
Branson’s T.J. Storment enjoyed a successful comeback, as he returned to the mat for the first time in nearly a month to take the 150 championship.
Storment (15-6) gained a 3-1 win against Carl Junction’s Aaron Dillingham (20-11) in the final round.
Storment competed with his left shoulder heavily wrapped and taped. He suffered a torn labrum in the shoulder at the Harrisonville Tournament in mid-December.
“I wasn’t sure what was wrong with it at the time. I thought I had just strained a muscle, so I kept wrestling.” Storment said. “But after I won that match, I knew something was wrong and I medically forfeited (in the final round). I’ve been out ever since. I’ve been itching to get back out here.”
Storment was relieved to have his shoulder pass all tests.
“I wasn’t sure about today going into it. But (the shoulder) held up well,” he said. “I feel a lot more confident now than I was going into this tournament. I thought I may have to change some things up from the way I was doing things before I hurt it. But I was able to still wrestle my match at my pace and do the moves I like to do. I hope it holds up for three more weeks.”
The Pirates’ Ryzen Isringhausen (21-1) handed Jefferson City Helias Catholic’s Daemmen Duemmel 6-3 in the 106 final.
The two were already familiar foes.
“I’ve wrestled him a couple times in the past and it’s always been a good match,” Isringhausen said. “My neutral was good today, and I was doing pretty good up top. I’d like to do a little better on the bottom. But overall, it was a pretty good match.”
Isringhausen’s older brother, Kyshin, won a championship at the Branson Tournament three of the past four years.
Four titles in four years for Mustangs’ Murphy
McDonald County senior Sam Murphy completed a clean sweep by winning a championship at the Branson Tournament for the fourth straight year.
Murphy (27-3) pinned Helias Catholic’s Hunter Barnhart (19-8) in 4:23 in the 215 final.
The Mustangs’ Jayce Hitt (23-3) took the 285 championship. He pinned Monett’s Porter Reed (14-2) in 2:26 in the final.
Bolivar’s Cooper Moore (30-3) picked up a 7-1 victory against Smithville’s Brennan Green (24-7) in their 144 title tilt.
Kickapoo’s Jahan Huynh (19-12) fell 9-3 to Helias Catholic’s Justin Wieberg (20-8) in the 138 final.
