By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
A sixth place performance at the Class 3 state championship meet was a “bittersweet” ending for Carl Junction’s wrestling program last season, after the Bulldogs won their first district title in 25 years.
“We were sitting in third place at the state tournament and would have ended up in fourth but we had a little mishap with one of our wrestlers who ended up getting kicked out of the tournament and it cost us 10 team points,” head coach Mike Frizzell said. “That just kind of took the air out of our wrestlers. We had talked all year about getting a plaque and we knew that wouldn’t be possible so we kind of lost our mojo for the finals. Hopefully this year we’ve learned from our mistakes and we look forward to bring home a plaque this year.”
The Bulldogs qualified nine wrestlers for the state meet and return six of them this season. Junior Carter Foglesong (45-8) placed fourth at 106 pounds, senior Sam Melton (46-7) placed second at 120, senior Max Matthews (30-24) qualified at 126, sophomore Marcus Lopez-Durman (36-13) qualified at 150, senior Dexter Merrell (38-14) qualified at 157 and junior Tony Stewart (44-13) placed second at 165.
“Carter also earned Academic All-State honors and as a freshman he won over 40 matches as well,” Frizzell said. “We look for big things out of him this year. Sam is a two-time state finalist for us and also two-time Academic All State. He’s just a quality kid that will always give you 150 percent whenever he’s out on the mat. Max is a two-time state qualifier and Academic All-State as well. He’s grown quite a bit over the summer so we look for him to step into the lineup and fill some gaps where we need. Marcus was our freshman last year and I think he had a lot of growing up that he did last year and I look for him to have a great season this year. Dex was also Academic All-State and he’s one of the strongest kids on our team so we look for him to really step up this year and make some noise at state. Tony is a two-time state qualifier and also Academic All-State. He’ll possibly move up in weights this year. I look for him to have a stellar season.”
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Other returners to Carl Junction’s lineup include senior Brenden Berry, who won more than 30 matches and suffered a late loss in a tough district bracket at 138 pounds. Senior Drake Richardson was at 126 last year and will likely move up to a higher weight class this season. And sophomore Blake Starks wrestled at heavyweight last season and has added a lot of muscle going into this season.
Additionally, Frizzell is excited about incoming freshmen like Aaron Dillingham, a state champion wrestler as a kid who should fill in somewhere in the middle of the lineup, and Josh Cassatt, the younger brother of two-time state champion Jesse.
Carl Junction will once again host a dual tournament on Dec. 9, with schools like Fort Zumwalt South, Blue Springs and Fayetteville, Ark. planning to attend. The Bulldogs open the regular season at home against Carthage on Nov. 28, and will travel to Jenks, Okla. for a tough middle-of-the-season tournament.
“We had our first district championship in 25 years last year,” Frizzell said. “We definitely want to come back and try to repeat that. There’s been a lot of shakeup with the conference and we’re moving to a new conference next year. I don’t look for that to really hamper us at all in wrestling. We can schedule the COC schools for duals and we see plenty of those guys in tournaments. We’re always going to chase the best competition and the new conference has schools that all have wrestling. We’ll have a very competitive conference tournament.”
The Bulldogs will host a Red and White dual on Nov. 21.
Carl Junction’s girls wrestling squad had six athletes on the roster last season and three of them were freshmen. Frizzell expects similar numbers this season.
“Coach (Greyson) Broce, our head girls coach, has been actively recruiting through the school so we’ve picked up a few more athletes,” Frizzell said. “They’ve put some time in over the summer. (Isabella) Montez for sure worked very hard over the summer. She’s come a long way since last season and just matured a lot and had a lot of success in track. We have senior Bryanna McCabe who’s dealing with some health issues so we haven’t seen her in the room quite yet but we’ll hopefully get her there by the start of the season.”
Montez, a sophomore, was 15-12 last season at 130 and McCabe went 19-10 at 120.
Carl Junction’s girls team is slated to open the season at Joplin on Nov. 30, with home dates against Seneca (Dec. 5) and Webb City (Dec. 12) before the end of the year.
