By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Southwest Missouri schools were well-represented in the final standings at last year’s Monett wrestling tournament. That wasn’t exactly the case on Saturday.
Willard earned a second-place finish and was the only area school to place in the top five at the 50th Annual Monett Invitational, with Pleasant Hill, Oak Grove, DeSoto and Harrisonville claiming the other spots.
The Tigers scored 249 points but chased Pleasant Hill (312.5) most of the afternoon. Head coach Justin Wisdom said his squad entered the tournament on a high note after a good holiday break, but was dealt an early blow on Saturday.
“We’ve got a lot of kids who are still green as varsity wrestlers and they’ve been doing a nice job of listening and working hard in the room and making strides in their wrestling and knowledge,” he said. “Our 106 pounder ranked second in the state right now is undefeated but he didn’t make weight today so that was kind of a burn right off the bat and puts your team in a tough spot having one of your top kids not make weight. I think the kids responded well there right off the bat.”
Willard had two individual champions: Caleb Caldwell at 145 and Gary Walker at 160. Caldwell improved to 25-2 and dealt Pleasant Hill’s Garrett Lyons his first loss with a 5-4 decision in the finals. Caldwell also had a pin and a technical fall. Walker, 26-1, had a technical fall and a pin and then won 4-3 in the finals against Oak Grove’s Carson Smith.
The Tigers had six other medalists.
Brady Precht (19-10) placed third at 113, Tucker Precht (18-13) placed third at 120, Noah Rogers (18-10) placed third at 138, Andrew Keithley (19-9) took fourth at 152, Shane Shaughnessy (14-8) was third at 182 and Brady Griffin (22-3) finished third at 195.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE TOURNAMENT
Additionally, Justin McHenry (16-6) wrestled at 160 and took fourth, and Tanner Moulden (19-9) wrestled at 182 and took fourth.
“We competed well in some spots,” Wisdom said. “Our 145 pounder is a freshman and beat a real good Pleasant Hill kid in the finals. Our 52 pounder wrestled well today. Our 60 pounder was a champ today and he’s only a sophomore. Our 38 pounder is a freshman, took third today and wrestled really tough. The boys are wrestling really well. A couple of us maybe didn’t improve like we should today but that’s what this is all about. You’ve got to try to compete and be consistent and get better every time you step on the mat. That’s what we’ve been trying to preach to these young guys we have. We’ve got a lot of potential and we’re trying to reach that potential.”
Branson tries to crack top five
The Pirates were in the mix for a top-five finish but had to settle for sixth with 166 points. Just 11 points separated Branson from Oak Grove, which finished third.
“I thought we did okay,” coach Garrett Hawkins said. “I think we could have done better. We had a couple opens with some kids who are sick. I’m proud of how the kids did and how we finished up. We started a little bit slow today and then picked it up the last half of the tournament and finished strong.”
Branson had three medalists, highlighted by Kyshin Isringhausen’s second-place finish at 138. An 8-5 loss in the finals was his first loss all season and he improved to 21-1 with a 4-1 effort that featured four falls. Two of them came in 48 seconds or less.
Thomas Mutarelli (12-8) finished fourth at 120 and Cade Grimm (17-3) took third at 220.
“And we had a couple other guys finish in the top five that helped us,” Hawkins said. “Even though they didn’t finish in the top four that still helped us out team wise. We were battling for that top five spot at the end.”
Camdenton, Cassville, Monett, Reeds Spring each earn three medalists
Camdenton had four medalists and one winner in Nathaniel Beeson (17-4), who took the title at 182 pounds with a fall in 2:22 over Pleasant Hill’s Jacob Hanes. Drake Schiefelbein (15-6) took fourth at 106, Logan Tibben (19-9) was second at 126 and Gunner Morris (16-12) was fourth at 195.
Cassville had three medalists, highlighted by Kurt Deaver’s win at 113 pounds. Deaver, 11-1, earned four wins by fall. Akhilleus Arguelles (20-3) finished second at 132 and Jake Anthonysz (19-4) was third at 160. The Wildcats had an additional wrestler at 113 in Bradley Stumpff, who finished fourth.
Host Monett only had four wrestlers compete on Saturday but they made the most of it. Simon Hartline (17-2) won the 106-pound bracket with four falls and then a 19-3 technical fall over Osage’s Zach Green in the first-place match. Harrison Merriman (11-1) took second at 285 and Corbin McCully (3-2) finished fourth at 170.
Reeds Spring had three medalists. Easton Byrne (21-7) placed third at 145, Evan Wilson (25-2) was the runner up at 170 and Eben Crain (22-4) was third at 285.
Webb City’s Brantley Carter (8-1) placed third at 152 and Buddy Belcher (4-2) was fourth at 220.
Kit Farran (20-7) was the only Logan-Rogersville wrestler to make the podium; he took fourth at 145. The team had three others finish fifth.
Team scores
Pleasant Hill 312.5
Willard 249
Oak Grove 177
DeSoto 176
Harrisonville 174
Branson 166
Camdenton 144.5
Osage 135
Reeds Spring 129
Cassville 113
Logan-Rogersville 99
Monett 97.5
Webb City 56
Tournament Outstanding Wrestler, lower weights: Pleasant Hill’s Lane Snyder (138)
Tournament Outstanding Wrestler, upper weights: Oak Grove’s Caleb Groff (285)
