EUREKA — Iola High’s Marcus Sullivan cruised to a gold medal at the 2011 Eureka High Invitational wrestling tournament Saturday.
Sullivan, a senior, was the 160-pound class champion. He opened with a 16-0 decision over Matt Wiebe of Hillsboro and downed Chance Berndt of Herington 11-2.
In the semifinals, Sullivan defeated Darick Jones of Clearwater 10-5. Sullivan won the championship match 9-1 over Garden Plain’s Nathan Becker.
Sophomore Stephen McDonald captured the fifth-place medal in the 189-pound division. McDonald pinned Paul Pinto of Burlington and Logan Anderson of Chase County to reach the semifinals.
Kansas Class 3-2-1A’s second-ranked Tyler Lowe of Eureka defeated McDonald 10-0. McDonald dropped to the consolation bracket and lost 5-1 to Garrett Dunkelberger of Cheney.
That set up a fifth-place match re-match between McDonald and Anderson. But Anderson had reached his five-match limit and had to forfeit the match to McDonald.
“We had some of our kids wrestle pretty well,” said Ron Schomaker, Mustang head coach. “There was some pretty stiff competition, which we’ll see the next few weeks. It’ll be good preparation for our upcoming regional tournament.”
Devin Culler, a junior, went 2-2 in the 152-pound division. Culler pinned Kaleb Grimsley of Central Heights but was pinned by Hunter Lewis of Rose Hill. He came back to beat Josh Figgins of Fredonia 10-0 but lost 5-0 to Jones of Hillsboro.
Junior Brent Clark lost his first 135-pound match by a fall to Antoine Bannister of Wichita West. Clark regrouped to pin Eli Igo of Remington then was pinned by Ben Castleberry of Herington.
At 119, freshman Mike Armstrong lost 10-2 to Trevor Melcher of Herington and then dropped a 2-0 decision to Tyler Wilson of Rose Hill. Sophomore Zeph Larney was pinned by Matt Winn of Eureka at 140 and lost 9-3 to David Munday of Caney Valley.
Junior Zach Vaughn was pinned by Tyler Long of Rose Hill to begin his day at 171. Vaughn edged out Nick Jacobs of West Elk 8-6 but lost his next match 7-5 to Beau Fisher of Garden Plain.
Iola was without senior Lee Berg at 130 pounds because of a foot injury. Also sidelined with knee injuries were senior Drew Shepherd, 171, and sophomore Joe Myrick, 145.
Iola’s wrestlers work this week to compete in this coming Saturday’s Fredonia High Invitational.
Sullivan strikes gold at Eureka
