FREDONIA — Four Iola High wrestlers placed in the top seven of their respective weight classes at Saturday’s 29th annual Fredonia High Invitational wrestling tournament.
The Mustangs finished 14th with 56 points in the 16-team tournament. Caney Valley won the team championship with 206.5 points.
“I was proud of some of our guys for battling through the consolation bracket and winning some matches,” said Ron Schomaker, Mustang head coach. “We’re getting better from our feet, which is a plus for any wrestler.
“Hopefully we can take a step forward during this challenging week of matches.”
Iola travels to Columbus Tuesday for a makeup Southeast Kansas League double dual with Columbus and Parsons. Then the Mustangs host Osawatomie at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Iola High gym.
Marcus Sullivan pushed his individual record to 19-1 for the season by winning the gold in the 160-pound class Saturday. Sullivan pinned Sam Watt of Caney Valley in 2 minutes, 58 seconds of the championship match. Watt is ranked fifth in Kansas Class 3-2-1A.
Sullivan had a first-round bye as the top seed at 160. He pinned Michael Pretorius of Rose Hill in 2:37 of a quarterfinal match then had a major decision, 13-4, over Caleb Journot of Labette County in the semifinals.
Stephen McDonald finished sixth in the 189-pound class that featured two of the top five wrestlers in Class 3-2-1A. McDonald won his first-round match with a pin of Paula Pinto of Burlington in 2:55.
In the quarterfinals, McDonald lost 14-5 to fourth-ranked Thomas Durham of Fredonia. That dropped him into the consolation bracket to wrestle back to placing. McDonald pinned Codi Martin of Fredonia in 2:58 then pinned Gage Griffin of Caney Valley in 1:27.
McDonald lost to Eastin Dockers, Rose Hill, 7-0 in the consolation semifinals. McDonald, who is 22-11 on the season, lost a coin flip to Augie Schmidt, Leon-Bluestem, for fifth by a 1-0 decision, as both wrestlers had reached their five-match limit for the day.
Mike Armstrong reached the fifth-place match of the119-pound class. Armstrong, 17-11, lost 10-1 to Cole Rinehardt of El Dorado to take sixth.
Armstrong opened the day with a 6-4 loss to Tyler Wilson of Rose Hill. He had a bye in the consolation bracket then came back to pin Colton Barnett of Valley Center in 3:42 and Isaac Delgado of Wichita West in 4:49. He lost 7-2 to Wilson again in the consolation semifinals.
In the 152-pound class, Devin Culler placed seventh and has a 17-10 record. Culler had a first- round bye the lost 13-10 to Burlington’s Billy Dickinson in the quarterfinals.
Culler edged Alex Grommett, Andover, 2-1 in a consolation match. Tyler Riffel of El Dorado got past Culler 10-9 which sent Culler to the seventh-place match. He beat Dusty Cook of Cherryvale by a default for seventh because Cook had reached his match limit.
Brent Clark went 1-2 in the 135-pound class to go 13-15 on the season. Clark was pinned by Trevor Breshears of Burlington in 1:12 in the first round. Clark stayed alive with a 12-6 win over Jeff Wescoat of Wichita South in the consolation bracket, then was pinned by Rylie Parker of Fredonia.
At 171-pounds, senior Drew Shepherd saw his first competition of the season after coming off a knee injury. He was pinned by Devon Payne of Wichita South in 5:36 in the first round and was pinned by Eric Hamm of Valley Center B team in 1:33 in consolation action.
This coming Saturday, Iola goes to the Silver Lake High tournament.
Mustangs wrestle at Fredonia
