INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — Clay Cronkleton got the final points to make sure Park Hill South left Fort Osage with a victory.
The senior pinned Steve Gabb in the heavyweight match on Monday, Jan. 6 at Fort Osage High School, helping the Panthers hold on for a 43-34 victory.
Going into the final match, the Panthers clung to a three-point lead
Early on, Gabb took a lead against Cronkleton.
But before the first period ended, the senior got a takedown and got a pin less than a minute into the match. The two met earlier this year but the move that got Cronkleton a win that time, a headlock, didn’t work this time.
“I was a little worried but I went back to my other moves and the fat man roll worked for me,” said Cronkleton. “I knew if I didn’t win, we weren’t winning (the match). The pressure was on a little bit but you go out there and wrestle.”
CODY THORN/Citizen photo
Park Hill South’s Clay Cronkleton, right, locks up against Fort Osage’s Steve Gabb during a 285-pound match in a dual on Monday, Jan. 6 in Independence, Mo.
Added Park Hill South coach Dan Dunkin, “It was a good one to end the dual on.”
The contest was competitive with six different lead changes, but the Panthers won four of the final five to rally for the victory after being down 28-21.
Max Rosario (170) pinned David Jacquez in 50 seconds to pull Park Hill South within a point. Luke Hicks (182) got a pin over Connor Barney in 1:20, before Cameron Gillespie (195) got a 15-1 major decision against Jake Jones.
Gavin Roller pinned Preston Dishman in 1:28 in the 220 pound match, which made it 37-34 going into the final match
One of the key wins for the Panthers was the first one when freshman Dylan Taylor got an improbable win against Kyle Lehotta.
Taylor bumped up from 106 to 113 and got a pin over him with 20 seconds left in the third period despite trailing by a 15-3 margin.
“That made my night,” Dunkin said. “It showed we are in this. I loved that match. It says a lot about our freshmen. I got five on varsity and that is usually not a good thing but they fight and they don’t give up. That is a great match. A lot might be better than we are but you have to come and beat us.”
Taylor trailed 6-2 after the opening period and then quickly got in a 10-2 hole early in the second. A near fall in the final seconds of the second bumped Lehotta’s lead to 12 points.
He never got a chance to get a tech fall or a pin to put away Taylor.
“I was trying to not get pinned and I was trying to keep the score as close as possible,” Taylor said. “I noticed he was shooting and leaving it up and it came down to the wire and he made a mistake. He was trying to get the match over. He couldn’t pin me. I had to fight at the end of the second to not get pinned
“He kept shooting on me and I needed to keep my legs and stay low.”
Park Hill South followed with an improbable win at 120 pounds when Connor Detty won by a 6-4 decision against Dylan Reed on a last second call by the official. Detty trailed 4-2 when the final period started but got a reversal to tie it and then got the final near fall points to win it.
Kale Slater (138) and Gage Baska (145) also got wins for the Panthers.
Fort Osage girls 12, Park Hill South 6
The lone win for the Panthers came from Maddie Kubicki during a dual on Monday, Jan. 6.
Kubicki stayed undefeated on the season (12-0) with a pin in the first of three matches.
Wonder Woman
Park Hill South took 24th place at the Wonder Woman Tournament held on Jan. 3-4 at Battle High School in Columbia.
Maddie Kubicki won a championship for Park Hill South, going 5-0 in the 135-pound class and upping her season record to 11-0. She won by a pin against Rolla’s Heather O’Connor in the quarterfinals before pinning Taylor Murphey from Northwest Cedar Hill in the semifinals. In the championship match, Kubicki beat Abbey Cordia of Osage by a pin in 1:32.
Finley Bickford (142) took sixth for the Panthers. She lost in the quarterfinals but won two straight to stay alive, pinning Lebanon’s Taylor Johnson and winning by a 9-4 decision against Kayla Faust of Seckman. Bickford lost the final two matches, dropping a 12-1 major decision to Emma Williams in the fifth-place match. Williams also beat Bickford by a 17-7 major decision in the quarterfinals.