North Platte senior Colton Kirkham, who wrestles for Mid-Buchanan, earned third place in the Class 2 State Championships at Mizzou Arena on Feb. 23.
COLUMBIA – In the brief history of North Platte collabing with Mid-Buchanan for a boys’ wrestling program, there have been five state medalists – three of which are 2024 seniors who made it back to Mizzou Arena on Feb. 21 and 22.
Since 2021, only Seth Cruz and Grant Schuster have been able to accomplish what Colton Kirkham, Ryder Coons and Owen Stockbauer have. Mid-Buchanan has become a top-notch wrestling program and competed in the Class 2 State Championship for the second straight year with the latter three contributing state medals from North Platte.
Kirkham came into the day with three all-state finishes already in three separate weight classes. He took third place as a 152-pound freshman, fifth place as a 160-pound sophomore and fifth place as a 165-pound junior.
Bumping up to 175 pounds in his senior season, Kirkham won 40 of his 44 matches and earned third place to end his high school career on a high note. The senior’s sole loss of the weekend happened in overtime of the quarterfinals to Fulton’s Elijah Brocksmith.
Kirkham was able to rematch with Brocksmith in the third-place match, redeeming himself and coming away with a 9-3 decision victory. Kirkham had to win three straight matches to get back to the third-place match, winning all of them by decisions.
Stockbauer was another North Platte senior who walked away with more hardware, coming away with a fourth-place finish among 215-pound wrestlers. He took fourth place last year but ended his senior year 32-8.
Pleasant Hill senior Brayden Bush ended a perfect 26-0 and won the state championship in the 215-weight class, pinning Stockbauer in the semifinals. Stockbauer won his next match to secure a state medal and a trip to the third-place match where he lost on a 1-0 decision to Cooper Burnsides (Savannah).
Coons was coming off a third-place finish in the 132-weight class in 2023 but didn’t medal in 2024. Competing among 138-pounders, Coons went 2-2 at state to end 37-14 in his senior campaign.
In Cooper Kirkham’s first state appearance, the 132-pounder lost two of his three matches. His sole victory was a 4:15-pin over Jacob Rhodes from Normandy Collaborative.
West Platte had one wrestler compete in the Class 1 State Championship, Canton Wilkins. Finishing the season with a major decision over George Coe (Marceline), the 113-pound Blue Jay ended with 29 wins and 19 losses this winter.