Half of the West Platte wrestlers who made it down to the Class 1 State Tournament walked away with a medal – one shy of matching the school record, set one season ago – led by Lane Scott finishing in fifth place at Mizzou Arena on Feb. 23.
The Blue Jays sent four wrestlers to state, with Peyson Chandler and Scott coming away with a pair of medals. Scott finished in sixth place last year before securing his second career state medal, this time with a fifth-place finish in the 215-weight class.
“Lane works his tail off and when we looked at those brackets, we had it right where we wanted to be,” West Platte head wrestling coach Brett Swope said. “I told him that sometimes it’s a bigger plan, so hopefully that will spark something in him in the future with whatever he chooses to do in his life.”
Scott had a win by fall to start the tournament but was bumped to the consolation side of the bracket with a tough 3-3 ultimate decision loss to Caden Munson (Lafayette County) in the quarterfinals. Scott bounced back with back-to-back wins and followed that up with a matchup with Versailles’ Tristin Gavette, resulting in a 3-0 loss.
“Lane had that tough semifinal loss and ultimate tiebreaker, which is triple overtime basically, and it came down to the coin flip. We didn’t get the first escape and that kid (Munson) did and he got to choose down, then we end up losing that ultimate tiebreaker,” Swope said.
In the fifth-place match, Scott matched up with Scout Couch from Marceline. The Blue Jay had a win by fall in 4:32 after taking a 2-1 lead beforehand.
The other West Platte medalist was Chandler, who has been to state each of the last two years but was 0-4 in that time frame. The 150-pounder opened this trip to Columbia with two wins on the opening day to clinch a spot as a medalist.
The senior started off with a 41-second pin over Anthony Borghesi (Hancock) to give him his 38th win of the season in 46 tries at the time followed by a matchup with Nick Bagley (Warsaw) in the quarterfinals. Chandler pulled out a 5-3 sudden victory and was off to a strong 2-0 start on the biggest stage.
“I had a really good partner last year with (2022 West Platte senior) Cameron Williams and I had to find someone to replace him,” Peyson Chandler said. “Tristan Newkirk stepped up for me and it really helped me along the way, along with both my coaches.”
West Platte senior Peyson Chandler walked away with a state medal and pair of wins after a 0-4 record at Mizzou Arena prior to this season.
Chandler started the second day off with a tough matchup with Palmyra’s Collin Arch – who entered the match with a remarkable 50-1 record and went on to be a state champion – and he won by fall in 24 seconds. The Blue Jay went on to lose by a 5-1 decision to Lafayette County’s Braxton Ernst in the consolation semifinals.
“You don’t want to say this, but I feel like I wrestled better yesterday. It was exciting after my quarterfinal when I heard my good chances and then I had one slip away today and it was tough, but it was it was good time,” Chandler said.
Chandler still was guaranteed a medal ahead of his final match, which was for fifth of sixth place. His career ended with a 9-1 major decision loss to Father Tolton Regional Catholic’s Justus Martin.
“I think I was still hung up on yesterday and I didn’t come with the same attitude today. I know that first one (with Arch) was tougher, but I thought I thought I was just going to walk away with my second or third one,” Chandler said.
Canton Wilkins (106) and David Brown (175) both qualified for state but didn’t get past the first day. Wilkins ended his freshman campaign with a 24-24 record and Brown wrapped up his Blue Jay career with two visits to Mizzou Arena and one state medal, which was a sixth-place finish last season.
Wilkins lost his first state match by a 12-0 major decision to Adrian’s Carter Dumas but bounced back with a 2:04 win by fall over John Burroughs’ Wolfie Tuteur. The Blue Jay was eliminated by Jayce Estes (Warsaw) on a 53-second pin.
“We had a freshman that came in here and won a match and hopefully that builds something for the future. I think it opened his eyes when they say final 106 for Class 1 is in our district so he’s like, “Hey, I’ve wrestled them before and went the distance with them’ and some of these kids are getting stuck in the semifinals and stuff like that,” Swope said.
Brown also went 1-2 – winning and losing in the same order as Wilkins – as he got pinned in 5:56 by Connor Henderson from Central New Madrid County. The Blue Jay stayed alive with a 10-4 decision victory over William Dobbins (Versailles), but his next match would be his last, with John Newton (Summit Christian Academy) winning by fall in 3:44.
“Each year you come down to state it is tough because everyone’s competing. Obviously if you redo that tournament, there’s some things we might change, and it could come out totally different,” Swope said.
With Wilkins being the only state qualifier that isn’t a senior, the Blue Jays are saying farewell to seven total from this season. While four of them didn’t make it all the way to state, they have been crucial building blocks for West Platte’s wrestling program.
“When I first took over the job, there were only seven or eight kids, but it was this group when they were sophomores, so it’s kind of nice to see how it’s building and has gotten the youth program going. It’s awesome to just see the team development, these seniors laid the foundation for the program and hopefully some success down the road,” Swope said.