When the long, two days of district boys’ wrestling concluded, 22 total players from the Platte County area advanced to state.
The Platte County boys’ wrestling team will be sending the greatest number of boys to state as the Pirates have seven state qualifiers. Among the other four schools, Park Hill has five qualifiers, West Platte and North Platte both have four and Park Hill South will have two Panther wrestlers at state.
In the Class 3 District 4 Tournament, Platte County finished in third place behind Jefferson City which scored 207 points and Kearney who had 163.5 points. The Pirates were right behind the Bulldogs, ending the tournament with 162 points at Kearney High School.
Jaydon Walls (195) and Jake Fernandez (220) were both district champions - starting with Walls who pinned his first two opponents before winning a district title by medical forfeit. Fernandez also pinned his opening two foes on the mat and then won by a 2-1 decision over Van Horn’s David Lewis in the championship match.
In his first-year wrestling, Jared Parsons qualified for state in the 145-weight class with a fourth-place finish. Caden Hulett (106), Eli Rocha (138), Ben McDaniel (160) and Blaine Keuhn (170) all were district runners-up in their respective weight classes.
In the Class 4 District 4 Tournament, Liberty came out in first place with 259 points and not too far behind the Blue Jays, was Park Hill who finished in fourth place with 117 points. Park Hill South ended in ninth place as a team as the Panthers scored 68 points at Staley High School.
The only district champion for Park Hill was Kal Miller in the 145-weight class. Miller pinned Grant English (Park Hill South) in 46 seconds before defeating Dylan Alft (Liberty North) on an 8-0 major decision and in the championship match, the Trojan won against Kyle Dutton (Liberty) on a 3-0 decision.
Cael Keck implemented his name in the record books, becoming a four-time state qualifier with a second-place finish in the 132-weight class. After pinning Raytown’s Kaseem Bedford in 47 seconds and defeating Staley’s David Gleason with a 4-0 decision, Keck lost his final match on a 5-0 decision to Liberty’s Christopher Coates.
Kody Ketchum (138) is now a two-time state qualifier as he was the district runner-up to Easton Hilton (Liberty). Hilton won by a 5-1 decision over Ketchum in the championship match.
Erik Egstad’s impressive freshman campaign is not over as the Trojan has qualified for state in the 106-weight class. Egstad lost on a 4-0 decision in the semifinals and eventually pinned Aleksei Wojtkiewicz (Blue Springs) in 1:00 in the third-place match.
The final state qualifier for Park Hill is Ethan Vande Van (152) who finished in third place in the Class 4 District 4 Tournament. In the first round, the Trojan was pinned by Tanner Barker (Grain Valley) but fought back to the third-place match where he won by a 9-4 decision over Brent Compton (Oak Park).
For Park Hill South, Lucas Oitker became a district champ in the 220-weight class. The senior took down Staley’s Jack Stoffel with a 10-6 decision in the championship match.
Roger Guillory (195) finished in third place as the senior bounced back from a quarterfinal loss. After being pinned, Guillory fought his way to the third-place match where he won by a 4-2 decision over Corbin Katamura (Blue Springs).
The Mid-Buchanan/North Platte co-op boys’ wrestling team became back-to-back district champions when it finished with 286 points. West Platte ended in seventh place as a team in the Class 1 District 4 Tournament with 75.5 points at Mid-Buchanan High School.
West Platte’s Peyson Chandler, above, is one of the four Blue Jays who qualified for state as the 138-pound wrestler finished in fourth place in the Class 1 District 4 Tournament at Mid-Buchanan High School on Feb. 12.
North Platte had four individual wrestlers punch a ticket to state - including Seth Cruz (185) and Colton Kirkham (160) who won their championship matches. West Platte didn’t have any first-place finishers but will send four wrestlers to state as well.
In the championship match in the 160-weight class, Kirkham matched up with West Platte’s Cameron Williams. The conference rivals were in a battle with the Panther coming out with a 10-5 decision victory over the Blue Jay.
There was another KCI first-place match in the 195-weight class when Mid-Buchanan’s Wade Stanton and West Platte’s Lane Scott met. Scott was pinned in 2:59 to become the district runner-up in that weight class.
Cruz pinned his first two opponents and advanced to the championship match where he matched up with Austin Colvin (Stanberry). The Panther won a district title by winning with a 6-2 decision.
West Platte’s last two state qualifiers are Peyson Chandler and David Brown. The Blue Jay duo both finished in fourth place – Chandler in the 138-weight class and Brown in the 182-weight class.
In the 220-weight class championship match, Rylan Kuhn (St. Pius X (Kansas City)) won by a 4-0 decision over North Platte’s Owen Stockbauer. Ryan Coons was also a second-place finisher when a 10-5 decision in Gavin Shoush’s (Albany) favor made the Panther a runner-up.
State wrestling will take place in a 3-day period from Feb. 17-19 – with both boys and girls competing. The tournament will be at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Missouri.