Trey Crawford and Devin Winston brought home championship belts from the 48th Winnetonka Tournament.
The Park Hill grapplers headlined the Trojans’ fourth-place finish over the two-day event held Friday-Saturday, Jan. 18-19 at the Winnetonka Tournament in Kansas City.
Park Hill finished with 284.5 points, six points behind Seckman. The top two teams were Liberty (452) and Staley (339).
Park Hill South finished 20th in a field of 34 teams.
“It is a great test,” Park Hill coach Jacob Beck said. “It was my first time here, but there is a lot of super, legit competition a couple weeks before districts.”
Crawford racked up seven wins on his way to the title, ending with a pin against Francis Howell Central’s Andrew Godier. That was his fifth win by fall by Crawford, ranked No. 2 in MissouriWrestling.com’s Class 4 rankings.
CODY THORN/Citizen photo
Park Hill’s Tyson Moore pins Eureka’s Michael Hotop in a 152-pound match on Friday, Jan. 18 in the Winnetonka Tournament in Kansas City.
In the semifinals, Crawford beat a former teammate, Austin Kolvek, by a 6-2 decision. The Liberty wrestler is ranked No. 3. Crawford topped Class 3 No. 5-ranked Caleb Benshoof of Grain Valley, 5-3, in the quarterfinals.
Winston, who recently committed to Minnesota, also posted a 7-0 mark and had five wins by fall in the first period.
Competing in the 195-pound class, though ranked No. 1 at 182, Winston topped North Kansas City’s Xavier Doolin by a 10-5 decision in the finals. Doolin was ranked No. 4, the third ranked foe Winston beat.
In the quarterfinals, Winston beat St. Thomas Aquinas’ Danny Carroll by a pin in 20 seconds. Carroll was ranked No. 6 in Class 5A by the Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association. In the semifinals, Winston beat No. 2-ranked Blake Fritz of Seckman, 5-1.
Ethen Miller and Simon Tesfamarian were runners-up for Park Hill.
Miller, a sophomore, faced off against defending state champion and No. 1-ranked Kai Orine of Seckman in the 126 class. The St. Louis wrestler picked up a 6-2 decision in a battle of the top two ranked wrestlers in Class 4.
Miller had five wins, including a 14-2 major decision against Staley’s Brandon Borlinghaus, ranked No. 6, in the semifinals.
Tesfamarian had five wins, knocking off Liberty’s Nick Blessmeyer in the quarterfinals by a pin and then a 4-3 decision against Ray-Pec’s Tyson King. In the championship match, St. Thomas Aquinas’ Peyton Reeves, ranked No. 3, posted an 11-0 major decision against the Trojan.
Cameron Gillespie had the best finish for Park Hill South.
Competing in the 182 class, Gillespie posted a 7-1 mark and his lone setback came in the semifinals against No. 2-ranked Rocky Elam of Staley. Gillespie bounced back with two more wins. He posted a 15-3 major decision against Blue Spring South’s Lawson Lackey in the consolation bracket and then won 8-1 against Nixa’s Marek Davis.
Gillespie beat Davis earlier in the tournament, winning by a 15-2 major decision in the quarterfinals, and beat Lackey in the first matchup, 14-7.
The Trojans had a few injuries from the event. Moore, Blake Hopson and Kal Miller all injury defaulted out of the tournament for various reasons.