In the final regular season tournament of the year, Platte County had four individual champions and placed second in the Lydia’s Lights/Blue Springs South Tournament that concluded on Saturday, Jan. 27, in Blue Springs, Mo.
The Pirates had 402 points, coming in behind Class 4 Waynesville, which won with 475½ points.
Platte County had 11 reach the quarterfinals and six of those made the finals and the four titles were one behind Waynesville’s haul.
“We got 11 kids in the top three, it was a good day,” Platte County coach Reggie Burress said. “The kids are starting to peak at the right time. We got to clean up a couple inconsistency things, but we will be good.”
Special to the Platte County Citizen/KCPrepReport
Platte County’s Austin Kincaid, top, battles Rockhurt’s Elijah Todd during the opening night of the Lydia’s Lights/Blue Springs South Tournament on Friday, Jan. 26, in Blue Springs, Mo. Kincaid took third place in the tournament.
Blake Bills, Cody Phippen, Dakota Schmidt and Sage Smart picked up titles for the Pirates.
Bills, who won his first tournament title the previous week at the Platte County Invitational, won a second straight title. The 120-pound senior posted seven wins over the event, including pins in his final three matches. He needed only 15 seconds to take down Ayden Sheets of Lee’s Summit in the quarterfinals and then pinned Springfield Central’s Brandon Williams in the semis and needed 1:45 to pin Hazelwood Central’s Devin Trujillo in the title match.
Phippen (126) won a title for the third straight weekend and won all six matches by pins. Phippen (38-3) got pins in the second period in the quarterfinals and semifinals and took down Lee’s Summit North’s Hunter Ross at the 3:30 mark in the title match.
Dakota Schmidt rolled to the 182 title behind seven wins, hiking his season mark to 38-8.
Schmidt pinned his way through his pool with takedowns in 13 seconds, 16 seconds, 48 seconds and 1 minute, 21 seconds. A pin in 22 second in the quarterfinals set up a matchup with Rockhurt’s Patrick Broyles – ranked no. 6 in Class 4 – and Schmidt won by pinning him too – in 1:37. In the finals, Schmidt down Blue Springs South state qualifier Brady Childers 34 seconds into the second period.
Sage Smart picked up the last title for the Pirates, winning the 220 crown.
Smart (40-5) won six of his seven matches by pins – the lone exception came in the finals against Waynesville’s Ethan Gatzmeyer where Smart won by a major decision, 14-2.
Smart’s fastest pin came versus Lee’s Summit North’s Blake Beaver, winning in 8 seconds.
Nick Filger and Colton Davis also reached the finals for the Pirates, taking second place.
Filger (138) picked up five wins and both of his losses came to Waynesville’s Sean Sax, the No. 2-ranked wrestler in Class 4. The two met in pool and Sax won by a decision and in the title match he won by a major decision.
Four of Filger’s five wins came by pins.
Davis moved over the .500 mark on the season with four wins in his runner-up showing. Three of the wins came by pins in the first period and he beat Lee’s Summit North’s Lane Overton by a 14-6 major decision in the semifinals. Davis’ biggest crux came against Eli Jimenez of Raytown, who beat him their pool and 9-3 in the championship match.
The Pirates won four of their five third-place matches.
Grant Stathopoulos (106) dropped a pair of matches against Waynesville’s Thomas Brady – the latter in the semifinals – but Stathopoulos came back with an 8-0 major decision against Lamar Stewart of Raytown in the third-place match.
Austin Kincaid lost to Park Hill South’s Carter Thomas in the semifinals — by a 9-6 decision — but bounced by with a 9-0 major decision against Rockhurst’s Eljiah Todd in the third-place match.
Nolan Saale lost to state-ranked Michael Cassidy of Waynesville in pool play and then fell in the semifinals to Lee’s Summit North’s Triston Jones, a returning state qualifier, by a 6-4 decision. Saale (145) picked up a 5-2 win against Carlos Velasquez in the third-place match to finish with five wins.
Drake Lacina picked up four of his 11 wins this season during this event, with an unblemished run through pool play and then pinned David Jones of Blue Springs South in the quarterfinal. The run streak ended with a loss by pin to Park Hill South’s Jackson Minor, but Lacina (160) picked up a 1-0 decision against Raytown’s Jonathan Best in the third-place match.
Matthew Knopp (285) had a fourth-place finish for the Pirates after reaching the semifinals. He lost to Waynesville’s Tim Brecht (3-1) and then lost for a second time to Hazelwood Central’s Norman Deverse, this time 1-0 in the third-place match. Deverse pinned Knopp in the first meeting.
Platte County will wrap up the 2017-18 regular season with a pair of duals this week. The first was a trip to Winnetonka on Tuesday, Jan. 30. Results were unavailable at The Citizen’s deadline.
The Pirates travel to Raytown South on Thursday, Feb. 1 for the finale and will have eight days off before going back to Winnetonka for the Class 3 District 4 tournament that runs Feb. 9-10.
Park Hill South
The Panthers finished in fifth place at the Blue Springs South Tournament and brought home one champion.
Cameron Gillespie (170) posted wins via decision, major decision, technical fall and pin on his way to the title. He pinned Warrenton’s Ben Chernaskey and Waynesville’s David Stearns in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively.
In the title match, Gillespie dominated Lee’s Summit Grant Parrish, winning by a 17-2 technical fall.
Carter Thomas (132) and Jackson Minor (170) were runners-up for Park Hill South.
Thomas won all of his matches against wrestlers not named Gaven Sax. The Waynesville foe, who is 34-2, beat Thomas in their pool and then won by a 10-2 major decision in the championship match.
Minor won his first five matches and earned his spot in the finals by pinning Platte County’s Drake Lacina in the third period. In the finals, Minor drew a tough foe in Warrenton’s Jerett Villinger, who won by a pin and improved to 42-2 on the year.
The Panthers had two wrestlers in the third-place match, but only one competed.
Gage Baska (126) ended his day with a victory over Waynesville’s Aeden Brady by picking up a 2-0 decision. The win avenged a loss to Brady earlier in the tournament.
Baska lost twice to Lee’s Summit North’s Hunter Ross, the last coming in the semifinals.
Andrew Mikuls dropped his third-place match by an injury default to Lee’s Summit North’s Jaden Duran. He lost in the semifinals to Platte County’s Nick Filger, but prior to that rattled off five straight wins — including two pins in less than a minute.
Benton Duals
Park Hill and Mid-Buchanan both competed in the Benton Duals on Saturday, Jan. 27, in St. Joseph, Mo.
Mid-Buchanan went 3-2 at the duals, picking up wins Benton (45-30), North Kansas City (60-17) and Van Horn (42-37) — the latter being the third-place match.
North Platte’s Justin Roth went 4-1 for the Dragons, while Aaron Thomas was 1-4.
Park Hill had a roster of mostly JV wrestler but mixed in a couple of varsity wrestlers.
The Trojans lost 60-9 to Benton, 66-10 to Lawson, 35-30 to Savannah, 42-24 to North Kansas City and 45-16 to Van Horn.
Park Hill lost 35-30 to Savannah with the Trojans getting wins from Camron Stucker (126), Austin Kolvek (138), Spencer Eastwood (160) and Wesley Goad-Lopez (182).
The Savages nudged ahead for the win thanks to three forfeits.
Kolvek and Eastwood had the team’s lone wins against Benton and Lawson. Against NKC, Kolvek, Eastwood, Goad-Lopez and Jack Ficken had wins.
Kolvek, Evan Bushman and Eastwood had wins against Van Horn.
West Platte Invitational
The Bluejays hosted the West Platte Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 27, in Weston, Mo.
The hosts had only one wrestler compete – Cameron Sadell, who went 1-4 in the 182 pound class.
The Platte County JV and ‘C’ team attended, placing sixth and 13th, respectively.
The Pirates JV had four place, while the ‘C’ team had one.
Vincent Cesaro (106) and Hunter Burge (126) won titles for Platte County JV.
Cesaro went 4-0 in his pool to take first, while Burge posted a 7-3 win against Lone Jack’s Zac Brown — who was 27-8 — in the finals. Gabe Davis took second for Platte County JV, falling by a 4-2 decision to St. Pius X’s Gavin Ott.