Park Hill had three champions and Park Hill South had one when the two-day 49th annual Winnetonka Invitational wrapped up on Saturday Jan. 24.
The Trojans finished third in the field with 294 points, while Panthers took 22nd in a deep field. Nationally-ranked Liberty won the meet, followed by Staley. Indianola (Iowa) and Odessa rounded out the top five.
Park Hill had five wrestlers reach the finals and Cael Keck won the first title at 106 pounds.
Keck went 7-0 and gave up only four total points on the day. Keck won by a 16-1 technical all against Marquette’s Zack Watkins in the quarterfinals. Then, Keck won 8-0 against Seckman’s John Bamvakais in the semifinals. Keck got a second straight major decision, this one 9-1, in the finals against Nixa’s Zan Fugitt.
Kal Miller (145) and Grayston DiBlasi (152) were the other champions for Park Hill.
Miller went 8-0 and hiked his season record to 19-2 after getting a 4-2 decision over Odessa’s Gavin Gross in the finals.
Miller won 3-0 against Kearney’s Caden Green in the semifinals before winning 16-0 against Marquette’s Alex Nicozisin in the quarterfinals. Miller posted two tech falls, a major decision and a pin in pool matches.
DiBlasi joined his brothers Colston and Weston as champions in the tournament.
Grayston went 4-1 in pool matches, getting two pins, a decision and won by disqualification. DiBlasi (21-6) won 3-2 against Seckman’s Anthony Chellew in the quarterfinals and won 5-2 against Bryce Palmer of Odessa in the semifinals.
In the championship, DiBlasi won 1-0 against Indianola’s Brennan Meachem.
Kody Ketchum (120) and Trey Crawford (132) were runners-up for Park Hill.
Ketchum, a sophomore, went 3-0 in pool play, then won his next two, beating Staley’s Jacob Windsor (8-0) and Blue Springs’ Cayden Dotson (2-0). In the finals, Liberty’s Jeremiah Reno — a Nebraska signee — got a pin against Ketchum in the second period.
Crawford also saw his run in the tournament end against Liberty, falling to Kyle Dutton by a 3-2 decision in the finals.
Prior to that, Crawford won six in a row. He pinned Staley’s Austin Marsh in 18 seconds in the quarterfinals and then pinned Ozark’s Elijah Maskrod in 47 seconds. All of the wins for the Missouri signees were by pins and all happened in the first period.
Ryker Smith (113) took fourth place, getting five wins. Smith beat Seckman’s Blake Jost 7-4 in the quarterfinals, rallying from a 4-3 deficit after two periods. Smith lost to Nixa’s Payeton Moore by a 6-2 decision. Smith reached the third-place match by beating Grain Valley’s Dru Azcona 2-1. Indianola’s Ryder Downey won 11-3 against Smith in the third-place match.
Chris Bizzle (195) finished sixth for Park Hill after dropping his final three matches. In the fifth-place match, he lost 4-3 against Kearney’s Colt Post.
Park Hill South had only three medalists.
Gillespie won seven matches and improved to 28-1 on the season.
Gillespie picked up four wins in pool matches – three by pins – before getting a 9-1 major decision against Fort Osage’s Jake Jones in the quarterfinals. Gillespie won 6-2 against Eureka’s Luke Dickhaus to reach the finals.
Gillespie got an 11-4 win against Jake Evinger of Odessa in the championship.
Gage Baska (145) and Max Rosario (170) each reached the seventh-place match for Park Hill South.
Baska finished seventh, getting five wins and ending with an 11-4 decision against Fort Osage’s Jesse Newton. Baska went 4-1 in pool play before falling in the quarterfinals, 4-2, to Kearney’s Caden Green.
Rosario finished eighth after falling by a 7-4 decision to Shane Sweat of Eureka in the seventh-place match. Rosario was 2-4 in the tournament.