The wrestling team is done and tired heading back from our trip to Reno Nevada. The tournament was as tough as expected but our boys and girls went to work representing Oklahoma and the town of Claremore. The Sierra Nevada Classic had teams from 6 different states adding up to 75 girls teams and 96 boys teams. The tournament was huge to say the least.
The girls battled hard on the first day sitting in 4th place at the end of day one. Day number two was not as kind to us as by the end of the tournament we only had one placer. Paige Webster earned a 4th place finish. The rest of the girls had some wins and some tough losses, but got what they came out here for, some tough competition. The girls now know that we got some work to do before the end of the season, but couldn't be more proud of them.
When we decided to come to Reno we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but we came anyway. We had high expectations, but really had no idea what to expect. The brackets ranged from 57 kids to 85 kids in each weight. If you wanted to place you were going to have to wrestle 7,8, or even 9 times to earn a medal. That is what the boys did, they wrestled and kept wrestling as many times as it took to get on the podium. After their effort we finished as runner -up out of 96. Before the tournament started I believed if we were in the top 15 I would have been happy, and the boys wanted more and even surprised me with a 2nd place finish.
The way you score team points in a tournament is winning matches, and also how you win matches scores more points. For example when you are Gunner Murray and you lose in the 2nd round, it takes 8 wins on the backside of the bracket to take third. Not only did Gunner accomplish that feat, he pinned 7 of his opponents finishing the tournament with 8 pins. Josh Felciano almost accomplished the same feat as he battled back and took 5th after a tough loss in the first round. If you don't know much about wrestling, losing early in a tournament and going through the gauntlet of the backside to place is the hardest thing to accomplish in this sport. What a weekend for these two young men.
But that is just two of the many boys that we brought. We also had two boys that have not been in the line-up much that were filling in for a few kids that could not make the trip. Alex Miller and Josh Mendez stepped up in a big way. Both of these boys recorded 3 wins, all by pin before falling on the backside short of placement rounds, but they were instrumental in us getting a 2nd place plaque. Without them stepping up and getting some pins for the team we would have finished outside of the top 5, so they as well had a great weekend.
Kale Shultz and Tristan Peters made the trip as the youngest members and wow did they perform. Tristan won his first 3 matches recording a fall, a tech fall, and a comeback win before losing his next two matches to the runner-up and the kid that finished 5th. For a freshman I felt he did not let the moment get too big for him and he wrestled about as well as he could have. The same can be said about Kale Shultz. The moment is never too big, and it never matters what the score of the match is, Kale is going to give it all he has. Kale proved that in his 2nd round win as he fell behind 9-1 before battling all the way back, breaking opponents spirit, and then pinning him. That is Kale in a nutshell, if there is time on the clock, he can win. He finished 4-2 and had an awesome weekend.
Myka Duncan, Xavier Duncan, Andrew Hancock, and Gavin Roach also made trip recording some wins and battling hard. Andrew went 2-2, Myka was 1-2, losing a couple of heartbreakers that finished their tournaments.
Mason Gillispie and Maddox Jackson also earned medals at the classic. Mason wrestled his tail off finishing 4th after taking a loss in the quarterfinals. Mason was winning the match 9-0 with under a minute left and got caught on his back and was pinned. He did not let that define his weekend and battled back to 4th. Maddox also made the quarter finals before taking his first loss. Maddox then went to work on the backside earning a 5th place finish, getting a major decision in his last match.
All of the boys represented very well this weekend, but the two that I feel stood out the most were Cooper Zickefoose and Mikey Robertson. Cooper just did what Cooper does, dominating his way through the tournament and being the only Zebra that reached the championship match. Unfortunately we lost a close one and finished 2nd place, but at this level of tournament, that is nothing to hang your head about. Cooper pinned his first 5 opponents, scoring a ton of team points, but came up just a little short. Mikey showed up wrestling differently than in the past. He has found his confidence , and now that he has, everyone better look out. Mikey was an offensive machine this weekend as he scored 84 offensive points. That is good for 4th overall out of 1100 wrestlers. I want to say this in another way. Mikey scored more points than 1096 other wrestlers, and that is incredible. These two boys have a ton to be proud of, and have medals to prove it.
With how all of the Zebras competed, and the hardware that was won, they are not the real heroes of the weekend. This trip would not be possible without our booster club and our donors. So thank you Reagan and Rusty Roberston, thank you Shea Vickrey, thank you Matt Gillispie, thank you Josh Peters, thank you Stacye Bacon. Also a huge thank you to First Bank, RCB, First Baptist Church, Cedar Point Church, Harry and Stephanie Harrison, Kyle Hrdlicka Rescue Heat and Air, Cordell Hunt, Gus Espinosa, and the VFW. All of these people are responsible for this trip happening, and if it was not for the booster club, it would not have taken place. Thank you.