Eight wrestlers qualify for state
Ortiz, Murphy, Hitt bring home district titles
It was a historic weekend for the McDonald County High School boys’ wrestling program last Friday and Saturday.
The Mustangs had eight wrestlers qualify for this week’s state wrestling meet and two individual Mustangs won their third consecutive district championships in their weight class at the Class 3 District 3 Tournament at Carl Junction.
“I was very pleased with how our team competed at districts and a few milestones notched for our school,” said McDonald County wrestling coach Josh Factor. “This is the first time we have ever qualified eight wrestlers to the state tournament and the first time we have ever had a wrestler win their third district championship in their individual weight class. In this case, two wrestlers achieved that.”
Senior Blaine Ortiz (138 pounds) and junior Jayce Hitt (285) both won their third straight district championship, while junior Samuel Murphy (215) won his second straight title.
“Blaine Ortiz at 138 and Jayce Hitt at 285, both won their third consecutive district championship, and the best part about it was they both came in as the third-seeded wrestler in their weight class,” Factor added.
Also for McDonald County, Eberson Perez (106), Robinson Yoshino (113), Levi Smith (144), Colter Vick (175) and Malosi Sosef (190) punched their ticket to the Class 3 State Tournament, which begins at 8:30 a.m. Friday at Mizzou Arena in Columbia.
The Mustangs placed third overall as a team at districts with 153 points, finishing behind district champion Carl Junction 199 and runner-up Bolivar 166. Willard was fourth at 134, followed by Branson 118, Washington 115, Rolla 92, Marshfield 85, Camdenton 67.5, and Union 46.5 to round out the top 10.
Ortiz (39-6) went 4-0 at districts at 138, including a sudden victory (6-4) win over Branson’s Kyshin Isringhausen in the first-place match.
He also had fall wins over Camdenton’s Levi Hughes (0:44) and Marshfield’s Tommy Mynatt (3:44) before beating Bolivar’s Cooper Moore by a 4-2 decision in the semifinals.
Murphy (40-1) went 3-0 in the tournament at 215, with the championship win being a sudden victory (3-1) over Cade Grimm of Branson.
Murphy pinned his first two opponents, Chris Brandberg of Hillcrest (1:41) and Erik Tomanek of Marshfield (2:59).
Hitt (22-0) pinned his way to a championship at 285, winning by fall over Union’s Killian Cordia (0:38), Bolivar’s Cael McCullah (2:44), Rolla’s Brock Horton-Owens (3:59) and Carl Junction’s Cayden Bolinger (0:36) in the finals.
Yoshino (20-19) advanced to the championship match at 1
Yoshino pinned Rolla’s Alex Roberts (0:27) in the quarterfinals and then pinned Glendale’s Ethan Kelly (3:34) in the semifinals before losing by fall to Carl Junction’s Lukas Walker in 1:03.
Smith (26-3) placed second at 144, falling to Rolla’s Kayden Kinder by fall (3:45) in the firstplace match. Prior to that, Smith defeated Nevan Challenger of Carl Junction by fall (2:12) and then scored a 12-4 major decision over MJ Gritts of Marshfield in the semifinals.
Vick (33-11) took third place
overall at 175, picking up a fall win over Marshfield’s Tyce Jones (1:56) in the third-place match.
Vick had a fall win over Nolan Hendrix of Washington (3:01) in the quarterfinals but lost to Willard’s Jase Motlagh by a 5-3 decision in the semifinals.
Vick clinched his state berth with a fall (1:41) win over Union’s Brody Sitze in the consolation semifinals to advance to the thirdplace match.
Perez placed fourth at 106, scoring a 3-0 decision win over Bolivar’s Madden Ross in the consolation semifinals to punch his ticket to state.
Perez lost to Rolla’s Carson Mickem by an 8-4 decision in the third-place match and went 2-2 overall in the tournament.
At 190, Sosef (28-12) lost his first match in the quarterfinals and won three straight matches in the consolation bracket, including a 9-6 decision over Nathaniel Beeson of Camdenton in the consolation semifinals to punch his ticket to state. He lost by a 7-4 decision to Branson’s Alejandro Berumen in the third-place match.
Also competing for McDonald County were Paden Vance (7-28), who went 0-2 at 120; Dominic Cervantes (5-10), 1-2 at 126; Ayden Ball (6-16), 0-2 at 132; Cross Spencer (12-21), 1-2 at 150; Brady Bogart (8-23), 0-2 at 157; and Huxley Wardlaw (9-24), 0-2 at 165.