Crutchmer claims 3rd state title, Wolves finish second

Lake Hamilton finished state runner up to Van Buren by just 3.5 points at the Class 5A state wrestling tournament last weekend in Little Rock, and Lakeside finished eighth while Hot Springs finished 17th.

Van Buren finished with a score of 191, and the Wolves followed closely at 187.5. Lake Hamilton head coach John Utley said his team wanted a state championship but noted that a second place finish was still a great finish for the Wolves.

“Our kids competed to the very best of their ability,” he said. “We’ll take the results that we had. We just hung in there. We had the opportunity.”

Justin Crutchmer picked up this third individual state championship by winning the 170-pound weight class, and he was voted the Outstanding Wrestler in the 138-170 class.

The junior pinned Lakeside’s Jonathan Eye in the first round before picking up a forfeit win over Hot Springs’ Hayden Cullins in the quarterfinals.

Crutchmer pinned Russellville’s Ethyn Gibson in the semifinals and won by 5-1 decision over Sheridan’s Josh Handloser in the state championship match.

Utley said Crutchmer comes from a family of wrestlers, and that wrestling background has definitely shown up in Crutchmer’s time at Lake Hamilton.

“Justin is a little bit different than the rest of our kids,” Utley said. “When they came here, it just so happened to work out that we started our program then. … He’s just a heck of a wrestler.”

Utley added that a team needs students like Crutchmer on the team.

“Justin is a natural leader,” he said. “The kids flock to him. People want to follow him. Even though he’s a great leader, he’s real quiet. He doesn’t say hardly anything, but he leads by example. The kids see that example, and they fall in.”

Lake Hamilton also boasted another individual state championship when Titan Jackson won the 145 weight class.

Jackson received a bye in the first round before pinning Little Rock Hall’s

Jordan Cook in the quarterfinals. Jackson beat Russellville’s Gage McCartney by decision in the semifinals by a slim 2-1 minor decision before winning the state championship match by 12-5 decision over Beebe’s Clay Queen.

“Titan wrestled a heck of a tournament,” Utley said. “He’s just a tough kid. His semifinal match was tough. He really had to grind that one out. The kid he wrestled was really good, and he squeaked that one out. Then looked really good in the finals.”

Jackson started wrestling with Lake Hamilton as an eighth grader, and his father was also a wrestler.

“Titan has been with us the whole time also,” Utley said. “From working out with us as an eighth grader to his senior year, just did a great job for us.”

Looking back at the season overall for Lake Hamilton, Utley said it was a successful year. In just a relatively short amount of time, Lake Hamilton’s wrestling team has really improved.

“Even though sure we would’ve liked to win the state championship, we won our first ever conference championship,” he said. “To finish second in state, there’s a whole lot of those schools that would’ve liked to finish second. It was a good year. It was a fun year.”

Lakeside finished with a score of 109, 32 points behind seventh place Russellville. Going into the state tournament, Lakeside head coach H.E. Burchard’s goal for his team was to finish around the top seven or eight.

“I wanted to be sure we were in the top 10,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of young kids. We only had two seniors wrestling this weekend. Right now most of our really tough guys are sophomores so I kind of figured that’s where we’d be. Of course I’d like to be at that one spot, but you know realistically, that’s where I’d figured we’d land.”

Lakeside did have an individual state champion in Keaton Wasson at the 126 weight class. Wasson dominated the tournament, pinning every opponent in quick fashion.

“A regular match is six minutes long, and he only wrestled four matches for a total of five minutes and 33 seconds,” Burchard said. “He pinned everybody in the first period except for his semifinal match, and he had that kid pinned a couple different times and just transitioned to some other moves just to work on some things. We really expected that. … We kind of expected him to walk through it pretty easy.”

Burchard highlighted Gabe Pitchford (138) and Mason Nguyen (145) as two wrestlers who got hurt during the state tournament that could have made an impact in the Rams’ point totals.

“His match to go into the semifinals, Mason Nguyen hurt his knee and didn’t get to compete,” Burchard said. “Mason has really stepped it up this year. He’s wrestling in 145, and he’s really gotten to where he’s believing in himself a little more and buying in a little bit and stuff like that. I really think had he not gotten injured he could’ve been in the finals.”

Looking ahead to next season, Lakeside’s young roster looks to finish even higher at state. Burchard said the Rams are looking to finish in the top spot after finishing this season with a successful 10-3 overall dual record.

“Realistically I think we can get into the top five next year,” he said. “We are going to be loaded with a lot of juniors. A couple of our freshmen really wrestled really well this year, so they’ll be able to fill in some of those spots that are going to open up. Then we’ve got a couple eighth graders that are going to step up and fill our lighter weights at 106 and 113. They’re going to be tough kids. They’ve just got a lot of growth to do. I think overall we’re going to be competitive. We’re still going to be in the middle of things.”

Hot Springs head coach McKinze James said he was ecstatic with the Trojans’ 17th place finish in the state tournament because of their low numbers.

“For us to get 17th, we’re doing something right,” he said. “We’ve got some guys that are out there working and really trying to compete.”

Hot Springs finished with a score of 20, and beat Little Rock Hall (11) and Maumelle (4) to round out the standings.

The Trojans were just four points behind Benton and Little Rock Christian who were tied for 15th place.

Hot Springs senior Lemarrion Danner placed fifth in the 182 weight class through the consolation side of the bracket after losing in the quarterfinals to Mountain Home’s Brayden McCoy by a 3-1 decision.

“Biggest thing would be, the guy that placed fifth in state is a hard worker,” James said. “I think if anything from what my team can take away is just what this guy’s legacy left for us. Lemarrion Danner came in and the last three weeks, put his nose to the ground and just went to work. … He was just trying to do the best he could. I hope if anything that’s what the team pulls from that.”

Danner scored the most points for the Trojans with 13. James said Danner’s hot streak started at conference, and he carried that momentum into the state tournament.

James emphasized Danner’s ability to respond to coaching and how great of a job he did in state.

“He was able to place third in conference,” James said. “After (the quarterfinals), your back is against the wall. He understood that. Every match after that he just took coaching. He was in a position in his final match, where he was in kind of like a delicate situation where one thing goes wrong and he is going to lose points or he gives up a pin. He made a really smart decision of just pushing the guy away and just getting away from him the last few seconds.”

Looking ahead to next season, James wants to have a full wrestling team at Hot Springs and more wrestlers competing in the state tournament.