Pin your man, England sweeps the Kirksville Invitational with ease

Reds finish seventh as a team

By Julie Clark - Sports editor

Mikey England claimed first place over the weekend at the Kirksville Tiger Invitational at 171 pounds.

The Big Reds finished seventh as a team with 213 points.

Winning the tournament was Kearney, Mo. with 305 points.

Also competing were Kirksville, Mo. with 284.5 points, Nixa, Mo. with 244.5 points, Brookfield, Mo. with 240, Centralia, Mo. with 223.5, Hannibal, Mo. with 216.5, Odessa, Mo. with 172.5, Booneville, Mo. with 114.5 and Marshall, Mo. with 42.5.

England’s first place title came after he received a bye in the first round. He pinned Jeff Niffen of Hannibal in 52 seconds in the second round. In round three England pinned Conner Hunt of Nixa in 18 seconds. In round four he pinned Dylan Kriegshauser of Kirksville in 1:24 and in round five he won by pin over Tyler Ketchem of Odessa in 42 seconds.

In the quarterfinals England won by injury default over Ethan McCoy of Centralia.

In the semifinals he pinned Mike McCollum of Brookfield in three minutes.

In the championship match he pinned James Dowling of Booneville in 5:19, earning 43 team points.

“The team was not satisfied with finishing seventh out of 10 teams, but in retrospect, I was happy with how we wrestled. We gave good effort and had a lot of fight. This being our first tournament of the year, it definitely exposed some of the things that we need to work on. It also exposed a lot of our youth. Out of the 12 who wrestled on Friday and Saturday, four are freshmen and three are sophomores. We can't use our youth as an excuse, we just need to keep working on getting better,” said Coach Matt Johnson.

Tanner Cowan took third at the meet at 103 pounds earning the Big Reds 26.5 points.

In round one Cowan was defeated by Lane Corya of Nixa by a 7-5 decision.

In round two and three Cowan received a bye and in round four Cowan pinned Aaron Lemen of Odessa in 1:09.

Round five was won by Cowan when he pinned Tyler Turner in 43 seconds.

The quarterfinal match was won by Cowan with a pin over Auston Finley in 5:55.

Cowan lost the semifinal match against Jaret Singh of Kearney after being pinned in 1:13.

He came back to win the third place match over Thad Farley of Kirksville in a 9-7 decision.

At 112 pounds Garrett Owens finished eighth for the Big Reds after he pinned Jacob McClain in round three in 56 seconds. He also received a bye in round five.

He was defeated by Kyle Vinzant of Kearney in the consolation match by a major decision of 14-4 and was defeated in the seventh place match by Jack Shull of Odessa by a decision of 6-4.

Erik Repasz finished seventh, giving Centerville 8.5 points.

Repasz pinned Austin Clem in round three in 5:17 and received a bye in round five.

In the seventh place match he won by injury default over Brian Pagliai of Kirksville.

At 130 pounds Joseph Bower finished ninth after pinning Ethan Green of Booneville in 42 seconds.

Bower also received a bye in round three and in round one of the consolation.

Kyler Risher finished third after winning round one by a 10-6 decision over Sam Evan of Nixa. In round two Risher decisioned Kyle Wessel of Hannibal 10-8 and in round three Risher pinned Mitch Kriegshauser in 2:52.

In round four Risher won by tech fall over Jackson Adair of Booneville with a 22-6 score.

He was defeated in round five with a score of 7-2.

Risher then defeated Blake Peek of Odessa 3-2 in the quarterfinals and lost to Jordan Orr of Brookfield with a score of 5-2.

In the third place match Risher won by decision over Kyle Wessel with a score of 5-4.

At 140 pounds Schyler Morgan finished eighth. He had a bye in round two and won by decision over Chandler Coon of Kearney in round three with a score of 6-5. He lost by injury default in the consolation semi round to finish his day.

Blake McPherren finished fourth at 152 pounds after winning by decision in the first round over Brady Ruby with a score of 11-5. McPherren defeated Weston Hunter 7-1 in round two and he received a bye in round three.

In round four he pinned Jasmin Jamison of Kirksville in 41 seconds.

In round five he was defeated by a 6-3 decision.

In the quarterfinal match McPherren won by injury default over Jeremy Davis.

He was then defeated in the semifinals 4-0 and in the third place match 4-3.

Ethan Moorman finished third at the tournament with a first round bye, second round pin over Steven Barker of Odessa in 1:56 and third round bye.

In the fourth round he pinned Logan Summers in 50 seconds and in round five he won by major decision over Jacob Buckallew of Brookfield 16-5.

In the quarterfinal match Moorman pinned Colton Belitz of Kirksville in 18 seconds and was defeated by Morgan Fitzgerald of Kearney in an 8-6 decision.

In the third place match Moorman won by major decision over Jacob Buckallew with a score of 10-1.

Richard England placed third for Centerville giving the team 29 points.

R. England pinned Cole Eubank in 2:48 to win the first round at 189 pounds.

In the second round he pinned Brennan Hammers in 1:15 and in the third and fourth rounds he received byes.

In round five he was pinned by Brock Wine of Brookfield in 3:33. He came back in the quarterfinals pinning Drew Wilkison of Centralia in 1:25.

He was defeated in the semi-final match by a major decision score of 13-0.

In the third place match England pinned Ben Wood of Nixa in 3:25.

Tyler Burge took home sixth place at the meet with a bye in round two, pinning Kyle Cook of Booneville in 4:43 in round five.

Burge won the semi-final round of the consolation match by pinning Derek Johnson of Kirksville in 1:38.

He was pinned by Austin Cupp of Brookfield in 5:11 in the fifth place match.

Garrett Brown finished third at the meet to finish the Big Reds scoring with 12 additional points at 285 pounds.

Brown was pinned in round one in 3:15, but came back to win round two with a decision over Daniel Kempf of Booneville with a score of 12-8.

He then pinned Matt Meier of Nixa in 3:26.

In round four he was pinned by Hunter Kelly of Kirksville in a time of 1:05.

Brown pinned Jimmy Eaton of Odessa in round five in 1:20.

“We definitely got a dose of tough competition. The Kirksville Tournament was very tough. There were a lot of quality wrestlers in all the weight classes. Our focus is now on Albia and Grinnell. We need to come out and wrestle well in each of these duals if we want to give ourselves a chance at winning them,” said Johnson.

The Big Reds will be at Albia tonight taking on Grinnell and Albia. The matches will start at 6 p.m.

They will be at Lee Summit this weekend for the annual Christmas Invitational.

The Big Reds meet that was cancelled last Tuesday due to the weather has been rescheduled for Jan. 5 at home.

Text Only