With nine top-three finishes, Washington took top team honors last Friday and Saturday at the Raytown South Wrestling Tournament.
The Blue Jays finished first in the team standings with 646 points.
“I was very proud of our performance. We have come a long way as a team and it was nice to pick up the championship,” said Washington Head Coach Josh Ohm. “As good as I thought we were on the mat, I was more impressed with how tough our team was. Most of the team was feeling pretty sick or injured, but they all pulled together to get the wins we needed. Although we are very excited, we felt we had a bit of a let-down in the finals. We will work on that right away in practice.”
Warrensburg placed second with 604 points followed by Belton (583), Mt. Carmel, Ill. (438), Grain Valley (386), Blue Springs South (382.5), Kearney (365), Branson (347), Pacific (326.5), Smith-Cotton (316.5), Raytown (289.5), Ft. Osage (274), O’Hara (242), St. Joe Central (229.5), Raytown South (178), Hillcrest (157) and Blanchard, Okla. (105.5).
Winning individual titles for the Blue Jays were Cole Hamai and Jared Rennick.
Hamai (138) won his second Raytown South championship with a 9-0 record, improving to 24-0 on the season. He pinned Pacific’s Jeff Miller in 3:10 in the finals.
Hamai already has reached 100 career wins as a junior.
“Cole continued to be absolutely dominant. He wrestled two very tough ranked kids and majored one and then got the fall in the finals against a very good wrestler in Miller of Pacific,” Ohm said. “Cole put in eight Falls and one 15-5 major for his weekend. He has improved to 24-0 with all those scoring in the bonus with the exception of one match.”
Rennick (182) won the title with a 9-0 record, improving to 21-3 on the season. He won a 7-6 decision over Mt. Carmel’s Nick Heiland in the finals.
“Jared did a great job. He had a tough job coming in as a freshman at such a heavy weight class,” Ohm said. “He is a very athletic kid who works extremely hard and that is paying off for him.”
Reaching the finals and placing second were Parker Neptune, Spencer Baird, Caleb Summers and Matt Pecka.
Neptune (113) had an 8-1 record and is 20-3 overall. He lost by technical fall to Blue Spring South’s Sam Hampton in the finals.
Baird (152) also was 8-1, improving to 20-4 overall. He lost a 5-3 decision to Warrensburg’s Zadac Lankford in the finals.
Summers (160) posted an 8-1 record and is 20-2 overall. He lost a 6-2 decision to Smith-Cotton’s Jacob Weeks in the finals.
Pecka (285) had a 6-1 record and is 15-6 overall. He lost a 1-0 decision to Warrensburg’s Caleb Braun in the finals.
Earning third-place honors were Nicholas Solter, Logan Baird and Jacob Kliethermes.
Solter (126) posted a 7-1 record and is 19-3 on the season. He won by technical fall 26-11 over Smith-Cotton’s Caleb Hurley in the third-place contest.
Baird (195) was 8-1 in the event, improving to 20-4 overall. He won a 7-1 decision over Belton’s Sergio Ramos in the third-place match.
Kliethermes (220) was 6-3 in the tournament, moving to 11-7 overall. He won by injury default over Belton’s Tyler Gorman in the third-place match.
Cody Gardner (120) took fifth-place honors with a 7-2 record, also his overall record. He pinned Blanchard’s Caleb Keith in 3:23 in the finals.
“Cody put together a very tough tournament. Even though he got fifth, he was very close to advancing to the finals. He lost to the champion in overtime,” Ohm said. “That was a great way to come out and start the season even though he was feeling extremely sick.”
Jeremy Monehan (170) placed seventh with a 5-4 record, moving to 13-10 overall. He won a 4-3 decision over Hillcrest’s Michael Boyce in the seventh-place match.
Cody Summers (132) and Izeck Elbert (145) did not place. Summers was 3-4 in the tournament and is 14-8 overall. Elbert was 2-5 and is 2-8 overall.
Washington wrestles at the Lindbergh Tournament Dec. 27-28.
“We have to use this time to heal up and get healthy because we probably have our two toughest meets of the year coming up with Lindbergh and then the conference meet,” Ohm said. “By mid-January, we will definitely know where we stand as a team and as individuals.”
