February
The Guthrie Bluejays wrestling team had a great weekend in Enid at the Class 5A Dual State Championships and finished with a second-place finish. The Bluejays scored wins over Elgin and Pryor before falling to eventual champion Collinsville on Saturday night.
The Bluejays were the No.6 seed in the tournament, so they drew upstart Class 5A Elgin in the tournament opener Friday afternoon. Elgin had upset No.3 El Reno in the district duals to earn its trip to Enid. The meet started at 132 pounds that was predetermined by random draw at the Oklahoma State Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA) last week.
Guthrie fell behind 3-0 as Grant White lost a hard fought 4-0 decision to open the match. Braden Hall got the Bluejays the lead on a tech fall when he punished Kaiden Livingston 23-8 for five points. Jake Carey (145 pounds) then pinned Austin Elam at the 3:06 mark and it was 11-3 for Guthrie. Bryson Hall (152 pounds) would then decision Jack Anglley 4-0 and it was 14-3.
Elgin would briefly take the lead with falls at 160 and 170 pounds to take a 15-14 team score lead. The Bluejays would then take the lead for good as Spade Pool (182 pounds) would win on a major decision over George Tahdooahnippah, 12-4, Coal Madison pinned Drew Munoz in 20-seconds, and Hayden Simmons pinned Jace Williams in 3:31 and Guthrie had a 3015 lead. Riley Boyster got surprised at 285 pounds and quickly found himself pinned at 2:19; and Kaedin Herendeen had no answers for Hunter Jackson, losing 11-1 and making the score 30-25 with three matches to go. Cheli Zamora-Hernandez (113 pounds) was then up for the Bluejays, and she wrestled a tough match that she lost 11-4, but the effort she gave and how hard she fought staying away from getting pinned was the turning point in the match as that made the score 30-28. Eli Kirk took 23-seconds to secure the Bluejays first win of the weekend over Dylan Brown and it was 36-28. Elgin got a fall at 126 pounds to make the final 36-34.
The Bluejays would return to Enid Saturday afternoon to face Pryor in the semifinals. Pryor, the No.7 seed, had upset Duncan, the No. 2 seed, on Friday afternoon. The match started at 113 pounds with Hernandez.
It was quickly 6-6 as Hernandez got pinned and Pryor forfeited 120 pounds to Kirk for a 6-6 score. The Bluejays then fell behind 18-6 on falls at 126 and 132 pounds.
Braden Hall righted the ship pinning Maddux Palmer in 3:31, Carey followed up with a 7-5 decision and Bryson Hall got a 3-1 decision and it was 18-18 at the hallway point of the meet.
Gabe Sanders would lose on a major decision at 160 pounds and Hayden Calvert would lose by fall at 170 pounds and Pryor had the lead at 28-18.
Not a problem for this bunch of wrestlers, as Pool won a 12-4 major decision and Madison won a hard fought 3-2 decision to close the gap to 28-25. The big boys then sealed the deal with Simpson getting a fall at 1:38 and Boyster bouncing back from Friday’s disappointment to get a fall at 5:53 to give Guthrie a 37-28 lead with 106 pound match to go. Herendeen would drop an 8-1 decision and the Bluejays would win 37-32 and on to the finals.
The No.1 seeded and ranked Class 5A team, Collinsville Cardinals were the opposition in the finals. The Cardinals showed why they are the top ranked team in Class 5A as they beat Guthrie 46-28 to win the title.
The match started at 120 pounds Saturday night which was a good sign as Kirk would win his third match of the weekend on a 6-2 decision and a quick 3-0 lead. The Cardinals would get falls at 126,132, 145, 152, 160, 170 and 182 pound matches to score 42 pounds. Braden Hall got a major decision at 138 pounds 12-4 for a 42-7 deficit going into the upper weights.
The Cardinals forfeited 195 pounds, Simpson finished off an unbeaten weekend with a hard fought 7-0 decision over Brayden Gilkey and Boyster got a 29-second fall to make the score 42-22. Guthrie would get a forfeit at 106 pounds and Collinsville would win 113 pounds for the 46-28 final score.
It was a great weekend for Bluejays wrestling but this weekend a stiffer challenge is the regional qualifier for the state tournament. Guthrie heads to Duncan on Friday and Saturday where the top five in each weigh class advance to Oklahoma City on Feb. 25-26. The good news is that the Bluejays will not see the Collinsville or Pryor kids until Oklahoma City. The bad news is that Duncan is loaded with teams from El Reno and Lawton MacArthur who both got beat at districts and will be looking to redeem themselves. Elgin, Carl Albert, and Duncan will also be looking for better performances after the dual state meet. There are 16 teams in the regional, so anything can happen, but if the Bluejays perform like they did last weekend, they could get nine guys to the state meet. The girl’s regional was Feb.14 and 15 in Noble and those qualifiers were not known at press time.